🚀 go-pugleaf

drocket <dro...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<6347q0l0igt2ihu5b...@4ax.com>...
> On Tue, 23 Nov 2004 18:37:22 GMT, "OldDog" <Old...@citypound.com>
> wrote:
> 
> >That means that countries that import US goods would require that US workers
> >earn the same wage as their workers.   So if US "Company X" tried to sell a
> >product in India, then the US worker would only receive $.45/hr (assuming
> >that's the standard wage in India).
> 
> No, because it would simply be a minimum.  If they want to pay their
> workers more, they can certainly feel free to.  It wouldn't override
> any local laws (unless some country has a 'maximum wage' law, though
> I'm not aware of any...)  Its ultimately no different from applying US
> safety laws to imported products.

Since the annual average income in China is $316, which is way below
the amount earned if paid with minimum wages, even earning minimum
wages will be extremely attractive in certain industries. The problem
is, the companies will then find it is completely infeasible to invest
overseas and therefore employ local instead.

It ends up many industry paying minimum wages to their employees
(which is not what everyone wants), the oversea trade market has died
off because they can hardly afford the products, and therefore, the
production is mainly for domestic consumption and maybe trading with
nations like European countries and Japan. As for the poorer Third
World, they form their own little economic circle and strives on Linux
instead of Windows. Microsoft increases software price to offset the
reduction in demand. Sames goes with many other industries which
derives part of their income from export. Many rich people are upset
because they have to pay more to their employees and has a smaller
market than before. Many goods increase in price because the labor
cost has increased.

Is this really a solution? Economy is a big circle in which when you
change one thing, you change everything. Sure, globalization as it is
now is making richer man in rich country become richer and poorer man
in rich country become poorer. But just setting a global minimum wage
does seem to cause a whole lot more problems than it tries to solve.