Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 16th Mar 2012 19:47 UTC
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Member since:
2009-08-22
Leaving aside the silly iPhobic hyperbole which has, it has now been confirmed, been whipped up by deliberate lies there is an underlying set of assumptions in your comment which is widespread which is that somehow the current situation in China and the other emerging economies is awful and can only be changed by changes in the developed economies. In reality the changes that will make a real difference can only occur inside the societies in question, the key is the development of democratic political institutions, a free civil society and in particular free trade unions. I think, and hope, those things will come in China and elsewhere but the road to them could be very bumpy.
We need to to locate the current situation in an historical context. For almost all of human history, and for almost everyone who has ever lived, life was, and and still is for countless millions, relentlessly short and nasty. Most have lived lives utterly constrained by poverty, disease, premature death and oppression. None of these this bad things need explaining, they are the default condition of humanity. What needs explaining is how those things get removed, how and under what circumstances the mass of people can come to live longer, better, freer lives. If one looks at those societies that have made a transition from the conditions of mass poverty and human indignity to one of material wealth, longer and better fed lives, personal freedoms and human rights the paths they have taken are remarkably similar. Away from peasant rural life and a move into cities (old saying 'city air makes you free'), away from agricultural work and a move to industrial production, a move from oppressive and dictatorial social systems to ones based on democracy and human rights. The journey almost always happens in that order. Building a democracy or ending poverty whilst being based on a subsistence peasant economy is almost impossible.
In the last couple of decades over a billion people have been lifted out of abject poverty. That is am amazing achievement. Global life expectancy is now an astonishing 60 years. Progress in my lifetime has achieved more to improve more people's lives than in all of prior history.
The journey from subsistence rural economies to modern urban industrial ones is difficult and inevitable involves wrenching changes for countless millions, disruption and confusion, exploitation and abuse. But it is a journey that must be made otherwise most of humanity will remain stuck in the dreadful default condition in which it has lived and suffered for all of history. It is a journey we should applaud.
We are living through a fantastic revolution in the human condition. By all means point out what can improved but don't miss the woods for the trees.