I was disappointed not to hear about sex in the factory. That’s a lot of people in a small space without much entertainment. Management is evidently pretty strict about other “vices” like drinking and smoking, so I’m curious how they deal with sex and how much goes on anyway. He did say the workers were mostly men, but there have to be some women, gay men, situational homosexuality, etc.
One might argue that this is the logical outcome of Capitalism…
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This is the definition of Socialism, not Capitalism.
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It’s one possible outcome and the logical consequence of the way we’ve practiced capitalism. The idea that this way is the only way is a myth. Our form of capitalism entails many features/bugs that aren’t intrinsic to capital investment markets in a monetary-based trade system.
Respectfully, that’s a false dichotomy. The two are not mutually exclusive, though some forms of socialism (on the furthest extreme the catastrophically bad model known as Marxist-Leninism) preclude capital investment markets. Every functioning real-world economy incorporates varying elements of capitalism and socialism. The economy isn’t a theory, it’s a vast ecosystem. It’s improvable. It’s corruptible. It’s collapsible. It’s capturable.
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I have a feeling you and I probably agree about a lot of our economic theory, but I’d still argue that Capitalism’s logical outcome is what we see around us. In my semantics, Socialism can borrow the positive qualities of Capitalism – innovation, competition, entrepreneurialism – and still guarantee a social safety net for everyone. The solution is moving to a wealth tax, globally, and taxing extreme wealth very heavily. But you silly humans, will you ever learn… shrug
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According to video, they just go there to make a few bucks with lodging for short term. It’s shitty job to be sure, but it doesn’t sound exceptionally unethical unless they are forced into it.
I suspect we do, but perhaps not quite as much as you’d guess. We probably want the same or similar outcomes, but diverge on what we think are the most effective methods. To be certain, I wouldn’t want my own ideas implemented without discussion or scientific study. I value evidence based economics, because we all, including myself, have deep biases.
I do think the biggest economic emergency we face is the rentier economy, and that we do have to stop that before upward mobility is frozen and the investor class lock everyone else out of property rights. I believe that’s an even bigger threat to the world than the banks driving us once more unto the edge of the cliff and automation threatening to collapse an economy that’s resisting retooling for it, because while both of those are potentially globally devastating, the rentier economy could be a permanent capture.
ETA: I also find that, for the most part, identity politics tend to be corrosive to solutions and changing what’s broken. Words such as capitalism and socialism have, since they emerged as intellectual concepts, become increasingly emotionally charged to the point that I think a lot of people are more concerned with deciding which side they’re on and figuring out which side others are on. Basically another form of team-based politics. And I don’t think we need to exclude them from our lexicon, but I think we do well to remember the baggage they can carry with them into any discussion.
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Don’t you think, globally, we’ve already reached the epitome of the rentier economy you’ve described? It would have to get downright Mad Max to be much worse…
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It has gotten quite bad. But yes, I think it can get worse, and I don’t think we’ve crossed the point of no return. However, I worry that people are insufficiently motivated to put up resistance because they don’t understand what’s being taken away and what’s at stake for both them and all their generations to come.
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I didn’t attack you. I disagreed with the reason for bringing up an irrelevant point. The statistics on how many suicide attempts (or successes) there are in this place are irrelevant and a distraction.
Any solution I propose is irrelevant also. I won’t be in a position to propose them to anyone with the power to make a change and even that would assume that anyone with the power to make a change would be interested in doing so. You’d have to change the people who are in positions of power to make such changes before any viable solution on this matter could be implemented. And the wealthy don’t step away from power easily.
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Has anyone ever seriously made the argument that Chinese capitalism is fair and democratic? I don’t see how there can be a “myth” that everyone agrees is untrue.
If you mean in the West, then quite, except it isn’t just Chinese capitalism. Yes, the political situation is in many ways worse in the PRC, but the capitalism they practice is international in scope and firmly embedded in the West as well. And people in the West do indeed make the argument that our type of capitalism is fair and democratic, even though it’s different only in the degree to which it’s fused with political power.
If you mean in China, then I’m afraid there are indeed Chinese who think their form of capitalism is fair. Democratic not so much, but there are many Chinese who do not consider democracy a good form of government.
Apologist much?
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They don’t understand it, because we’re so far into Total Control, they haven’t been educated to know how to even think about it. New World Order? We are there, this is the Brave New World. We’re all taking our pills, everything is Under Control. Except it’s not at all, and many chaotic variables are looming…
I remember working about a month nonstop when I was a SQA tester during its summer peak times. Crazy!
Seriously? That’s your take-away from this? “Where’s the sex”? I suspect those poor people are too busy trying to stay alive to think about sex much, if at all. Let alone acting on any such desires.
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There are many different ways of forcing people to do things. Most of them are not at all obvious.
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Not to mention that having a solution all prepared and ready for take-off is not a requirement when offering criticism.
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In Shanghai it’s close to subsistence level. You could probably get a bed in a dorm/shared apartment for ~150-200 usd/month (but these workers live in dorms, so they can deduct that). I have a decent apartment at the edge of the city for $550.00 / month, much cheaper than central downtown. If you cook for yourself and live on mostly vegetables and rice, you could easily spend under $150 on food for a month. Public transport costs about $00.50 to <1usd each way, depending how far you go. Shanghai is one of the most expensive places to live in China, so $450.00 / month will go much further in other cities, but it’s still not a lot even in the poorest of cities.
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Does China as a whole have a giant anti-suicide net under it?
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