[Vision2020] Re: Corporate Totalitarian Complicity

[Jeff Harkins]

Ted et al

>Mr. Holmquist's comments I do not think were meant to be a literal 
>precise academic quantitative analysis.  With a phrase like "every 
>nook and cranny from Moscow Mountain to Paradise Ridge and 
>beyond..." the reader should be able to understand this is hyperbole 
>to make a point, and is not meant literally.

I would hope you are right.  Nevertheless, my statements stand and do 
defuse the "unfettered growth argument".

>Also, the Chinese Communist Party is a small group of people in 
>China who rule that country with methods that violate human 
>rights.  When you write "I do not accept the notion that it is 
>appropriate for a small group of people to impose or define the 
>standards of living or quality of life for me or anyone else." and 
>then continue with gushing optimism about the wonderful developments 
>capitalism is bringing China, without mention of China's human 
>rights violations, the denial of free speech and political 
>organizing, the kangaroo courts imposing the death penalty, the 
>gulags holding dissidents in horrible conditions, the repression of 
>religious freedom, and the ethical implications of US corporations 
>conforming to or assisting in these human rights violations, I 
>wonder how consistently you are applying your ideology, your set of 
>ethical rules, given the apparent internal contradictions.

A clever approach for your argument, but I stand by my statement .  I 
did write that "I do not accept the notion that it is appropriate for 
a small group of people to impose or define the standards of living 
or quality of life for me or anyone else."  Perhaps it was not 
obvious, but I do prefer to confront China (and if fact transform 
China) and its oppressive policies using the positive persuasion of 
free market and free enterprise economics.  The only other options 
would seem to be a "cold war" approach or a "hot war" approach.  It 
would surprise me to learn that you would prefer either of the latter 
two options.  Again, my experience over the past decade or so of 
working with numerous Chinese students (most of whom return to their 
homeland) is that there is mounting pressure on the Chinese to be 
involved in global trade - and the US trained Chinese will be 
formidable competitors.  They will learn, probably much quicker than 
we did during our industrial revolution, that how you treat people 
will define how well you can compete in the world marketplace.  The 
contemporary history of the global economy is quite clear - US 
corporations have paved the way.  Firms like WM!

>I won't labor the ethical problems with Wal-Mart's overseas 
>operations, given that they have already been presented on 
>Vision2020, but consider a different view of the "progress" US 
>Internet related corporations are making in helping China to 
>"democratize" on the Internet  An argument can be made that US 
>corporations are assisting in keeping China a dictatorship, that in 
>fact the labor pool that US corporations exploit in China is being 
>kept under control (think what might happen to this stable compliant 
>labor pool if a democratic freedom movement swept over China?) with 
>censorship and propaganda that in effect renders US corporations in 
>compliance with Chinese totalitarian tactics.  Even pro-business US 
>politicians think these corporations need regulating regarding the 
>ethical violations they are committing in China:
>

Well, if you can define a better strategy for tempering the conflict 
between totalitatian/communist regimes and free
enterprise/consumer driven democracies than engaging their economy 
with ours please speak up - let us all hear about
it. Oh, please be sure to acknowledge that China is now Idaho's 
number 1 export trading partner.  Should we stop selling our products 
to them?  Should we stop buying their products.?



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