Connections

The Financial Face of Republican Morality

Many of you may remember a few weeks ago when thousands of toys were sent back to China for safety reasons. Some had poisonous paint in addition to other dangers. A number of American businesses who outsource the building of these toys from China were affected. The outsourcing of course is done because we can't find American workers who will work for nine cents an hour. But nonetheless, was there any kind of moral response to what happened?

All one had to do is turn to CNBC, the all day financial channel, that spends most of their time interviewing people with the stock exchange in the background. One of the primary figures on CNBC, Erin Burnett, was commenting on the toy recall and said the following on August 10, 2007 (no I am not making this up):

"I think people should be careful what they wish for on China. If China were to revalue its currency, or China is to start making, say, toys that don't have lead in them or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are gonna go up and that means prices at WalMart, here in the United States are gonna go up too."

Again, businesses, are there to make money at any cost. According to the Republican model, if we destroy the environment along the way, or now, according to Ms. Burnett, kill a few kids to keep the prices down at WalMart, that's the price we have to pay. When are people going to wake up to the monster labor markets have created, utterly destroying true capitalism. Consumerism seems to have that kind of blinding effect.