[Newspoetry] [Fwd: Ralph Nader - "Wage Slaves" - corporations recruiting executive from third-world countries]

[Mike Lehman]

Raplh writes Newspoetry!!!

> Jeff Boy wrote:
> 
>  It is about time that the CEOs suffer some of the
>  same consequences of globalization that workers have for years.
> 
>  JEFF
> 
>  Published on Tuesday, July 11, 2000 in the San Francisco Bay
>  Guardian
>  U.S. corporations are opening their doors to free trade and
>  recruiting executive talent from third-world countries, for a
>  third of the price of their American counterparts.
>  by Ralph Nader
> 
>  Imagine the following: The New York Times announced today that it
>  was replacing its columnists, Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman,
>  with the two leading bilingual writers from the Beijing Daily. A
>  Times spokesman explained that the move was necessary to meet the
>  global competition.
> 
>  The two prize-winning Chinese newspaper columnists – Li Gangsun
>  and Mao Yushi – pledged to work hard, writing four columns a week,
>  if desired, for $25 a column. Media analysts estimated that the
>  Times would reduce its costs by more than 95 percent.
> 
>  An accompanying Times editorial urged other companies and think
>  tanks to consider opening up their ranks to free trade in
>  executive talent from third-world countries. "It is time to
>  practice what we preach and join the globalization movement," said
>  the editorial, "and achieve the long-hidden efficiencies from
>  these markets."
> 
>  The Times cited two examples where the CEOs from Boeing and
>  General Electric, at retirement, replaced themselves with highly
>  regarded, experienced executives from Shanghai and Cuernavaca ,
>  respectively, who are taking office with an unheard-of pay package
>  (for them) of $19,000 a year. These two gentlemen have long
>  experience with Boeing factory outsourcing in China and with GE
>  factories and suppliers moving to Mexico. With today's online
>  technology, they expect to remain where they are, with occasional
>  visits to the States.
> 
>  Tom Friedman's last column had a wistful tone – given his past
>  paeans to corporate globalization – but it concluded on a defiant
>  note: "I regret that my editors failed to recognize both my long
>  service to the Times and my double Pulitzer Prizes. It seems that
>  the intangibles of quality and place have no value anymore.
>  Apparently, everything now is for sale!"
> 
>  At a departure ceremony, his editors gave Friedman an award for
>  Reporter Who Has Traveled the Most and predicted that he would be
>  a fine prospect for employment with the fast-expanding global
>  Chinese media.
> 
>  Professor Krugman's good-bye column was totally different. He
>  developed an amended theory of comparative advantage to rebut the
>  very thought of replacing him. "Totally unique commodities like
>  me," wrote the noted economist, "can only adhere to a doctrine of
>  superior advantage. My eminence cannot be compared to the exchange
>  of early-19th-century Portuguese wine for British textiles."
> 
>  Krugman declared that he will return to his full-time faculty post
>  at MIT, where he will research how the practice of monopolistic
>  competition can be exempted from world trade agreements and the
>  imminence of widespread-distance learning.
> 
>  Li Gangsun's first column recommended that the Chinese government
>  bring a number of WTO complaints against the non-tariff trade
>  barriers erected by the upper classes of U.S. corporations and
>  universities. "Since everything is for sale," he wrote, "then all
>  these positions should be considered 'commerce and trade' and
>  opened to vigorous competition worldwide.
> 
>  As for those "tenured economics professors at Harvard and
>  Stanford, who are always testifying for total free trade between
>  nations," he wrote, "they are the essence of impermissible
>  barriers to trade. There are numerous Chinese academics who could
>  do a better job, either in situ or by Internet instruction, at far
>  lower salaries, thus lightening the tuition and debt load for
>  American students."
> 
>  Word has leaked out that the upcoming meeting of the Business
>  Roundtable, which will be closed to the press, will have on its
>  agenda a debate over the topic, "Globalization: if it's good for
>  our workers, why not our top executives?"
> 
>  Meanwhile, over at the offices of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
>  near the White House, CEO Tom Donahue is huddled with his aides.
>  The Chamber was planning a joint press conference with its
>  counterpart Mexican Chamber of Commerce to protest President
>  Clinton's clear violation of NAFTA by banning Mexican truck
>  drivers from access to all 50 states.
> 
>  Already the Teamsters Union and consumer safety groups have been
>  emphasizing the traffic-safety hazards of such poorly maintained
>  trucks. Moreover, Teamster drivers are angry over having to
>  compete with seven-dollar-a-day Mexican drivers.
> 
>  The aides have new information for Mr. Donahue that is furrowing
>  his brow. It seems that the head of the Mexican Chamber, Jorge
>  Zapata, after reading the Times, is preparing an offer to replace
>  Mr. Donahue. Zapata, a hard-driving, Harvard Business
>  School-trained economist, is willing to work for one-eighth of Mr.
>  Donahue's executive compensation package and move to Washington
>  before the year's end. This could lead to reductions in management
>  salaries at the Chamber below Mr. Donahue's level, argues the
>  memo, and result in an overall reduction in membership dues.
> 
>  Mr. Donahue heaved a sigh and, deferring comment, suggested that
>  they all go out for a three-martini lunch.
> 
>                                 ###
> 
> 
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