In that discussion I had with my dad/uncle, I brought up that the free market was flawed because people don't care about things like slave labor in china. To which they responded, "Those people wouldn't have jobs at all otherwise." This is stupid, so of course I said there would be someone else to make use of the available labor and their response was that it was the government's fault for being corrupt and making it really hard for businesses to start up in China, requiring bribes and stuff. I have no clue why that justifies sweatshops, but apparently it does.
What they're saying, has no relevance whatsoever. It's cheaper to start a factory in China than most other places and further than has no logical connection at all to paying slave wages. There is nothing preventing these companies from paying above slave labor. Except of course, they specifically outsourced to China FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE of cheaper slave labor.... If they wanted to actually pay someone a living wage, then the company could've stayed in the US.
What happened to all that anti communist rhetoric I grew up with about how they were basically "Godless Commies?" Now we're doing business with them? Why? Because, survey says, it's cheaper and we don't mind exploiting their population and unemploying our own. Wait, didn't we used to yak about communists killing freedom and taking away people's freedoms? I'm pretty sure we did.
O, I see, it's ok if WE take away freedoms from people for profit. (especially if they're in another country).
It's bad if communists take away people's freedoms for direct power?
We're not hypocrits. We believe in a "Free Market," except when we want slave labor, in which case, we love communist China's controlled economy.... And apparently we're doing them a favor by giving them jobs at all, slave labor or otherwise....
So, all this "Free Market" stuff disappears when dollars start showing up? Got it. (And most people don't understand we really don't have an economic free market anyhow, because there's a definition of free market and we don't/can't possibly meet it).
"Well, sure, but they don't have that kind of luxury so obviously they don't deserve it."
There's no mental dissonance here at all, I'm sure. Clearly, the belief that hard work is all you need to succeed (and therefore if you haven't succeeded, you aren't working hard enough) is consistent with the belief that some people have it too easy when compared to all those people who work hard and still haven't succeeded.
Thinking the world is fair and just lets us do our two most favorite things: look down at other people, and praise ourselves. Simply, "we worked hard; they didn't, so screw them."
It's all crap. Yeah, there's clearly something to be said for merit, but people have no idea how much luck really factors into it. Did you graduate college or high school in a good or bad economy? In an area with plenty of jobs around? Was your dad an alcoholic who beat the living shit out of you every chance he got? Was your mom addicted to meth? Was your high school's funding cut denying you a decent education? Did you or your parents get sick and have to declare medical bankruptcy? Were your parents able to help pay for college and reduce or eliminate that student loan debt you'll be paying for at least 10 years, if not many more than that...? There's a lot of stuff.
Should you be rewarded for merit: absolutely.
Should you look down on people: not normally.
Agreed. I think I've probably expounded on the matter enough, but since I'm posting anyway I might as well say it without the sarcasm this time: I agree completely.
Thanks.
It's an ancient and unanswerable question: merit or equality. Goes back to Athens. The Polis (City) was about 50,000 people. There were two equally valid ways of looking at things for who got what.
Some said everyone should get things equally (hypocritically excluding slaves) because when the Spartans came knocking, everyone went out to fight them off. The argument very clearly went, "And I bleed less than you for Athena?"
The Spartans' blades were indiscriminate: they killed everyone they could equally, and since they all had a pretty equal chance of dying to defend Athens, it was a compelling argument that everyone got the same treatment and things.
Some said, that's all fine and good, but forget not merit. "The smith not only fights as an equal to you against Sparta, but forges the bronze that might save your life and take a Spartan's. The horse saddler, the mason, the farmer, the shipwright, the scribe and many more do things you cannot do. Without them, there would be no Athens to defend, Athens worth defending, or Athens able to defend itself. Whatever that means, surely that means something worth some reward, for there would be no reward to give without it."
There is merit to each point and position that has lasted unbroken for over 3,000 years.
Tragically, we've largely forgotten the first position: that of the citizen and equal. Though we've glorified some merit (sometimes even the illusion of merit) and let other merit languish.