We are a bicycle company so why the fuck are we talking about politics and shit?! Okay, so bear with me for a minute here, because this is important......if you actually care that is. If not, don't waste your time reading, go ride and have fun!
You hear the term "Global Economy" used a lot, especially in the media. I also get that answer from people who really don't know what they are talking about.......their answer is simply "we live in a Global Economy" and that is their excuse for just about anything they do money wise.
So what exactly is a "Global Economy"? I am not going to go into some complex Wall Street economy technical talk, because the reality is, it's quite simple. You see, not all countries are created equal nor are any of them close to being equal. I talk a lot about China and Taiwan, mostly because that is where the majority of bicycle parts are made, but this topic goes beyond those two countries.
Here in America we have things VERY nicely. No, the fact you work 40 or more hours a week doesn't make your life difficult. If it does, stop doing it and find another passion because there are plenty out there. Anyway, so to make this simple, most of us would dread a job at a fast food place, and maybe some of us have one of those jobs and dreads it.....who knows? But the overall opinion is that a fast food job is bottom of the barrel here in America. What is funny is that working one of those jobs here in the U.S. not only pays about $7 an hour and above, it also has a lot of strict employee treatment rules. Minimum age, maximum hours until overtime pay, safety standards, you can quit any time you want, and so on. In the rest of the world, and most places companies outsource their products too, this isn't even close to the case. Not close meaning.........maybe 10% and likely not even that. Most people in these so called "Developing Nations" don't even make 50 cents an hour after conversion of their currency. Not only that, their working conditions are poor, many people get injured and there is no recourse of action if they do get hurt on the job. If a U.S. employee gets hurt flipping burgers, the company has to pay to fix them up and maybe more, especially if it's found that it wasn't their fault that they got harmed on the job. Minimum wage.....maximum hours before overtime pay.....nope....none of that. People work 12 hour days many times and basically, their life is about their jobs just so they can eat and have a roof, if they are lucky, over their heads. These people don't have nice houses or even decent apartments. They live in shitty conditions most of the time and struggle to find food and water, basic essentials for everyday life. A ghetto here in the U.S. would be a luxury over there. Here in America we live in a culture surrounded by the automobile. The thought of not owning a car here is...well....unimaginable to most people. Take the bus? Ride a bike? Walk?.......well, that is the rest of the developing world and certainly common in the countries that are manufacturing products to be shipped to the U.S.
So let's go back to the word "Global Economy" for a second. What does that really mean when people or the media says it? Well, clearly it doesn't mean that other parts of the world have an economy like ours. Sure, most western nations do, but most of the nations making our products for us don't have the luxuries and opportunities we have here in the U.S. So "Global Economy" is a corporate term.......it means that giant corporations operate around the world and well, make a shit ton of money doing it. Why? Because they pay people very little and treat them poorly while they are at it. Each large corporation has a few people at the top making all the money. Then they have a slightly larger group making our typical "middle class" salaries and then maybe some U.S. workers that have "fast food" level jobs....possibly working in a shipping warehouse or something similar. On the grand scheme of things, almost all the money gained from outsourcing production to another country is shifted to the top few people, usually in politics or in the media referred to as the top 2%.
Global Economy does not mean "Equal" economy around the world. It simply means, more money for the wealthiest people in the world (top 2%). So when people are led to believe that buying a product made in China, or some other low cost labor nation, is supporting a "Global Economy" and that is how we must think of things today, they are mistaken. Buying a product manufactured by the cheapest labor possible is not helping the people around the globe, it's helping the wealthy get wealthier and the poor, as well as most of us in the middle class, get poorer.
When a company does a bunch of things, like laying off U.S. workers, to make adjustments so they show profits on a chart somewhere.......where do you think those profits go? They go to a few shareholders and a lot more goes to the top people running the company, usually in the form of a multi-million dollar bonus. They are simply taking the money out of the U.S. and putting a little of it in some other country and A LOT MORE of it in their pockets so it does not get recycled back into our economy. "Global Economy" defined right there.....plain in simple. No Wall Street bullshit.......no guy on TV telling you this is the trend or this is how things work. I just explained how it all works in one fucking blog post!
So next time you use the term "Global Economy" think about what it really is and stop pretending that is how thing are and should be......because it isn't.
In order for America to be helpful to the rest of the world, we need to first take care of ourselves. We need to grow from within, take back our jobs, manufacturing, engineering, education, and all that stuff that made us the strongest nation in the world to start with. Once we regrow and become strong again, we can reach out the other nations and allow them and teach them how to do that same thing we do here. If we keep on our current path, the United States of America will eventually become a developing (or should I say it is a declining) nation......if it isn't too late already!!!!
Nicely done!
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