Raising the Bar

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Thu Sep 3 18:34:48 PDT 1998



> Dear Doug and the Left Business Observers,
>
> Now would be, and, should be the time to really push for a global minimum
> wage, global health and safety standards and the abolishment of child
> labor. Can anyone think of a better way to pump up world wide demand and
> insure economic prosperity in a deflationary world economy.
> . . .

Those are worthy goals but don't necessarily put money in people's pockets that they are likely to spend, ergo there is no spur to demand. The minimum wage is a possible, partial exception, though it begs the question of the extent to which employers in poor nations will be able to stay in business if they are regulated in such a way. Also, lots of governments are not equipped to enforce a minimum wage. There is evasion of it even in the U.S., as you probably know.

Better to do for the poor nations what the U.S. did for Western Europe after WWII: lend or give them money to buy our stuff. Or prior to that, forgive or reschedule debt some of these nations owe which drains their people of purchasing power.

MBS



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