Liberal Democracy (was Robert Mundell: Genius unbound)

[Dace]

>Dace wrote:
>
>> Also,
>> Europe's well-being (like ours) is due in large part to exploitation of
>> southern countries.
>
>Sorry, I missed this. I have asked this question before, and got no
response:
>What percentage of European social spending are/have been since WWII/do you
>expect to be/ profits extracted by European multinationals from Third World
>countries?  A rough estimate will do. Feel free to use, say, hours of
necessary
>labor rather than dollar-denominated trade balances.
>
>--
>Enrique Diaz-Alvarez

Euro-American-Japanese exploitation of Third World resources and labor is so
thoroughly enmeshed in our economy that the benefits are probably
incalculable.  Where would we be without all that cheap oil, cheap metal,
cheap coffee, etc.?  It's not just a matter of multinational profits.  A lot
of the profits are passed on directly to us, the consumers, in the form of
lower prices.  And what about the billions siphoned off each year in the
form of Third World payments on debt interest?  That would have to be added
in as well.  I would love to see a dollar figure on how much we steal from
the poor every year.  Europe's take could easily prove comensurate with its
social spending.

Dace