5th columnist

[Brad De Long]

>On Wed, 29 Mar 2000, Brad De Long wrote:
>
>>  >On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, Brad De Long wrote:
>>  >
>>  >>  >Maybe they recruited you as a sleeper while you were working on Wall
>>  >>  >St., kind of like the Viet-Cong did with McCain. ;)
>>  >>
>>  >>  You've got it wrong. The Viet-Cong didn't recruit McCain.
>>  >>  McCain--acting as an agent for the founders-to-be of Nike--recruited
>>  >>  the Viet-Cong.
>>  >>
>>  >>  Where else in the world today, after all, can they find such a
>>  >>  compliant and productive workforce with such effective gang-bosses?
>>  >>
>>  >>
>>  >>  Brad DeLong
>>  >Indonesia perhaps?
>>
>>  Real wages perhaps four times those of Vietnam today...
>>
>>
>>  Brad DeLong
>>
>Gosh Brad, I expect better than that from you. I mean, Indonesia, the
>country that has received so much in the way of US aid, WB loans,...and
>been relatively free of war for how many years now? I should hope its
>average wage was a bit highr than Vietnam's.
>
>Steve

Pay more attention when you read, please.

I don't deny (though I wouldn't like to overstate) that U.S. 
development aid policy has helped Indonesia's economy (though not its 
polity) over the past two generations.

And because it has helped, it *is* the case that Vietnam today--not 
Indonesia--is Nike's dream production locations: extremely low wages, 
productive employees, and vicious labor gang bosses...

Brad DeLong