> uh, sure you realize that the minimum living standards of Western Europe
and
> the US is funded by the depredations of Shell and United Fruit in the
Third
> World, not to mention IMF and the World Bank? So when you say it offers
> something, the question is to whom?
As Wojtek has pointed out before, this is only a priori self-evident in a lefty morality play. It is actually similar in empirical vapidity to the right-wing morality play that inequalities tend to benefit all parties. The truth of the matter is that we don't know if the third world would enjoy better living standards if not for the "exploitation" of the capitalist hegemons, or if the hegemons would be worse off if the third world more closely resembled the first world.
This analogy might be illuminating: although women and blacks were once undoubtedly subjugated in the US to a much greater degree than today, it seems as though the economy has adapted quite well to the loss of housewives and slaves. Similarly, I doubt the US would sink to the depths of poverty if Mexico started engineering microchips instead of producing clothing in sweatshops.
-- Luke