Choices (was Re: Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens responds to critics

[Mina Kumar]

>From: James Baird <jlbaird3 at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>Subject: Re: Choices (was Re: Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens 
>responds to critics
>Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 13:13:44 -0700 (PDT)
>
> >
> > 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?
> >
>
>I realize this has been hashed out on the list before,
>but how much do the living standards of the U.S.,
>Europe, and Japan, really rest on "third world
>oppression", anyway?  Cheap bananas and coffee are
>great, but does the U.S. really depend on them in any
>real way?  And as for oil - while it certainly hasn't
>been shared equally, the oil exporting nations have
>certainly been enriched by their relationship with the
>western powers.

Yes, I think Western capital acceded to socialist policies in the West (to 
the extent they did!) because they could continue to reap the profits of 
exploitation in the Third World, in both the import and export directions.  
That's what the push to globalization is all about.

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