> So
> I'd say that the "race to the bottom" is a compelling turn of phrase,
> but not an accurate description of what's been going on.
>
> Doug
Perhaps it's one of those things which may not be real, but are plausible enough to have a detectable effect. It certainly scares the hell out of workers around here: and not entirely because of racism or union racketeering. A race to the bottom certainly sounds like the sort of thing our bosses would do, and I don't know if I'd call their bluff.
Except for the dire poverty and rock-bottom wages, I also don't see why a similar scam couldn't be run in Cambodia or Indonesia, to justify authoritarian rule, anti-union measures,etc... The important thing, I suppose, is that it sounds just about right: I can readily see a Balinese thinking that those Javanese are undercutting their work conditions. It need not be true, but if it is felt strongly enough, the Balinese will end up accepting worse working conditions...
It's a terrifically convincing bluff: the bosses stand to lose very little - in fact, if you believe them, they are doing humanitarian good works! - the workers stand to lose the lot, and to add insult to injury they are made to look like selfish pigs hogging all the goodies the nice capitalists have to spread around.
If this way of looking at it has some merit, then the irony is that the race to the bottom rhetoric in the left probably makes the matter worse, by making the threat more credible. I guess I can readily see how union bureaucracies stand to gain from that, and indeed, they are the main proponents of the race to the bottom around here. It would probably be more productive to look the slimes straight in the eye and call their bluff, say that capital mobility is not what it is cracked up to be, etc... (My feeling is that if you said this here, manufacturing workers would think you are crazy.)
Thiago
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