Boycotts won’t work. It might relieve one’s individual conscience but that’s about it.
Politically all one can do is support elected officials who push for Fair Trade as opposed to Free Trade.
As I see it, the issue becomes:
Fair Trade vs. Free Trade
Boycotts, as a method, are very powerful and can crippled a company or a country quickly.
The reason people feel that boycotts don't work is because there is an absence of the resolve necessary on the part of the boycotters to go through with.
When it is put into action it works. The problem is the severe lack of "want to".
Oil companies and oil nations control us because we lack the resolve to create our financial destinies anymore.
The reality is that China is a very complicated place.
Before Nixon began the process of opening China to trade, the place was a killing field. Millions died because the government wanted to “cull” the population. They simply enforced laws that led to massive starvation. Some estimates suggest that Mao was responsible for somewhere between 40M and 80M people.
Even after Nixon, deaths due to government policy continued. Should we have done nothing? Invaded? Opened them to trade in the hopes that prosperity would bring change? Well, Nixon’s approach seems to have led to serious change in China.
Clearly there are serious and severe human rights abuses still taking place in China both in forced abortions and in a systematic almost genocidal approach to the Tibet issue.
China is NOT a free place and is still quite abusive. But the question remains, do we invade? Do we step away from them and not trade, not have engagement unless they change which is the fair trade approach, or do we continue to pressure and trade and try to help them see who China benefits from a more open society?
We also have to approach China with an understanding of the Chinese reality. China is a complex culture with a serious population problem. With over a billion in population, only 14% of China’s land can be used for agriculture! Not being extremely vigilant regarding population will lead to massive starvation where hundreds of millions could die.
The argument here that fair trade should be used to force China away from the one baby/forced abortion policy is simply wrong. It takes nothing into account in dealing with the reality of what China is.
China also can field a two hundred million man army. Actually its age group fit for military service of both men and women exceeds a half billon. China’s technology is developing at a rapid pace.
China, being a complex society doesn’t really take well to being told how to behave. Their government while not our enemy is certainly not our ally, and any attempt by the west to push them too hard as fair traders want, is likely to push them away from us and into alliances with our mortal enemies.
The solution seems to me to be to expand trade, work to pressure where we can and seek to empower the people by providing economic prosperity via trade. It is a free trade solution with strings. It is also the course America has taken consistently since the 1970’s it seems to be working. I don’t think the impatience being offered by “fair traders” should force us from a course that has paid dividends in fewer Chinese people being murdered by their government in their tortured history.
How is that for a reasonable answer?
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
i have called "The democrat wing of the democrat party" baby killers.
I have called the "greens" greenick idiots.
I have called marxists commies
i have called Fairtraders democrats, greenicks and marxists.
Antipas called me Cro-Magnon.
there is a difference.
PS, i am actaully right in my assessment.
The insinuation is that anyone who doesn't vote Republican is affiliating with baby killers etc. You know that's not true. There are good and bad people in both parties.
Here's an interesting point on the "baby killers" pejoritive. No Democrat has ever forced a woman to have an abortion. China does. Most Democrats on the left only advocate for individual choice. I'd say that the Free Trade wing of the Republican Party has ignored the murder of over 400 million babies to protect their profits. Big difference.
Are we feeding a beast that forces abortion (61 babies per hour) with our free trade policies?
Well, lets check out the logic here: Should we blame the Marines for killing JFK... since that's where Lee Harvey Osward learned how to be a sharpshooter? I think we'd all say of course not... Nobody forced Oswald to do what he did, so he's to be held responsible for his own decisions and actions.
Same with the China argument.
Wrongdoing is wrongdoing. If they're forcing people to have abortions, that is their decision, not something anyone is forcing them to do. Using the "shared-blame" line of thinking, I should share some of the blame, since the socks I'm wearing were made in China! Very weak. Not buying it.
__________________ http://endtimeobserver.blogspot.com
Daniel 12:3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars for ever.
The reality is that China is a very complicated place.
Before Nixon began the process of opening China to trade, the place was a killing field. Millions died because the government wanted to “cull” the population. They simply enforced laws that led to massive starvation. Some estimates suggest that Mao was responsible for somewhere between 40M and 80M people.
Even after Nixon, deaths due to government policy continued. Should we have done nothing? Invaded? Opened them to trade in the hopes that prosperity would bring change? Well, Nixon’s approach seems to have led to serious change in China.
Clearly there are serious and severe human rights abuses still taking place in China both in forced abortions and in a systematic almost genocidal approach to the Tibet issue.
China is NOT a free place and is still quite abusive. But the question remains, do we invade? Do we step away from them and not trade, not have engagement unless they change which is the fair trade approach, or do we continue to pressure and trade and try to help them see who China benefits from a more open society?
We also have to approach China with an understanding of the Chinese reality. China is a complex culture with a serious population problem. With over a billion in population, only 14% of China’s land can be used for agriculture! Not being extremely vigilant regarding population will lead to massive starvation where hundreds of millions could die.
The argument here that fair trade should be used to force China away from the one baby/forced abortion policy is simply wrong. It takes nothing into account in dealing with the reality of what China is.
China also can field a two hundred million man army. Actually its age group fit for military service of both men and women exceeds a half billon. China’s technology is developing at a rapid pace.
China, being a complex society doesn’t really take well to being told how to behave. Their government while not our enemy is certainly not our ally, and any attempt by the west to push them too hard as fair traders want, is likely to push them away from us and into alliances with our mortal enemies.
The solution seems to me to be to expand trade, work to pressure where we can and seek to empower the people by providing economic prosperity via trade. It is a free trade solution with strings. It is also the course America has taken consistently since the 1970’s it seems to be working. I don’t think the impatience being offered by “fair traders” should force us from a course that has paid dividends in fewer Chinese people being murdered by their government in their tortured history.
How is that for a reasonable answer?
Summary: Ferd excuses China's police of forced abortion.
Fair Trade policies aimed at applying significant pressure in specific areas of the Chinese economy as incentive to expand human rights is far better than the ideas of invasion or ignoring the horror, and blessing it for the sake of our profit.
The insinuation is that anyone who doesn't vote Republican is affiliating with baby killers etc. You know that's not true. There are good and bad people in both parties.
Here's an interesting point on the "baby killers" pejoritive. No Democrat has ever forced a woman to have an abortion. China does. Most Democrats on the left only advocate for individual choice. I'd say that the Free Trade wing of the Republican Party has ignored the murder of over 400 million babies to protect their profits. Big difference.
No the insinuation is that the democrat wing of the democrat party (this is a reference to Howard Dean speaking about the liberals that have all the power in the party) are baby killers.
you guys that are pro-life but vote democrat arnt baby killers. you are just allied with them. You guys are kind of playing the Neville Chamberlain roll...
__________________ If I do something stupid blame the Lortab!
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