in some third world country with no labour rights, no environmental protection, and import it back into the first world country cheaper than it could be made here, [...] If it was China 20 years ago, it will be India, Vietnam, Myanmmar or Cambodia today, or perhaps some African countries tomorrow
1. We don't use certain terms anymore, such as "third world countries". It's demeaning.
Of course we don't change our discriminating, discrediting, demeaning, and arrogant point of view and behaviour, and for sure don't allow them actually to "develop" (formerly we called that "aid", now we named it "collaboration") this was a danger to our economy completely based on exploitation (We recycle paper, glass and aluminium, so nobody can say we throw away
everything. And before some smarty comes with 'also plastics!': No, we only collect it, but not really recycle it. Well, it's burned in plants, which is called "thermal recycling", but only a very small percentage is produced from used plastic.)
We not only refuse them medication drugs if they cannot pay our prices, we even forbid them to produce those themselves for their own market, so they could afford them. That's not discrimination, that's economy.
Using certain terms is discriminating. Behave discriminating is not.
We are the masters of doing changes prima facie without really change anything.
2. China already outsourced "lower labour" to Africa, such as assembling cable harnesses.
Example: We let "China" produce a cheap PSU for us. So we don't need to care about working conditions (we are exemplary at those, but others better don't dare to follow that example - too expensive), how they get their resources, or their power, doesn't bother us at all, as long as no chinese company takes over a mine we want to exploit ourselves; especially not, when they make a better offer. We are very for free markets - as long as they serve only us. Every year some dozens of chinese miners die in a collapsing mine. To us that's just some thrill in the evening news, but no connection to us. Our coal is too expensive (because of the conditions), and too dirty. We have clean renewable energy (exemplary), while China's power supply is still based on ~80% fossils. Not our problem. And we believe, they produce this PSU all within their own country. Even if we think so, they are not stupid. The chinese manufacturers get resources from Africa, Asia and South America like us (believe it or not, but we are not the only clever ones on this planet), transport the wires to a contract manufacturer in Africa who produce the harnesses with plugs, the harnesses are transported back to China, the PSU is assembled, and then transported to the first
class world countries. (That is allowed to say.)
And when the PSU has done its job - defective, or functioning errorless, but trashed together with the also still errorless working but alas obsolete machine, or because a new one was greener in its usage, no matter how much resources, waste and CO2 its production cost - we throw it into some african landfill, because it's better to us when other children climbing in sharp and edgy landfills, breathing the smoke of the open bonfires, which flare of the wire's plastic coatings, so to sell us the copper for us to recycle for a pittance. That's a job worth doing. Recycling electronics is not.
Because of our arrogance, to us Europeans Africa is still a blind spot. Lying directly at our doorstep we don't even see (nor care) China is applauded there. Because they don't just send them "development aid" to exploit their resources for dumping prices, which they also do like us, which outrages us; especially the conditions those poor Africans have to suffer under chinese labour (discrimination.) While ours are pretty the same, which does not outrages us. Of course not. That's economy. Nor they pointing at "those lazy bums" and "how ugly they destroy their own homelands" (try to elect a government that wants to change this, and see what happen: They need to be freed from this communistic terror regime), but they involve them into the production chain.
We just become upset about everything, but change nothing.
That's cynical, you say? Yes, it is. But it's not me, the reality is.
Killing the messenger is another trick we can pull greatly.
