MR2NR

iTrader: (66)

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying CANADIAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in CANADA!!

mugen1

It's called globalization. Plus, if all those things were made in Canada, he'd definitely have to have a good paying job to afford all those Canadian made products with the good ol' union label on 'em.

Maybe Joe Smith himself is made in Ireland, with a bit of Swiss and perhaps a history of French in there. He also probably dated a girl who was from Germany with a bit of Yugoslavian and Ukrainian mixed in. If he got married to that girl, his children would be...........

Maybe Joe Smith is idigenous to Canada in which case his ancesters would be saying, "Wow, look what happened to our little village of Kanata.

White man come and weaken our braves with firewater -- that's OK, we give them cancer stick...... let's call it even.

Shouldn't this place be called the Doughnut Shop?

Donut is American, isn't it? or is it the other way around?

fazes

I think you think too much

Lethal

I think you think he thinks too much.

mike bisson

iTrader: (1)

Mugen1 -- I think you missed Rob's point entirely -- who benefits from "globalization"? Ordnary citizens? Nope. Multinational corporations? Yup. Two of the fastest growing economies in the world are India and China -- why? Is it due to a more skilled labour force? Or is it lower cost? And explain this to me -- why are there armed guards at plants in Mexico just across the border from the US? Is it to keep people out or keep people in? (check it out, you will be surprized). Would you work for $3 a day? Probably not. I find it deeply saddening to see family businesses pushed out by box stores day after day and having people who don't see the big picture call it "progress" [img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img] . Call me ignorant or biased, but everychance I get I will continue to support the economy of [img]graemlins/cf2.gif[/img]

mugen1

Sadly, globalization is a fact of life. You and I can't stop it. Remember Lumberland? I loved going to Lumberland - it was BC owned and operated. Woodwards is another example of a locally owned business that couldn't make it.

Having said that, there are some local companies that have survived and are actually doing very well. Remember Harvey's? That used to be an awesome place to shop for hardware and plumbing supplies. It was family owned and operated. Very successful business. I don't know if it was deciding to join the Home Hardware chain or not that did them in, but they eventually had to restructure in order to survive and is now a furniture store.

As for people in Mexico, would better wages fix their problems? There just aren't enough jobs there, let alone good paying jobs. Too many people and not enough jobs.

India and China are the fastest growing economies because more of its population base now have jobs and more money to spend. So, what does that mean for us? I think, like Harvey's, we have to change our way of doing things in order to survive. Canada has great natural resources, but we can't survive on that alone.......... oh god, I'm getting flashbacks of Economics 101!

I knew what MR2NR was getting at, I just wanted to put in a little about the globalization of peoples as opposed to economic globalization.

The alcohol and tobacco thing was just there because...... [img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

good to hear from ya, Mike.

loudtdi

iTrader: (1)

What we really need to do is stop shipping our natural resources to other countrys to be processed.

We need to keep our wood & beef in Canada and manufacture value added products. This will create more jobs.

mugen1

Yes, absolutely correct! We have natural resources coming out of our ying yang. Yet, we allow our raw materials to leave our country without getting more than just the cost of the material itself.

Take a manufacturing country like Japan that has little to no natural resources. They buy raw products and make stuff out of it. That's what got their economy started. Now that they have evolved to the point their products cannot be made cheaply, they have shifted to having their products made overseas - like Canada. Honda has a few plants in North America. Which makes me laugh, btw, when people try to convince their neighbours to buy domestic cars because buying Ford or Chevy supports their economy. Try telling that to a factory worker at Honda Canada.

I don't think Honda Canada workers get paid some third world wages, either.

mugen1

You can buy local all you want, but the the majority of the merchandise would still be from other countries......

The ultimate result of globalization (a positive one at that) might be that everybody will prosper and that there won't be any "third world" countries.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer <--- that's what we have to remedy.

I can't think of any person here that would want people in third world countries to continue to suffer in poverty.... even if it means changing our way of life a bit.

I don't think we will ever become some third world economy. We support our own economy in too many diverse ways. As long as we continue to produce well educated, energetic, thoughtful, and innovative youngsters, we'll be fine.