Milwaukee Tool Raises the Bar with New USA Factory

Why do non-Western elites send their kids to Western countries for university educations?

> increasingly not alternative ways of competing either like creativity, influence or equality.

Which non-Western countries are competing on creativity?

> Bernie was disturbed by the finger-in-bottle exchange, when I told him about it. “I hope they are washing their hands, at least,” he said. Since the bathrooms had no soap, I told him that it was not likely.

> I explained to Sister how this could be a problem. She told me that she understood and would address the situation.

> “I will tell the workers not to put their fingers in the bottles when you are at the factory,” she said.

....

> The hair gel that we produced at the factory was green. One day, I noticed that the worker who filled the gel bottles had a skin condition. His hands were covered with the slick formula, and beneath the green, shimmery layer, I could see that the skin on his hands was peeling. Small, raw patches of flesh were exposed, and you didn’t have to be a dermatologist to see that his skin was infected.

> “We should probably do something about this one,” I said to Sister, trying to sound calm, while in my head alarm bells were ringing.

> Sister did not see the point. “Why?” she asked.

> “It might be a health issue?”

> “But the worker has done nothing wrong. It’s just an allergic reaction.”

> Trying to press the matter, I suggested that the worker might contaminate the product.

> Sister twisted around the argument. “How can he harm the product when it was the product that caused him the harm?”

etc.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/5116296

Elites. We have the best education for elites. Not for everyone, which is a large part of the problem.

This puzzle revolves around power. Power is the ability to execute force or inflict pleasure or pain. A CEO is clearly capable of painful force against their unskilled labor. A CEO can make it so someone has a harder time housing themselves, getting medical care, or feeding their children. But what power does unskilled labor have over their CEOs? Virtually none individually. So we see this reality reflected directly in wages. Unskilled labor gets paid the minimum because they have no power, and CEO's get incredible wages because they have the power to demand them.

This "agreement" is not mutual consent, but fundamentally exploitation. It's even more so exploitation when labor is sent to these poor countries.

Unions are the answer to the puzzle of "how does an unskilled laborer exercise power/prevent themselves from being exploited." Through collective action a union can cause the CEO pain and put a check on their otherwise unchecked power. In this way individuals are no longer powerless but have earned a seat at the negotiating table.

China did exactly this. They became exploited, nurtured dependence on the exploitation, and now use manufacturing's dependence on China as well as state level collective bargaining as a cudgul to execute their imperialist will on countries like Taiwan.

If you do not have the ability to commit great violence you are not peaceful, you are harmless. If you do not have the ability to execute power, you do not make agreements, you follow commands.

I personally don't understand how unions are not seen as American as the 2nd amendment. Unions are as important to preventing capitalist exploitation as guns are to preventing colonial/fascist exploitation.

[0] http://www.team.net/mjb/hawg.html