11: Fight for $15

Goldstein’s examines how technology has pushed corporations into cheapening the worker, to improve the marginal production of labor, and increase their surplus value. This relates to the ‘Fight for $15’ campaign because workers of fast food giants believe they are being cheated and taken advantage of. In this post I will be reflecting on views of this issue.

Mike Rowe, star of the television series Dirty Jobs tells it how it is when saying, “Stop looking for the “right” career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what’s available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable.” I believe that people have a false entitlement when it comes to job markets today. Fast-food workers believe that because companies like McDonalds are multi-national corporations that they should pay them more. Yet they are a business, they are out to make profits just like any other, just on a much larger scale. The reason that fast food giants are able to pay their workers low wages is because they automatized their operations so well that nearly anyone can do it. This means that the supply of workers that they can choose from is nearly unlimited. Viewpoints on this issue undoubtedly result from issues in race, gender, and class.

For the middle and upper class, I can see why they would be opposed to raising wages of fast food workers. As presented by Colbert in the video below, where he says, “You understand that the extra 75 cents an hour is pushed onto the consumer…” increased wages of the bottom line will affect the purchasing power and costs of goods for all classes in America. Another point that I would like to point out from the video is that the guest speaker, Naquasia LeGrand, is only currently working 15 hours a week. She explains that this is due to managers not allowing her to work more then that. To this I say find another job completely if you are not happy with what you are given. This may sound harsh, but as a full time college student who works also over 20 hours a week I believe she needs to change her career path. The Internet has allowed easy access to finding new jobs, networking, and online schooling that could easily land her a job in a different industry. If you look at Australia, their minimum wage is currently around $15 dollars per hour, and at first glance it looks like they are much more generation then America whose is around $8 in most states. However, if you look at Australia’s cost of living, it is much higher than in the U.S. this just an example of how changing the bottom line has repercussions.

The Colbert Report Video

I do understand and feel for workers who are unable to make a living wage. I just believe that if you are not happy with your circumstances, especially in the work place, that you can always find ways to change it. Technology will continue to take over low-skilled professions; it’s just the unfortunate truth that comes with advancements in society and a capitalistic marketplace.

Sources:
[1] http://www.lifebuzz.com/mike-rowe/
[2] http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/4g3c4f/naquasia-legrand

10: Mardi Gras and China

Mardi Gras Made in China is a documentary that looks at the consequences that consumers create through globalization. The documentary examines how Chinese manufacturing firms produce and bring Mardi Gras beads to markets in the U.S. and how the majority of U.S. consumers are completely oblivious (or just don’t care) about how little offshore workers are paid for these somewhat insignificant beads. In this article I will be discussing why U.S. companies manufacture products overseas, why foreign manufacturing welcomes U.S. firms, why foreign workers work under these conditions, how products are embedded with cultural meaning, and finally the economic impacts of globalization.

Why more and more U.S. firms are moving their product manufacturing operations is simple; massive amounts of labor accompanied with ridiculously low wages. Since the technology revolution companies have realized that products can be produced at a fraction of the cost overseas then here at home. The problem that has come from this is that the labor supply chain has drastically shifted to low wage rate countries such as China, Korea, and Taiwan. As stated in the documentary mentioned above a typical worker is making the equivalent of 75 dollars a month. Compare that to someone in the U.S. making 8 dollars an hour for a similar low-skilled profession and you can start to see why the demand for labor has shifted so drastically to foreign firms. U.S. consumers either don’t know where the products they buy come from, don’t care, or that there are no close substitutes that they can purchase instead.

Overseas manufacturing companies welcome U.S. business because they are like any other private company in the world; their main goal is to make profits. Couple that with U.S.’s high demand for their labor and it is hard for factory owners to turn them down because if they don’t make U.S. companies products someone else will at a similarly low price. Furthermore, because labor costs are so low overseas factory owners are also making huge profits exploiting these wage laws.

Unfortunately factory workers partaking in this exportation have no choice but to take the wage rate they are given. This is mainly due to little or no education and many coming from already low income families. The other reason is the shear size of the labor force in China; If a worker complains about the working conditions or that they are not being paid enough they can simply be replaced with another willing candidate. In low-skilled professions such as bead making I don’t see wage conditions improving for these workers in the foreseeable future without government intervention.

 A great example of how products are embedded with cultural meaning are the Mardi Gras beads that we saw in the documentary. We see that these beads have been marketed and evolved to become a major symbol of sex and partying in this particular celebration. Just like all celebrations however, they come and go, leaving the value consumers have on the beads in the trash. This is why people that participate in Mardi Gras see the beads as disposable because they classify them as inferior goods once the party stops.

There are many economic and social impacts that come with globalization. As stated earlier it shifts the supply of labor away from home countries but it also can affect other things such as lower prices of goods for consumers in the U.S and also specialization between countries where each country produces the goods that it has a comparative advantage in making. I final thoughts are that we will continue to see companies moving their manufacturing operations overseas. While some companies like Apple are starting to create policies such as assembling their products here in the U.S. and while they are still getting all the individual parts from overseas, it is a small step in the right direction.

Sources

Mardi Gras Made in China [YouTube Preview]

Picture of Manufacturing Plant

Other Sources

Foundation Episode 36 with Tony Fadell

08: Gentrification in Silicon Valley

Gentrification by definition is the shift in a community towards wealthier residents, this shift causes benefits such increases in average income, property values, and increase economic development, however, gentrification also causes negatives affects such as increased rent and division of wealth and services between the rich and poor. In this blog post I will be looking at gentrification primarily from an optimistic viewpoint. 

The Google Bus protests that have been going on in San Francisco have shown that part of the community that live there are not happy with the transformation that Silicon Valley has brought to the area. In an article by Julia Carrie Wong, she writes on the topic and in it she quotes, “protesters drove a fake Google Bus in the annual Pride Parade with props linking the shuttles to gentrification, eviction and displacement” [1]. Obviously there are parts of community that don’t believe that they are not being over run by these large tech companies, however, what is the real issue going on here? Many of the activists that have protested about the Google Bus are saying it is driving out poorer individuals, “Housing activists point out that the buses serve people who are driving up rents, displacing lower-income residents.  Pedestrians and bikers complain of the buses clogging narrow streets.” [1]. Personally, I can see their situation and frustration but on the other hand I do not agree with them. I see the busses as a means for Google to benefit their works in a cool and efficient way. Furthermore, the busses allow more people to car pool and keep their cars at home, reducing traffic for people who don’t work at Google’s Campus.

As an Economics Major I strongly believe in the invisible hand where markets for the most part are pretty good at being self-regulating without government intervention. I will say that I do believe that self-regulating markets where individuals and businesses who are trying to maximize their profits and utility do lead to gentrification but in a mostly positive way. I like to believe that Google, Apple, Facebook and other tech giants that are in the valley aren’t trying directly to push the non-techy crowds in the area but that this transformation is happening because the demand for a very high-tech, cool, young atmosphere is wanted by their employees and the people that they are looking to hirer.

Google 1

When you read articles about activists and the communities they are in it can be difficult to get a clear understanding. When the article talks about black communities in the Bay Area for example they only talk about those of low incomes. I understand why they do this when it comes to writing about gentrification; low-income individuals are hurt the most by the shift. As I read I felt that these low-income groups opinions were often generalized and looked at as every low-income person being a victim to these devastating Google busses. Activists are almost always reported on from the same viewpoint I feel; radical or rebellious types that choose to complain about whatever they can because they cannot adapt or just don’t like their surrounding. It’s for this reason that I feel somewhat bad for them for getting generally such a bad rap from the press. However, in this particular situation with the Google Busses and it leading to gentrification, I’m going to have to side with the Google and the tech giants and believe that Silicon Valley should not have to sacrifice the culture that it has built because rent and property values are rising in the area.

Sources:

[1] When Companies Break the Law and People Pay the Scary Lesson

Pictures: Google 2, Google 1

B:06/07: Closer Relationships and The Price of Gadgets

Stefana Broadbent’s TEDTalk, ‘How The Internet Enables Intimacy’ looks at how internet technologies are actually providing closer relationships between users of the internet. She points out that while someone might have 120 to 200 friends on Facebook and other social network sites, the average person will talk to five or fewer each day. This seems completely applicable to my personal life as I rarely message individuals on my Facebook account that I do not talk to already on a daily basis. The biggest hurdle that the internet has overcome is the ability to connect with people over great distances. The example of the Brazilian couple who would once a week Skype with their family allows them to cultivate a deep relationship with their loved ones even though they may be physically far away. Furthermore she brings up examples of people at work who work late-night or odd shifts being able to say good night to their loved ones. This technology that allows us to communicate with people in our lives that we care most about was not a possibility to such a degree for generations before us.

Broadbent’s TEDTalk got me thinking of how social networking and online interaction is progressing on the web. Social networking platform Path is doing exactly what Broadbent is talking about. The service limits connections to only 150 friends and they encourage you to select only your highest-quality connections. The idea behind Path came from psychology research the suggested people have a maximum number of workable social contacts. This limitation allows users to share more personal information with their friends and family while knowing is still safe and secure. Path’s creation of “Inner circles of social contacts” I feel is great step in the right direction to achieve intimacy on the internet.  Broadbent believes that the separation of work and personal connections is not fair for workers. She feels that corporations blocking social media and connections from their employees are greatly discouraging it’s workers.

Today’s technology market is a vast one, with so many products coming to the surface for consumers to choose from, it is a great time to live in but are we ignoring the costs that these services are producing? Corporations like Foxconn are horrifying workplaces where it’s hard to believe that individuals actually work there.  Foxconn manufactures an insane proportion of the world’s electronic devices and their working conditions are appalling. For example, the example from class where they installed suicide nets around their buildings so workers could no longer throw themselves from the tops of them is just absolutely ridiculous. Obviously they’re missing the bigger problem here, that their insane work shift hours and low wages are pushing people far past their limits. The highest paid position is looking at $1.80/hour, and “official” work hours being at 8 hours, which you know if B.S. because they have been caught not paying hundreds of thousands in unpaid overtime payments.

               
As consumers we are part of this problem however. With the need to always have the latest, fastest, and coolest gadgets on the market we are fueling these outrages working conditions. We must ask ourselves, do we really need that new IPhone 5S when we already have an IPhone 5? Do we really get that much gratification from materialistic items as we think we do? Or should we step back and really analyze how we as consumers are shaping these markets. Honestly, If we demanded more accountability from large corporations wouldn’t they have to eventually listen and change?

05: Embodiment - Bodies in Cyberspace

The Internet today allows us to learn many things about the world we live in and allows us imagine how cultures look and act in distant countries. Furthermore, it could very well show the embodiment of the values that are most important to us.

When it comes to humans and males more specifically, a hot topic to talk about is the subject of sex on the Internet. I highly agree with the idea that pornography and sex trafficking on the Internet is shaping the embodiment of how women appear. Not only is media showing females how they “should” look but the Internet has also done what the real world have done in making women valued largely by their appearance. While any sane or normal person will conclude that sex trafficking is a horrific and mad idea, regulation in such industries can be complicated and hard to tackle. Many of these Organizations, if you want to call them that, which participate in these industries, are largely in unregulated countries that can be hard to be shutdown. Furthermore, another issue arises when it comes to the Internet and that is how far do governments restrict the content that consumers are allowed to see.

While men are currently the prime users of Internet they only help to allow the sex industry to drive how individuals are embodied. Hawthorns article stats on consumers were quite shocking to me; her resources found that the recorded proportion of buyers of women over the internet are 90% male, 70% of which are living in the US, and 70% between the ages of 18 and 40. While the age range is not surprising to me, the percentage of US consumers is.  

I have always thought of “mail order brides” as a thing you might see in movies. However, Hawthorn goes on to explain how consumers in this industry are pitched on the women that they are selling. I think the biggest fail in embodiment of actual real women these sites pose is the way they apparently explain there brides-for-sale. They explain that these women as pleasers and don’t have unreasonable expectations. To me it’s as if you are buying a puppet that has been suppressed into a life of selfless personal identity, and the men who partake in this think of them-selves as the puppet master. This goes against the idea of the Internet being a place to express and discover yourself, and while this may be true if you’re a male online it certainly does not appear to be the case for women.

Women will continue to be embodied with sexual exploitation on the Internet if the consumers, being men, continue to let these industries have all the power. We as consumers must demand respect from these industries if we are ever to obtain a truly free and clear minded Internet. While I believe we should and always will value beauty in the human-race, we must not do so with a blind eye, to the point where our filtered values that we see on Internet become our real life ones.

04: Office Tigers

When I think of India’s economy, I think of two things; their hunger for advancement in business and the global market, and their customer service industry. As watched and examined the documentary ‘Office Tigers’, you can see how the virtual assistant industry is thriving in India. The reason for this is simple, why hire a department of office assistants to handle spreadsheets, spellcheck, and filing tasks when you can hire a group of individuals from India for a fraction of the price.

How does technology facilitate cultural imperialism? Well with American companies now depending more and more on virtual assistants they are influencing the way India looks at business and how they are run. This is shown in how they react to American clients; from what I saw from the documentary it was apparent to me that they hired people with fluent English and adequate computer skills. American managers would then sculpt and improve their skills to fit corporate America. I believe that Office Tiger’s management team wants American level skilled workers, at India’s low wage price. Furthermore, while India’s culture is very different than ours, globalization is quickly pushing our business ideals onto India and even though it could allow India to advance more quickly, it also is taking away their uniqueness.

I thought the section of the film that discussed the requirement in wearing a tie to work was intriguing. Why I thought this was because in America, we see this as the norm in most business and financial industries, but workers in India most likely don’t see it that way, they most likely don’t put as much significance as we do. That is, they most likely have their own opinion as to what should be worn when conducting business and don’t see the tie as; a symbol of professionalism as we do. 

On the flip side of things however, I do feel that globalization is an overall positive thing. As an economics student, you can see the benefits obtained through open trade throughout the world. As with the trade of commodities such as corn or wheat, the Internet has enabled the ability to trade ideas, information, and more importantly in the case of Office Tigers, Western business practices. Being able to implement strategies and practices that work here in the U.S. to India, Office Tigers are able to provide a service for which both parties benefit from. Without the Internet OT would not be possible because the costs would far outweigh the gains. Firms would most likely have continued to employ in-house. In the end, I feel that globalization allows us to find new and smarter ways in the way we do business.

I think a good point to bring up is the tasks that firms are assigning to Office Tigers. Filing, data entry, and creating spreadsheets are all tasks that can be taught relatively cheaply. As they say in the film American firms look at out-sourcing to India as an expected lower quality finished product. While Office Tigers say they are trying to resolve this issue with dedicated hard working employees, I think it will be hard to completely take away the image. There is something about sending corporate documents across the planet to someone you have never met that just makes me think that the trust and accountability is just not there yet.