It’s about time for me to do a little bit of academically informed and politically unmotivated ranting about matters much too complicated for me to properly discuss (I’ll still try though). Today’s lesson in Economenclature (I suppose I’d start this series as an excuse to show off to everyone how incredibly Econ’d out I am) has to do with now-industrializing nations (aka: LDC) and their generally horrendous environmental policies.
Before I launch head-long into jargon spewing, there are a few key things we all ought to realize. If you’ve ever heard the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” you’ll get what I’m about to say: there really is no such thing as a free lunch. If you’re more physically inclined (as in the subject, not the groping), you could understand this as an extension of Newton’s Third Law. If you want an apple, you’re going to have to pay for it. Even if you don’t, your grandmother will. And if neither of you do, the owner of the Apple Store is going to pay for it by having his legs broke when the Mod Mob comes after him.
Another thing we should all understand about the nature of this world is, well, we are still confined to the laws of nature, as unpleasant as that may be for those who simply hate fresh air and sunlight. Taking the example of relationships, let’s say you really like this one particular “one” out of all the rest, but you can only stop to look longingly from afar for fear of the troubles involved with taking care of another. If you don’t make a move soon, someone else is going to come along and pay for her love (we’re talking about puppies, if you weren’t paying attention). This is a very poorly illustrated form of competition at work. The same would apply for how we pick spouses, get picked for universities and jobs, etc… It boils down to who can lick it the best for the best price. Again, talking about puppies.
Now we can talk (however briefly) about why I don’t think it’s a good thing to hate on countries like China for seriously f*cking up our environment when they make the things they make. I’m not an enviro-apathite (I just made that up, and it means… well, it’s not that complicated, is it?). There are some very good reasons why we, the More Developed Countries, can’t completely condemn these countries to shame (and oh how much shame they deser–! wait, let me get my thoughts together).
For one thing, we in the Global North enjoy a lot of things. We’ve all bought dirt cheap shirts, toys, electronics, and even china-ware (ironically enough) from countries like China, Taiwan, India, etc… This is the first reason: we gain directly from damages done to their environment (which, also ironically enough, turns out to be our environment too). Just like how I would probably feel very silly for telling you (“you” being my yet-to-be-married wife) to quit your job because “our relationship is suffering for it” (or something else melodramatic to a similar effect) if I were jobless myself and effectively living off of your yet-to-be-joined-through-marriage bank account. And coincidentally, that about sums it up for my future plans so I’ve almost gained time and effort by killing two ideas with one sentence (and effectively lost any and all of that time and effort by writing out an explanation for it).
Another reason why we can’t directly intervene with their practices is that they are doing exactly what we’ve done, only several decades to a century after us. Canada and the States were just as destructive and polluting as our modern Chinese factories back in the day, and it was exactly that kind of wasteful attitude (which proves to make an excellent business model, actually, until all your suits and workers all start dropping dead from anal fissures, hydrodentalplosion or another such bizarre but thoroughly dangerous ailment due to pollution) that allowed for our countries to almost literally explode (if we count the internal combustion engine) onto the world economic stage during the Industrial Revolution. I actually don’t know for sure what that entails, but I assume I’m talking about whatever the inventors of that phrase meant to be talking about.
That was a roundabout way of pointing out that we’d be pretty big hypocrites if we honestly did think we were better than them in our own infantile stages. I’m really quite tired of listening to people rant on and on about how the Chinese factories are ruining the States’ economy. It’s true, but you really should say such mean things about people. The Chinese aren’t ruining anything, as far as I’m concerned. It’s that damned WalMart that screws everyone over: its workers, its producers/suppliers, its management staff, and in a way that I’m about to explain, some of its customers too.
You see, when we buy things from other countries, this is called trade. This can also be called waving goodbye to our money as it leaves to buy the other country’s currency. This currency then kindly goes ahead and purchases your brand-spanking-new FunBox 360. Considering that money and toilet water are surprisingly similar when you think about it (domestic versions of both are almost always better and more useful than foreign ones, plus they smell better before being used), this would be tantamount to a leaky toilet. With so much of our domestic monies and waters out there as opposed to in here (where they are most useful to us), we run into problems such as declining water levels (leading to a larger chance for catastrophic splash factors) and similarly depressed exchange rates. Soon, it becomes more and more costly to purchase that previously dirt cheap dirt made in China (not to mention wetter on your bottom).
Of course, there are many other things related to these kinds of topics (like jobs, ours and theirs, and competitive fairness, but we won’t get into those today. I’ll get into those when I get better relationship analogies stuck in my head. For now, stop hating on the Chinese and starting hating yourself for wanting those children’s-blood-soaked shoes for less.