Re: Richebacher's black scenario

Brian Lewis may have some good points in his critique of Richebacher's
"alarmist" scenario, but it seemed to me that Lewis was as much a
cheerleader for the "excellence" of the workings of the so-called "free
market" of U.S. capitalism as Richebacher was a doomsayer.

1) It is quite naive to think that every decision that the public makes,
from buying cars to buying computers is simply the happy, free will of every
"free to choose, prosperous American" expressing his or her own freedom
through the way they spend their dollars.

2) The excellent management that resulted in higher corporate profits is not
just due to the corporations making better decisions with better management.
Better management for WHOM?  Leveraged buyouts and stock manipulation do not
mean that more goods get produced that meet the needs of the people.
Extraordinary high profits in the short run can come from stock
manipulation. And from stifling competition. And finally, from laying off
workers and shifting operations to countries where workers are COERCED into
working for low wages, all of which can increase profits for many
corporations.

This point:

3) Imperialism, is so often ignored by champions of U.S. corporate behavior.
There REALLY ARE workers in Mexico who work for U.S. corporations and who
are intimidated into accepting low wages by forces in their government who
are allied with those U.S. corporations. This is not a conspiracy theory.
This is not a secret plot. This has been business as usual for hundreds of
years.  High profits in Chile? Well, let's just give a thanks to the junta
which murdered 30,000 people and wiped out labor unions, forcing the working
class to accept low wages. Indonesia? Half a million murdered. This has and
does happen in many countries.  Even the "miracle of Taiwan" is based partly
on the mass murder of some 5,000 "dissidents" by the pro-U.S. government  in
the early 1950's, which obviously made it easier for corporations to
underpay teenagers to work in unsafe factories, to the benefit of the bottom
line of U.S. corporations.
=======================================================

So critique the naive alarmism if you choose, but please don't give me a
dose of this foolish cheerleading which conveniently ignores the massive
COERCION that is a part of so-called "free" enterprise.



Alan Spector