smokerings

Sadomasochistic tendencies often drive people like me to read things like this... that and evil Communication Skills teachers who one veiws with a mixture of pity and disgust, because they chose to make livelihoods out of enforcing political correctness on the world.

"The popular MIT economist Paul Krugman tells the story of Smokey Mountain, a huge landfill outside of Manila and "a popular media symbol of Third World poverty." Hundreds of families chose to live on the dump, collecting scrap metal and other recyclables, subjecting themselves to the stench and unhealthy air in return for the higher wages they were offered.

This image is both upsetting and frightening. As Krugman points out, however, media stories like Smokey Mountain mask something even more unsettling - what must the less-documented rural poverty be like that families actually choose to escape by moving to a waste dump?

I'm sure Hausman would agree with me that almost all U.S. jobs are better than those offered by Smokey Mountain or by sneaker sweatshops. We are (rightly) appalled at these working conditions, but most of us do not get to see the alternatives these workers face. Sadly, it is usually unemployment and starvation. Trade may create unappealing jobs for developing countries, but the fact that these jobs are freely filled reveals that bad jobs are better than no jobs for these workers."

yeah, sure... we've made the world so that some people eat cake, and some people eat shit. if they didnt eat shit, they would starve and die. so, like... shits not that bad, i guess....