by Dr. J.W. Smith
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In previous columns we discussed how wealth was siphoned from the low-paid nations to the high-paid nations through inequality of pay for equally-productive labor and how no nation in the world ever developed under Adam Smith free trade. Today we will discuss how unequal-pay for equally-productive labor creates invisible borders which maintain the flow of wealth from the already poor to the already wealthy.
All wealth comes from natural resources. That is an inescapable reality. Yet look at a globe and notice the tiny area of the old imperial nations of Europe. Then look at the vast expanse of land from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean, in all of Africa, and in South America. The world’s resources are primarily within those massive expanses of land within the impoverished world.
America is the only wealthy and powerful country with large natural resources. Where are Japan’s resources? Where are Hong Kong’s resources? Where are South Korea’s resources? Where are Taiwan’s resources? Where are the resources of the historical imperial nations of Europe? The answer, of course, is that those resources are primarily in the impoverished world and that natural wealth has been confiscated through inequalities of trade to become the wealth of the imperial-centers-of-capital.
These invisible borders protecting power and wealth can become visible by simple mental exercise: Pay labor on the periphery of empire the same for equally-productive work as labor within the imperial-centers-of-capital, permit them industrial capital (technology) to produce for themselves, allow them equal access to world markets, and soon all people of all nations will, on the average, be relatively equal as they build and produce for themselves and the world. They are no longer just producing for the wealthy world.
Under democratic/cooperative capitalism as we are proposing (access to resources and technology, equal pay for equally-productive work and sharing those productive jobs), those invisible borders will instantly and truly disappear. The periphery of empire, previously a huge plantation system with the wealth from their resources and labor pouring into the imperial-centers-of-capital, will have gained control of their destiny.
That the world can quickly develop has been proven by how fast every nation developed when their tender industries and markets were protected. Industries to produce consumer products can be produced quickly as proven by the wealthy nations and tiger economies addressed above. It is the social capital of a nation (businesses, roads, railroads, homes, furnishings for those homes, etc.) which takes enormous amounts of labor and capital and a long time to produce.
Certainly education and training are important. But it has already been proven that the labor of any country can be trained to run factories, run railroads, or perform any other job of a "productive economy." Take note that I said, "productive economy." In later columns we will be demonstrating that the highest-paid jobs within a subtle-monopoly capitalist economy are not "productive." Those unproductive jobs (usually the highest paid professions and their support labor) are a complex system of siphoning wealth to the powerful within an economy just as inequality of pay for equally-productive work is a system of siphoning the wealth from the periphery of empire to the center as addressed in previous columns.
The only way this can ever change is if all can see those once invisible borders of subtle-monopoly capitalism. Inform your friends, form your discussion groups. People are good. Prove to philosophers and negotiators in the wealthy world the inequality of Adam Smith free trade and many will recognize they have been misinformed and support you.
Our next column will address how the developing world can use modern communication technology to leapfrog the developed world.