Column 8: How the Developing World Can Attain Full and Equal Rights
by Dr. J.W. Smith
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Though it will be firmly denied, the developed world-America, Western Europe, and Japan-are an allied imperial-center-of capital. Never would they impose upon one another the structural adjustments they are enforcing upon the developing world.
In previous columns and our books, we addressed how the wealth of the developing world is siphoned to the wealthy world through extreme inequality of pay for equally productive work. All wealth comes from resources and most resources are in the developing world. Yet the resource-poor imperial nations are wealthy and the resource-rich nations on the periphery of empire are poor.
The wealth of the periphery pouring into the imperial centers is explained by the simple formula high pay divided by the low pay squared. If the poor nation's equally-productive labor is paid $1 an hour and the wealthy nation's labor is paid $10 an hour, that is not a 10 times differential in retained wealth. It is an exponential 100 times differential.
Allowing one hour as one unit of wealth, the poorly-paid worker must work ten hours to produce one unit of wealth from the well-paid worker or nation while the well-paid worker can purchase 100 units of wealth from the poorly-paid worker or nation. Increase that pay differential to 20 times (50 cents an hour labor against $10 an hour labor) and the capital accumulation differential increases exponentially to 400 to one.
If the developing world is to ever gain full rights and equality they must negotiate with the developed world for fair value for their resources and for equality in pay for equally productive work. The developed world will not want to negotiate. In defense, blocs of the developing world must ally together.
Of course, the developed world still will not want to negotiate. But Mahatma Gandhi of India has shown how to force that negotiation. If Third world labor refuses to mine or haul that ore, cut or haul that timber, or load those ships, the developed world will have no choice but negotiate. The followers of Gandhi refused to work for the British Empire, massive suppression ensued, the labor of India still refused, British soldiers could not stomach imposing further unjust violent suppression, and Britain gave up on the pillage of India.
Once at the negotiating table, the rules for providing full rights and equality must be decided upon. Our suggestions are:
- Equal pay for equally-productive work. This gain in rights provides roughly equal buying power relative to the talents and energy expended to all who are employed.
- Sharing those productive jobs (each need work only two to three work days per week).
- Support for structuring their societies to avoid the subtle monopolizations of land, technology, finance capital, and information (as addressed in previous columns, this will increase economic efficiency equal to the invention of money, the printing press, and electricity.
- A worldwide effort to address population issues and sustainable development to the capacity of the earth to provide resources and the environment to absorb wastes. With the most Catholic country in the world, Italy, having a birth rate per family (1.29), Germany a birth rate of 1.51, and Japan a rate of 1.53, far below replacement levels, shows this is an attainable goal.
- The wealthy world to turn their war industries towards producing industrial technology for any nation or region of the world that agrees to eliminate terrorism and war.
- All military weapons beyond that necessary for internal security to be turned over to the United Nations or destroyed.
- The United Nations should be chartered with the responsibility of overseeing world peace.
- All unjust Third Word debts to be cancelled.
- Markets should be free between regions of equal development and equal pay but managed between countries and regions unequally paid.
- Support for regions to establish their own central bank and trading currency (such as the 15 countries of Europe are now doing under the euro).
- Through equalizing surcharges, minerals and other resources in the low-paid countries to be priced relative to mining or harvesting of those same resources or substitute commodities in the developed world. The recycling of minerals would then be profitable and renewable energy would be competitive. The consumption of the world's oil and coal will be slower, pollution pressures will be lower, and all countries will develop faster.
- Labor values to be calculated and equalizing surcharges collected on exports of manufactured products to equalize those values.
- Funds collected from these tariffs on international trade should go towards building industries and economic infrastructure in the lower-paid nation or region and for renewable energy capitalization, developing environmentally sound products, designing and implementing ecologically sustainable lifestyles, rebuilding soils, and cleaning up and revitalizing the ecosystems of both the developing and developed worlds.
- To avoid corruption, any industry or infrastructure built with developing world money or with equalizing surcharge funds shall be built by contract. Once their own tools of production are established, these regions will be building their own industries and infrastructure.
- Once nations or regions are roughly equal in technology and labor roughly equally paid, surcharges should be eliminated and fair and honest free trade will flow between nations and between regions.
- A nation or region short on resources should be allotted a higher level of industrialization. (Japan provides the ideal example.) Once all nations and regions are roughly equal in world trade, equalizing surcharges should disappear but a resource depletion tax should remain to fund rebuilding soils and revitalizing the world's ecosystems.
- As has already been successfully tested, one-year-old trees in biodegradable, aerodynamic, pointed cylinders can be planted at the rate of 800,000 trees a day per plane. Newly planted grass grows beautifully in North Africa when fenced off from goats. Technology has been developed to grow extensive ground cover in one to three years on steep, barren, infertile road cuts. The technology is here to reforest and regenerate the earth and a resource depletion tax is the proper source of funds.
- As per previous columns, patent laws should be restructured so all can use a technology simply by paying an appropriate royalty.
- To protect everyone's rights and freedom, the world's intelligence services should remain operative and alert. These agencies should be mandated to cooperate in preventing terrorist attacks or wars anywhere in the world. That mandated change alone will eliminate most terrorism and all wars.
- The buying power for a healthy economy comes from wages paid to productive labor. Those earnings are spent for family needs and that money is spent again and again as it is passed from hand to hand to purchase necessary food, fiber, shelter, and services. Thus care must be taken by both the developed and developing world for each region (not small or medium sized nations) to produce most of their own food and consumer products and provide most of their own services.
Only through a cohesive population and an allied region can peacefully obtain full rights and equality. Thus the responsibility of each is to alert as many as possible and organize to attain full rights and freedom. People are good. Prove to philosophers and negotiators in the wealthy world that peace and prosperity for all is possible and many will recognize they have been misinformed and support you.
Our next column will demonstrate how, under these rules, the world can be developed to a sustainable level and poverty largely eliminated in only two generations.
