Boatboy says: "We have no control over what wages are paid or what conditions are offered to workers...if the unions hadn't forced our industry to shut down years ago maybe we would have some control as we would have our own industry..."
Would you want your sons and daughters to slave for low Bangladesh wages in a squalid sweatshop? That's the only way lost jobs can be repatriated. Capital flows to wherever non-union workers are desperate, there's no social security, laws are lax on over-crowding, work-place safety and pollution. And corruption is widespread.
To Capital, Bangladesh is Paradise as it replicates the Dark Satanic mills and squalor of Manchester where Karl Marx wrote the part of 'Das Kapital' where he predicted a French-type revolution after seeing the seething worker discontent.
But Marx got it wrong. There was no revolution. What Marx did not foresee was the emergence of Labour Unions that (bit by bit) got decent wages and conditions. Workers had money to spend and that created vast industries that (to this day) thrive on Consumption.
When a boss cuts wages, another boss goes broke - as lower wages reduce worker demand and consumption. President Hoover cut Federal pay. He turned a US Recession into the 1930s Great Depression.
Tony Abbott wants to slash public servants. To keep donations from Big Biz flowing into Liberal coffers, Tony Abbott (if elected) will disinter Work (No) Choices for workers, but call it Labour Market Reform to give donors: No Unions. Low Pay. No Fair Work Australia.
