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California Rare-Earth Mine Reopens
burnin1965 writes in to let us know that the looming crisis in rare-earth materials (which we have discussed recently) has prompted Molycorp, the erstwhile operator of a California mine closed in 2002, to announce plans to reopen it.
"With increasing prices on rare earth ore, tariffs raised by the Chinese government, and the threat of embargoes that would damage United States high-tech manufacturing Molycorp now has the needed incentive to reopen the California Mountain Pass mine. They will spend the capital needed to implement badly needed updates to environmental controls that will mitigate the radioactive waste water releases that plagued the mine in the past. Chinese imports in the 90s nearly halved ore prices and the California mine experienced multiple failures in environmental controls that resulted in the release of huge volumes of radioactive waste water. Updating the mine to address the environmental issues was not financially viable due to the cheap Chinese imports so it was closed in 2002." Within two years the mine could be producing 20% of the amount of rare earths we import from China.
Finally, someone bringing resources and manufacturing back to America!
Barbara Boxer will shut that down. This is California you fuckers! No mining allowed. Oh, and we've decided that Spanish will now be the official primary language of the state.
better then buying for mines where works make $0.50 hour with no little safely and very long over time.
If I'm in the market for rare earth metals, why would I buy from this US source?
It seems like the factors that drove them out in the first place still exist, no? They still have environmental regulations to deal with that the Chinese suppliers don't, they'll still have far higher labour costs than their Chinese competitors, and so on. So if China wants to drive the price back down and run them out of business, they can do so.
So you want to sell your nation away people like you should go to a re education camp!
The more we mine them, the less rare they will be. Doesn't this defeat the purpose? .... ;)
To the US and Japan. And I've heard all sorts of speculation why but I'll leave that up to the reader.
My work here is dung.
Don't you guys read articles and look at infographics? All technology and infrastructure instantly hits a standstill the second those articles and infographics are released. By opening this mine they are destroying the fragile web of stupidity created by the idiots that make those things. Just think, somebody may even try to create technologies that use less rare-earth minerals!
Despite the story's GO AMERICA slant, a lot of material is going straight to Japan, where most of it is consumed in the first place. Like to Hitachi: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK5PL20101221
Oh look. They also signed deals with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T101219002181.htm
They got huge piles of cash from Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi...which is why it's hilarious to hear the CEO of Molycorp waving American flags in various quotes. Oh, and Molycorp's stock has shot up since their IPO in July: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-28/molycorp-s-ipo-aims-at-chinese-grip-on-smart-bombs.html
Also, how interesting that the EPA announces cleanup plan of Molycorp site just a few days ago: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12460111
The EPA said contaminated material from the Molycorp site includes about 328 million tons of acid-generating waste rock, more than 100 million tons of tailings and acid-rock drainage at the mine and seepage at the tailings facility.
Anyone want to place bets on whether or not the US government will press environmental regulations on Molycorp this time, now that national security interests are involved?
Please help metamoderate.
Uh, how is exporting raw materials (many of which will end up in electronics back on our shores) bad for America?
Sure, it would be better if those materials were used in local manufacturing facilities, but opening a source of those raw materials will make it more financially viable to do so.
better then buying for mines where works make $0.50 hour with no little safely and very long over time.
Soooo, where will the workers that were working in the unsafe mine go? To the next best alternative...a mine that pays even less and/or even more unsafe!
Getting Rare Earth back together to do a gig in California is an event worth celebrating.
Peel me!
http://www.recordsale.org/cdpix/r/rare_earth-band_together.jpg
?
I have a feeling that they're banking on China getting mad that the US will have a significant mine. If they say "Oh, you want to make your own? Fine, BANHAMMER!" and stop all rare earth exports, that mine will turn into the sole source for the US and they can charge whatever they want. If they start getting materials and China doesn't do anything different, the US company still has to compete with China's current prices which aren't THAT high right now. It's all just theoretical that China could skyrocket the prices if they wanted to. So since they won't make much money otherwise, they definitely have to be speculating that China will try to retaliate and it will work in their favor.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Anyone want to place bets on whether or not the US government will press environmental regulations on Molycorp this time, now that national security interests are involved?
Not really; but if they have issues and US EPA won't go after them, you can be sure Cal EPA will.
Of course, then you would just have a bunch of right-wing bloggers screaming, "Why does California hate America???" but that isn't exactly new.
They probably closed the US operation because China could manufacture it cheaper. Kinda puts the California company in a position to exploit the market.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
I think the US should sit on this resource for now. China only has 37% of the world's proven reserves of rare-earth minerals, but they are fulfilling 97% of the world's demand. Let them burn through their easily harvested natural supplies, so a decade from now they will be reliant on other countries for a critical resource. This could provide one of the few checks and balances for dealing with China as a communist super-power.
Better known as 318230.
What? Exports are good for America whether its in the form of something that was machined and assembled or just dug out of the ground. Are miners not people?
Considering the mutual hatred the Japanese and Chinese share toward each other, it's not surprising that the Japanese would want to buy rare earths from us rather than the Chinese. In my narrow view of economics, any time we can export something it's a plus. Our trade deficit hasn't exactly been ideal lately.
The game.
Progress does not consist of a small group of people enriching themselves at everyone else's expense. Progress consists of better things for everyone, not a trade off where some people must lose in order for others to win.
All I ask is that people pay all the costs they generate, rather than asking others to pay. Why should I burn in hell for asking that people take responsibility for their actions, and how their actions affect others?
I'm all for real progress, but poisoning people, animals, plants and ecosystems in order to extract useful minerals is not progress. When we extract those minerals without harming others, that is progress. Making things better for some by making things worse for others is not progress.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
RE mining has been an environmental problem for a long time. For whatever reason, the RE ores always seem to have a lot of thorium in them also -- there's your radioactive issue, and why we don't just refine and use that too, I'm clueless, as the price of uranium is also doing well (and I own stock in that too that is also doing well). As the Indians know, it's part of a useful fuel cycle as it can be bred into fissile fuel just like U238 can be. The other issue with RE's is that most of them are so chemically similar that they can be real tough to get apart into the individual RE metals. GM and others have done some work on making pretty good magnets with "what you get" rather than what you'd have in a perfect world, slightly reduced performance compared to perfect, but far lower costs at a few stages of the process.
At the instant of this writing, MCP is up 10.2% *in one day* which is about a usual annual return from the stock markets. REMX, an ETF that tracks RE's is only up 0.87%. No guts, no glory. I don't know about the other bucks for sure, but the profits trading on MCP are going to this redneck engineer American to be spent here. I'm sure like any news driven stock, that it will either go back down, or flounder around awhile before going up again. That's why I call myself a trader -- I don't invest, I trade, and know when the heck to get out and put the money back into first bank of mattress....
Copper is doing pretty well these days too, some due to manipulation, but in general we're finding out that Malthus was right, just in the wrong century. Won't be many decades before old landfills become a "mineral rights" issue. We really do live in a finite place.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
We may finally see some devices that bear the sticker "Made in America"?
Boredom is bliss.
That's too narrow. (or maybe not narrow enough?)
Equitable trade is mutually beneficial.
Being a net exporter means that you lose all your stuff and get a wad of IOUs of uncertain value (inflation, for instance, kills the value of your holdings)
Being a net importer means you incur debt, but get all the wonderful stuff.
Neither of which is particularly healthy, and certainly can't possibly be sustainable in the long term. Think about it: China's status as the world's provider of cheaply manufactured goods means that their own citizens are not benefiting from that massive industrial capacity as much as they could be, and they're sure as hell not benefitting from that capacity if the import side of that is money or ownership stakes in foreign countries, and not, y'know, stuff.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Are miners not people?
The courts have often rules that minors aren't people.
*rimshot*
More Twoson than Cupertino
Despite the story's GO AMERICA slant, a lot of material is going straight to Japan, where most of it is consumed in the first place. Like to Hitachi: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK5PL20101221
Oh look. They also signed deals with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T101219002181.htm
They got huge piles of cash from Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi...which is why it's hilarious to hear the CEO of Molycorp waving American flags in various quotes. Oh, and Molycorp's stock has shot up since their IPO in July: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-28/molycorp-s-ipo-aims-at-chinese-grip-on-smart-bombs.html
Also, how interesting that the EPA announces cleanup plan of Molycorp site just a few days ago: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12460111
The EPA said contaminated material from the Molycorp site includes about 328 million tons of acid-generating waste rock, more than 100 million tons of tailings and acid-rock drainage at the mine and seepage at the tailings facility.
Anyone want to place bets on whether or not the US government will press environmental regulations on Molycorp this time, now that national security interests are involved?
This smacks of isolationism and ignorance as to how economics work. My guns and butter are more valuable being sold to Japan than in America, then sell to Japan. I get more money out of it, Uncle Sam gets more taxes out of it, my American employees get paid for creating the product, and I don't have to worry about Japan suddenly stockpiling MY products in order to stifle trade. It's literally the biggest amount of Win/Win that can occur. China made mining in America not as profitable as importing it. Now that that is over, the mine is reopening. It's as simple as that. That radioactive waste water snippet did raise my eyebrow though.
My kingdom for a donkey!
The Molycorp restart has been known for months. The IPO was back in July.
"Rare earths" aren't really that rare. There are many potential mining sites worldwide. They're sparse, in that huge amounts of rock have to be processed to get small amounts of metal. Because of that, rare earth mines produce vast amounts of useless tailings, contaminated with the chemicals used in extraction. That's why nobody wants one nearby. The big one in Inner Mongolia is considered an environmental disaster area even by Chinese standards.
Your points aren't really relevant. The US is once again producing something and selling it to another country. That's a good thing and lowers our trade deficit. While we'd all love for all the materials to be mined here, and all the equipment made here that goes into our military equipment... the fact of the matter is, the loop that goes: Mined in the US, made in Japan, assembled in the US is a heck of a lot better than: Mined in China, Made in China, Assembled in the US.
As far as the pollution goes, simply forcing the industry into a country that has no environmental regulations at all isn't solving the problem. We all share the globe. Even if MolyCorp only cleans up half what they should, that's still 50% better than what they are doing in China.
Those workers aren't going anywhere. Those mines will not be shut down just because the US may produce up to 20% of our rare earths domestically. The rest of the world still needs rare earths, and we still need to get 80% of ours from someplace else.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_rare_earth_mine#Environmental_impact
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
If I could, I would grant you points. Consider what we import from Japan versus what we export to them. It is balanced in their favor at the moment.
The game.
Can we finally admit that we're in a cold war with china? Finally?
There are only a few principals in Molycorp, each with millions in salaries plus bonuses. They managed to lose over 80 million USD on 22 million USD in equity in just three short years. They hired a couple firms to shake the fear lobby public relations/news tree. The Japan-China rare earth thing occurs regularly every couple of years, and this incident is no different. You may find in the next SEC filing that the principals have unloaded significant paper dilution in the latest round of scamming. I expect they will close again once the stock sale scamming has peaked.
Unless we live in some bizarro world where the Japanese live in houses made of rare-earth metal and eat it for breakfast whilst the ragged American hobos starve, it is highly likely that a lot of these metals are going to be made into export items and electronics. Whether the mobile phones and bomb fall systems used by Americans are created by Americans or by Japanese is pretty irrelevant. The availability for use is the important point.
I guess in your rather bizarro world a good company is one with a low stock price, and a high stock price is somehow a character flaw or sign of shenanigans. Can't help you cure that affliction.
Not surprising if the EPA cleans it up for free. A country is able to expend its resources to further its national goals. How this is new to you is beyond me.
Corporations have more rights than minors for the simple reason that they can vote.
Of course, the same is true when comparing corporations to any other group...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
<HECKLER> If they were Incorporated then they would be legal individuals! Instead they prefer to be commie unincorporated human beings. </HECKLER>
The article says the mine will produce about 20% of China's current output, not 20% of the amount we import.
China's status as the world's provider of cheaply manufactured goods means that their own citizens are not benefiting from that massive industrial capacity as much as they could be
China's status as the world's largest manufacturer - and soon the world's highest-tech manufacturer - plus all those IOUs they own means that they will be able to do whatever the hell they want. China's not interested in raising their standard of living too fast, if it means that a huge disparity exists between the poor and the really dirt-poor. China doesn't want the manufacturing to race to the next developing nation, and it's big enough that they know there will always be suitable numbers of desperate unemployed population to keep wages (and worker demands) very low.
But China's not stupid, they're plowing this money and tech into their military. Their submarine navy for example isn't made to carry nukes, but they ARE made to act as underwater troop carriers.
Uh, how is exporting raw materials (many of which will end up in electronics back on our shores) bad for America?
Who said it was bad for America?
ure, it would be better if those materials were used in local manufacturing facilities, but opening a source of those raw materials will make it more financially viable to do so.
Agreed. But lets not put the celebrations ahead of the victory. The company press released is something of a "Mission Accomplished" moment, and that is what is being poked fun at.
The GP said:
Seemed to me that he was implying that opening these mines in the USA is only good for the Japanese companies funding the project and bad for the USA who is stuck with the cleanup costs.
Any substantial investment into the USA is a good reason to wave the flag, especially in a state with 12.5% unemployment.
Any substantial investment into the USA is a good reason to wave the flag, especially in a state with 12.5% unemployment.
Agreed. But its not "Mission Accomplished".
And in many respects it parallels AmericanCorporationX opening a textiles plant in unnamed 3rd world high-unemployment country. Yay! Jobs for the unemployed is good... but long term, is it even a step in the right direction for unnamed 3rd world country?
And in many respects it parallels AmericanCorporationX opening a textiles plant in unnamed 3rd world high-unemployment country. Yay! Jobs for the unemployed is good... but long term, is it even a step in the right direction for unnamed 3rd world country?
Why wouldn't it be? AmericanCorporationX pays more and has better working conditions than the local businesses. So it improves the standard of living and generates wealth for unnamed 3rd world country.
acid-generating waste rock
In the US the rock you dig up is considered hazardous. Almost all forms of rock will leech something or other when wet so it's all 'hazardous waste.'
Mountains also frequently leech acid and other 'hazardous' chemicals. You can't sue a mountain, however. Demonstrating against landscape is seen as silly and geologic formations are unresponsive to regulation.
Fucking speculator. You are a parasite producing nothing of value.
Why wouldn't it be? AmericanCorporationX pays more and has better working conditions than the local businesses. So it improves the standard of living and generates wealth for unnamed 3rd world country.
There is a reason we call it exploitation.
Within two years the mine could be producing 20% of the amount of rare earths we import from China.
The article says the mine could produce 20% of what China produces, not 20% of what the US imports from China.
To do what? Do you really believe China's more interested in starting WW3 than increasing the standard of living of its population?
I am trolling
And in many respects it parallels AmericanCorporationX opening a textiles plant in unnamed 3rd world high-unemployment country. Yay! Jobs for the unemployed is good... but long term, is it even a step in the right direction for unnamed 3rd world country?
Why wouldn't it be? AmericanCorporationX pays more and has better working conditions than the local businesses. So it improves the standard of living and generates wealth for unnamed 3rd world country.
It frequently doesn't turn out that way. Usually the production moved to country C because there is some locally exploitable resource in addition to cheap labor (there are a lot of cheap labor countries to chose from, why chose one far away from cotton if you are doing textiles?) If ACX moved there because the resource was unused, there is a good chance it will work out for locals and ACX. But usually there is local business using that resource. What happens when an international country with huge resources move in is it undercuts local business, gives higher wages, pays higher for local raw material production for a while. Local business that can't compete goes bust, and wages, raw material prices and employment statistics are not much, if any, better that before. If that country had been a major producer before, ACX can also enjoy better prices for its products.
And then ACX finds a new country D...
Yes, but you miss the point of the imbalances. It's a wonderful way to channel wealth to those that broker it all. You can bitch about the industrialists all you want, but at least they built something and generated lots of jobs in the process. What we are dealing with now is an elite class that is no more than a parasite on the human race. That aren't Capitalists. They aren't Industrialists. They are financiers and they are playing the greatest skim-game in human history, all supported by our large (quasi-)government institutions.
This will end in blood and tears.
Luckily, when you spill thorium-laced water over a large area of desert, it never gradually turns into wind-borne radioactive dust...
You mean, like the naturally occurring monazite sands from which rare earth metals are mined?
This is basic, people, something we all should have learned no later than preschool: you make a mess, you clean it up.
It would be good if people demanded this of the coal and oil industries.
In the case of rare earths mining, the problem is only the absurd regulations that demand the radiation level in waste to be lower than what's found in nature.
There is a reason we call it exploitation.
To hide the benefit? Why is it ok to be exploited by the local businesses, but not ok to be exploited, with better wages and benefits, by a multinational?
No, it's not all going to Japan, just some.
Really? Then show me a list of US companies Molycorp has announced deals with.
Show me what US companies Molycorp has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in financing from.
*insert sound of crickets*
Please help metamoderate.
Using Americans as slave force after winning WW3 China can increase the "standard of living" of it's WHOLE population.
Any bets that the Government of China will drop the price of rare earths once Molycorp has invested the greatest amount of capital in it and then has huge, bankruptcy risk. Expect those in the know to buy shares early and then dump them latter just before the stock price collapse.
Once into receivership a Chinese company will buy the mine and decommission it, the reduced supply will result in a substantial price increase in rare earths.
face it folks, this is standard corporate economics 101. Free market thing guarantees that it will and the greed of local investors (Americans stabbing Americans in the back and betraying their own country) ensure it will happen. Corporate law, have to buy the cheapest source of supply regardless of consequences, just invest smartly to profit as a result of those consequences.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
The hard one is separating them. And they are hard to separate because of very similiar chemical properties. Currently there is problably no functional rare earths separation facility outside of China and rare earths concentrate (mine output) has to be brought back to China and thus becomes subject of China export quotas. There is one facility in construction (in Malasia as far as I remember) but going to production will take a while. Chinese have driven everyone out of business and then bought remaining facilities and know-how. And no one in intervened - utter stupidity and incompetence of western leadership has surpassed levels of lack-of-self-preservation-instinct in this matter. We are totally dependent on Chinese and this year we learned about this the hard way. Chineese limited their export quotas by 70% and rare earths prices jumped several times. Of course, you can buy them cheaper for producing your widgets, you just need to move your production facility to China.
I just hope we get full rare earth production chain up and working as soon as possible, but it will propably take a few years.
Why is it ok to be exploited by the local businesses, but not ok to be exploited, with better wages and benefits, by a multinational?
When did anyone say being exploited by local business was ok?
Uh, China is not the world's largest mfg. US still holds that position and will for a few more decades or so. China just surpassed Japan as the world's number two.
Being a net exporter means that you lose all your stuff and get a wad of IOUs of uncertain value (inflation, for instance, kills the value of your holdings) [...]
Neither of which is particularly healthy, and certainly can't possibly be sustainable in the long term. Think about it: China's status as the world's provider of cheaply manufactured goods means that their own citizens are not benefiting from that massive industrial capacity as much as they could be, and they're sure as hell not benefitting from that capacity if the import side of that is money or ownership stakes in foreign countries, and not, y'know, stuff.
Why not?
Until *very* recently, the world's largest exporter of goods was not actually China but Germany. And I'm not talking about exports per capita, I'm talking about exports, period. Nevertheless, Germany is a wealthy first-world nation that has a very high standard of living and a human development index (HDI) comparable to that of, say, Japan or South Korea.
The situation isn't the same in China, obviously, but it should also be obvious that being a net exporter does not automatically mean your citizens will be deprived of all your stuff.
You did, when you considered employment by multinationals out of context. If these workers aren't being "exploited" by someone, then they aren't working.
t-hehe, the cool thing is that the camera used in the dailymail link ...
probably has some rare-earth components inside. talk about returning to
the place of birth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_parachute
http://www.irstaxattorney.com/bankruptcy/Golden_Parachute.html
http://www.nowpublic.com/tech-biz/times-mirror-exec-payoffs-revealed-tribune-bankruptcy-filing
http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/07/tribune-co-proposes-severance-packages-for-top-execs-if-they-are-dismissed.html
http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/economics/8338-former-wamu-execs-sue-golden-parachutes.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1458937/how_to_cure_the_golden_parachutes.html
But perhaps the best explanation, and the most damning to your case, can be found here:
http://definitions.uslegal.com/g/golden-parachute-payment/
I'll reprint the relevant bit here, because it is such an absolute and direct refutation of your silly, uninformed opinions.
According to 12 CFR 359.1 [Title 12 -- Banks and Banking; Chapter III -- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Subchapter B -- Regulations and Statements of General Policy; Part 359 -- Golden Parachute and Indemnification Payments], golden parachute payment means “any payment (or any agreement to make any payment) in the nature of compensation by any insured depository institution or an affiliated depository institution holding company for the benefit of any current or former IAP pursuant to an obligation of such institution or holding company that:
(i) Is contingent on, or by its terms is payable on or after, the termination of such party's primary employment or affiliation with the institution or holding company; and
(ii) Is received on or after, or is made in contemplation of, any of the following events:
(A) The insolvency (or similar event) of the insured depository institution which is making the payment or bankruptcy or insolvency (or similar event) of the depository institution holding company which is making the payment; or
WOW! So, "Golden Parachutes" are actually (among other things) meant to protect executives in the case of bankruptcy.
I just have to ask, why do you bother? I mean, every. single. time. you try to argue with me, you lose. Doesn't it get tiring?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
China will become most powerfull country in the future. USA fail with their FED, IRS and worthless dollar.
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)
If these workers aren't being "exploited" by someone, then they aren't working.
"Employed" does not equal "Exploited"
I do not think it means what you think it means. Raised wages, higher standard of living, better working conditions, how is this exploitation? Unless you're using the worldview of the noble savage, and that people in other parts are somehow being "duped" by the wily westerner, and are too stupid to notice and thus need to be protected by the other wily westerners who actually CARE.
"Employed" does not equal "Exploited"
You didn't give me that impression earlier. Recall:
Why wouldn't it be? AmericanCorporationX pays more and has better working conditions than the local businesses. So it improves the standard of living and generates wealth for unnamed 3rd world country.
There is a reason we call it exploitation.
I call it "employment".
I call it "employment".
If workers are poorly treated, the environment is damaged, and all the wealth flows out of the country then its also exploitative.
If workers are poorly treated, the environment is damaged, and all the wealth flows out of the country then its also exploitative.
There's no evidence that multinationals contribute to the above problems any more so than local businesses. Instead, we find the opposite. Workers are treated and paid better than by local businesses; that most of the pollution is by local or local government controlled businesses; and that because a multinational is hiring people, investing in local infrastructure, and contributing to the local tax base, we find that wealth is moving into the country.
Consider this thought experiment. Suppose some alien society with alien businesspeople discovers us and outsources some of their labor to us. From our point of view, their jobs would be awesome. You get to play with cool alien tech and they give really generous compensation. But the aliens have their own protesters who complain because we're being "exploited" with terrible 40 hour work weeks and lack of the incredibly generous benefits that the aliens have come to associated with work. Further, human society benefits greatly from the association as our society and us, personally improve with the knowledge and wealth provided by these aliens. Horrible exploitation versus fat city. Which is the real perception?
The key is that the worker enters willingly into the contract with the multinational. The latter, to insure quality of the product and reliability of their employees, has to offer considerably better compensation (along the lines of Ford's "five dollar day"). These things are always to the benefit of the employee.
Just as I would willingly sign up for "exploitation" by the generous alien employers so Third World workers are signing up for multinational employment. You can call it "exploitation", but the word has no meaning from the employee's point of view.
Consider this thought experiment. Suppose some alien society with alien businesspeople discovers us and outsources some of their labor to us. From our point of view, their jobs would be awesome. You get to play with cool alien tech and they give really generous compensation. But the aliens have their own protesters who complain because we're being "exploited" with terrible 40 hour work weeks and lack of the incredibly generous benefits that the aliens have come to associated with work. Further, human society benefits greatly from the association as our society and us, personally improve with the knowledge and wealth provided by these aliens. Horrible exploitation versus fat city. Which is the real perception?
Right, they ship their piles of medical/industrial/military waste, radio actives, and toxic chemicals to your earthly processing plant where you glibly crawl around on it scavenging valuable bits for your alien-corporate-masters without protection or medical coverage.
Eventually the poisons render the entire region a desert wasteland. Earth has no regulations prohibiting this stuff, the country is nearly bankrupt anyway, and besides the leaders get to ride around on space ships and have sex with space hookers.
You, of course still do it willingly, and are grateful for the "generous" alien employers because you need a job, and it puts food in your mouth for now.
"Its a good thing."
The thought experiment can get pretty ugly if you let it.
Not all outsourcing is exploitation, but don't pretend none of it is.
Right, they ship their piles of medical/industrial/military waste, radio actives, and toxic chemicals to your earthly processing plant where you glibly crawl around on it scavenging valuable bits for your alien-corporate-masters without protection or medical coverage.
Remember for the analogy with multinationals to hold, we have to remember that the alien businesses conform to the laws of the land. So the above would happen only in places where it is already legal.
War is almost never economically worth it. The amount of destruction caused by WW3 would outweigh any benefits that could be gained from winning. I very much doubt the US would surrender its citizenry into slavery without using nuclear weapons first.
I am trolling