The execs you speak of plug things as 'American' because they think that will help sell their products to Americans. You sound like you think they actually give a shit. What, did you think they were just being patriotic?
What they are obsessed by is the bottom line, and I find it strange that anyone is surprised by their ready use of offshoring, they don't see it as "defeat" at all. Surely you know these people will jump at any opportunity to increase profits, deliver "value" to shareholders, and by happy coincidence boost their bonuses.
BTW I'm British, but pretty much the same thing goes here, except companies need to be a little more circumspect when using the "buy British" line.
Who modded this flamebait? It happens to be absolutely correct about burning plant matter being a major source of dioxins, and about the ice cream. IMHO the last paragraph is a little too polite, otherwise spot on.
I could comprehend this sort of ethical myopia if it were regarding some necessity of life. If my personal survival depended on Wal-Mart keeping its prices low, I probably wouldn't care how they did it. But to refuse to worry about their business practices because they supply you with "cheap electronics?" I don't think the word "disgusting" begins to cover your attitude.
I recently watched a very interesting documentary by Johann Norberg entitled Globalisation is Good (shown on Channel 4 in the UK a few weeks ago) in which he argued quite compellingly that the low labour cost "sweatshop economy" phase is a necessary transitional step from a third world to a successful modern economy. He also showed how the reality for people working in the "sweatshops" is often a lot better than commonly portrayed in the media.
I think Norberg has a point. The ethical issues are certainly a lot more complicated than people who take your kind of moral tone like to admit. I'm sure you have the best of intentions, but try to look beyond the anti-globalisation banners occasionaly for ethical perspective. Wal-mart is probably helping the countries it buys from, as well as the American consumer, and probably the American economy as well.
Haha. Read 'Count Zero' and 'Mona Lisa Overdrive', and all will become clear. Maybe. They're not exactly sequels, but they do have common characters, and refer back to some of the stuff in Neuromancer.
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Soon to be 2x $450 cards - because I can only think of one way of proving it wasn't coincidence.
The execs you speak of plug things as 'American' because they think that will help sell their products to Americans. You sound like you think they actually give a shit. What, did you think they were just being patriotic?
What they are obsessed by is the bottom line, and I find it strange that anyone is surprised by their ready use of offshoring, they don't see it as "defeat" at all. Surely you know these people will jump at any opportunity to increase profits, deliver "value" to shareholders, and by happy coincidence boost their bonuses.
BTW I'm British, but pretty much the same thing goes here, except companies need to be a little more circumspect when using the "buy British" line.
Who modded this flamebait? It happens to be absolutely correct about burning plant matter being a major source of dioxins, and about the ice cream. IMHO the last paragraph is a little too polite, otherwise spot on.
I wouldn't have thought keeping things cold was that big a challenge in space.
I could comprehend this sort of ethical myopia if it were regarding some necessity of life. If my personal survival depended on Wal-Mart keeping its prices low, I probably wouldn't care how they did it. But to refuse to worry about their business practices because they supply you with "cheap electronics?" I don't think the word "disgusting" begins to cover your attitude.
I recently watched a very interesting documentary by Johann Norberg entitled Globalisation is Good (shown on Channel 4 in the UK a few weeks ago) in which he argued quite compellingly that the low labour cost "sweatshop economy" phase is a necessary transitional step from a third world to a successful modern economy. He also showed how the reality for people working in the "sweatshops" is often a lot better than commonly portrayed in the media.
I think Norberg has a point. The ethical issues are certainly a lot more complicated than people who take your kind of moral tone like to admit. I'm sure you have the best of intentions, but try to look beyond the anti-globalisation banners occasionaly for ethical perspective. Wal-mart is probably helping the countries it buys from, as well as the American consumer, and probably the American economy as well.
Seems this page and this one have more info and piccies on this technology. In Japanese, but readable with babelfish.
Haha. Read 'Count Zero' and 'Mona Lisa Overdrive', and all will become clear. Maybe. They're not exactly sequels, but they do have common characters, and refer back to some of the stuff in Neuromancer.