I read the article “MOVE OR ELSE” in the “UPFRONT” magazine,
and I learned a lot about where our money goes when we buy thing that are made
in china. The author Ian Johnson was talking about the negative effects that
the money the economy makes from making 70% percent of the things stocked at Wal-Mart.
The main negative effects of the billions f dollars china makes from America is
that they are demolishing the homes of farmers and people living in rural parts
of china.
In the article it
was describing the efforts that the Chinese government is making to ensure that
they make the rural population of china non-existent in their current location
and make them become “Office workers.” This
is information that is good to know because we can see not only the effect of
us sending all our items to be made or equipped in china and the impact it has
on our economy but china’s economy as well. The people of china that are being
moved are completely out of their element because they are not used to high
rise buildings and skyscrapers and jobs where you sit in a cubical. They are
used to working in the fields and doing what they know. This was made clear in
the text when the former farmers were asked about how they feel about their new
living conditions and said, “ Those are for educated people.”
Another effect
that our importing goods made in china have on the people there especially the
farmers is that they are not given a choice of whether they would like to move
or not they are forced to move followed by having their house demolished. This
shows that the business that we provide for china makes the people live lavish
lifestyles, we soon to find out that all that money goes to the government that
moves its people around like pawns on a chess board. The only solution to try
and stop and or prevent things like this from happening is to boycott all goods
that are made in china which was proven difficult to do in the text where it
said “It sometimes seems that all the things that Americans buy is made in
china-from clothing cellphones to refrigerators. About 70% of the goods
Wal-Mart sells are made in china.”
There is not much
we can do about this dilemma due to the fact that china is a communist country.
Therefore the government can do whatever, whenever they want to. But we might be able to control what our
companies do, and make sure that we can legally make sure they no longer
support china and that they will send their goods to be made in other countries
that will legally agree to have the money benefit the government and the people
rather than simply “fueling the fire” by giving china money to do this to their
people.
All in all we as
Americans sometimes do things the easy way because its cheaper and its not your
problem what they do with the money but that is just sick because we have to
worry about the overall well being of the people rather than disliking the
innocent people their that have no power over the government. We should simply
lend a helping hand not to the government but to the people.