http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/04/11/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:14:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/04/11/comments-corrections-clarifications-and-cckups/#comment-4404 Guy Rundle Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-4404 Paul Gilchrist doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. Chinese wages and prices have just about bugger all to do with dictatorship, and more with global supply and demand. Wages in India and Mexico, among other places, aren't that different. Wages are low because so many people are desperate to leave rural China for the cities, that they will put up with just about any conditions to get off the farm. Doubtless the Chinese govt's crackdown on trade unions doesn't help - but as labour supply swamps demand, it doesn't make much difference. As I noted in the original article, no-one could blame the Tibetans for using whatever opportunity they can to advance their cause. But the idea that you have to be the moral equivalent of Sweden to host the games is ridiculous, and Western protests against it have more to do with western self-definition than with the best interests of Chinese workers or Tibetans. Paul Gilchrist doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. Chinese wages and prices have just about bugger all to do with dictatorship, and more with global supply and demand. Wages in India and Mexico, among other places, aren’t that different. Wages are low because so many people are desperate to leave rural China for the cities, that they will put up with just about any conditions to get off the farm. Doubtless the Chinese govt’s crackdown on trade unions doesn’t help - but as labour supply swamps demand, it doesn’t make much difference.
As I noted in the original article, no-one could blame the Tibetans for using whatever opportunity they can to advance their cause. But the idea that you have to be the moral equivalent of Sweden to host the games is ridiculous, and Western protests against it have more to do with western self-definition than with the best interests of Chinese workers or Tibetans.

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