What do I make of overseas production
and new technology taking jobs??

Well, I dislike it a lot. It is one thing to
expand a corporation to another country,
yet big wig intentions are not to culturally
diversify their workforce (it's not at home,
why should they want to do this
overseas). Their intentions come from
comparing prices of production. If it is a
lot easier and cheaper to have young
children from overseas sewing their
soccer balls together, they will go their.
To me, overseas production is parallel to
the strike breaking techniques big wigs
used to use in the old days, like the Ford
Motor Co, when strikes would break out
or rumors hinted one was on the way.

Unorganized labor is the best kind of
labor to an owner (albeit a greedy one)
because they set the price regardless of
the conditions... and unfortunately they
are largely protected. Look what
happened with Nike and the UO. All the
Nike freaks on campus were wearing I
love Phil shirts without a care of what Phil
did to his employees. I wonder if
corporate owners could get away with
those kinds of working conditions here
and still gain support.

As far as technology, man has a way of
destroying himself and his gifts. As we
make computers that can do everything,
we eliminate the need for so many talents
and giftings.

I know that the conflict theory highly
focuses on the system, and it has my vote
for the best perspective on class and
social hierarchy structures... however... The
one thing that I find a major disagreement
with is the over-emphasis one the
system. Jim said previously that it is not
the greedy capitalists, but the system to a
conflict theorist that keeps wages low and
poor people poorer. We must never lose
sight that behind each company is a man
or a woman with a conscience. They are
responsible for what their company does
even in the smallest way and even if they
never knew about it. Being a business
owner does not mean that you have to be
the richest or most well known, it means
owning a great company where people
can relax when they get home and know
that at the very least, their family will have
food to eat, health care to sustain their
health, and other basic needs. When it
all comes down to it, we are responsible
for each other and for our individual
endeavors. Just look at Enron... if your
name is in it, you better make sure things
are being handled properly... because
you are accountable when you are in the
company.