BTW--Offshoring manufacturing and the Palestinians
By the way--manufactured goods from China and other cheap labor countries have played a big role in recent Middle Eastern events. The absence of peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis has become--as Americans know only too well--the most convenient excuse for terrorism by any group anywhere in the world. But the truth is that Palestinians have a bigger problem than just the fact that Israelis live next door and continue breathing.
The Palestinians used to have an economy that included many small factories making excellent products for sale to Palestinians, Israelis, and tourists to the Holy Land sites, as well as for export to bring in dollars to buy goods from abroad. Cheaper manufacturing in China and other Asian countries destroyed the Palestinian factories and eliminated the jobs those factories provided. Cheap imported goods replaced locally made goods of better quality, eliminated hope in the hearts of multitudes, and perhaps eliminated any hope for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.
As we've seen in America in the last few years, people without jobs are grouchy and crabby. People with no means of support and no hope of obtaining a means of support are difficult to please and not terribly interested in listening to whatever other speakers would consider to be reasonable. People who feel hopeless tend to be destructive even if it is their own noses they are cutting off.
We probably can't have peace in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world as long as there are not enough jobs to go around. Now that does sound hopeless....
The Palestinians used to have an economy that included many small factories making excellent products for sale to Palestinians, Israelis, and tourists to the Holy Land sites, as well as for export to bring in dollars to buy goods from abroad. Cheaper manufacturing in China and other Asian countries destroyed the Palestinian factories and eliminated the jobs those factories provided. Cheap imported goods replaced locally made goods of better quality, eliminated hope in the hearts of multitudes, and perhaps eliminated any hope for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis.
As we've seen in America in the last few years, people without jobs are grouchy and crabby. People with no means of support and no hope of obtaining a means of support are difficult to please and not terribly interested in listening to whatever other speakers would consider to be reasonable. People who feel hopeless tend to be destructive even if it is their own noses they are cutting off.
We probably can't have peace in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world as long as there are not enough jobs to go around. Now that does sound hopeless....
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