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OUTSOURCING
It had to be done. Basic economics. Save production costs and improve the bottom line.
Outsourcing.
This was the clarion call, the new mantra which drove the re-organization of corporate supply chains from the 80s on.
God bless you, Ronald Reagan. Maybe you weren't such a great actor, but you sure put the corporations on a fast
track to some serious money, when you got rid of all those silly regulations and artificial barriers to the free
flow of human labor. And put into place trade agreements which made the stockholders of major manufacturing firms
wet their pants with joy.
And hats off to you too, George Sr. and Billy Bob. Looking in the sauce pan of consortiums and associations,
it is a delectable alphabet soup bubbling over the edges indeed. It whets the appetite, coats the tongue,
and warms the belly of every free-market capitalist across America and Europe. WTO, FTAA, ASEAN, NAFTA,
MEFTA, APEC.
Jangle jangle. Come on down. Everyone's a winner.
Especially those poor uneducated, underemployed, underfed creatures in the third world. Until we came along,
what were their prospects? More empty bellies. Until we came along, what were their chances of surviving?
Infant mortality rates in high double digits. Until we came along, what was the quality of life? Disease
and unsanitary food and drinking water making miserable their short and unsatisfying lives. Until we came along . . .
And now you have Taco Bell in Beijing, McDonalds in Danang, KFC in Hanoi, Starbucks in Vientiane,
Burger King in Bangkok, Pizza Hut in Kuala Lumpur.
Fast food for people on a fast track to happiness. Western style happiness.
Now that is progress. Welcome to the new economy.
Burp.
John Rachel: Welcome to the new economic world order, commentary from a novel about human trafficking.
This story is an excerpt from the forthcoming full-length novel The Man Who Loved Too Much.
Email: John Rachel
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