The perils of prosperity
Source: The Economist
April 27th 2006 (Adapted)

    Midway through the first decade of the 21st century, economic growth is pulling millions out of poverty. Growth, so devoutly desired yet often so elusive for developing countries, is occurring in China and India on a heroic scale. Yet once affluence is achieved, its value is often questioned. In the 1960s and 1970s, economists started worrying about environmental and social limits to growth. Now Avner Offer, professor of economic history at Oxford University, has added a weighty new critique to this tradition.
    “The Challenge of Affluence” accepts that the populations of poor countries gain from growth, but says that the main benefits of prosperity are achieved at quite modest levels. Its central thesis is that rising living standards in Britain and America have engendered impatience, which undermines well-being. The fruits of affluence are bitter ones, and include addiction, obesity, family breakdown and mental disorders.

The perils of prosperity
Source: The Economist
April 27th 2006 (Adapted)

    Midway through the first decade of the 21st century, economic growth is pulling millions out of poverty. Growth, so devoutly desired yet often so elusive for developing countries, is occurring in China and India on a heroic scale. Yet once affluence is achieved, its value is often questioned. In the 1960s and 1970s, economists started worrying about environmental and social limits to growth. Now Avner Offer, professor of economic history at Oxford University, has added a weighty new critique to this tradition.
    “The Challenge of Affluence” accepts that the populations of poor countries gain from growth, but says that the main benefits of prosperity are achieved at quite modest levels. Its central thesis is that rising living standards in Britain and America have engendered impatience, which undermines well-being. The fruits of affluence are bitter ones, and include addiction, obesity, family breakdown and mental disorders.

The perils of prosperity
Source: The Economist
April 27th 2006 (Adapted)

    Midway through the first decade of the 21st century, economic growth is pulling millions out of poverty. Growth, so devoutly desired yet often so elusive for developing countries, is occurring in China and India on a heroic scale. Yet once affluence is achieved, its value is often questioned. In the 1960s and 1970s, economists started worrying about environmental and social limits to growth. Now Avner Offer, professor of economic history at Oxford University, has added a weighty new critique to this tradition.
    “The Challenge of Affluence” accepts that the populations of poor countries gain from growth, but says that the main benefits of prosperity are achieved at quite modest levels. Its central thesis is that rising living standards in Britain and America have engendered impatience, which undermines well-being. The fruits of affluence are bitter ones, and include addiction, obesity, family breakdown and mental disorders.

The global union
Source: Newsweek Special Edition
Dec 2005 – Feb 2006 (Adapted)

    What would a global union look like? Think more corporate partnership than class struggle. Today, capital is global and employers are global. Companies, not countries, make the rules. To survive, unions need to find their niche. Global companies are going to need an organization that, in a sense, will manage their labor and protect workers’ rights. A global union would set standard practices and codes of conduct – perhaps even minimum wages and work hours.
    My critics in the labor movement cringe when I use words like “partnership” and “value added”. The reality is that unions need to add value or corporations will ignore us. If we want an equitable stake in the company, we need to define what our goals are. We can’t just demand a raise in pay without offering an incentive to the company. We’re already far behind multinational corporations in the global game. We made the mistake of transferring the industrial model of unionism of the last country to the 21st. We lost market share: in 1960, one in four workers was in a union; now it’s one in 12.

The global union
Source: Newsweek Special Edition
Dec 2005 – Feb 2006 (Adapted)

    What would a global union look like? Think more corporate partnership than class struggle. Today, capital is global and employers are global. Companies, not countries, make the rules. To survive, unions need to find their niche. Global companies are going to need an organization that, in a sense, will manage their labor and protect workers’ rights. A global union would set standard practices and codes of conduct – perhaps even minimum wages and work hours.
    My critics in the labor movement cringe when I use words like “partnership” and “value added”. The reality is that unions need to add value or corporations will ignore us. If we want an equitable stake in the company, we need to define what our goals are. We can’t just demand a raise in pay without offering an incentive to the company. We’re already far behind multinational corporations in the global game. We made the mistake of transferring the industrial model of unionism of the last country to the 21st. We lost market share: in 1960, one in four workers was in a union; now it’s one in 12.