asph.org

 

There Are None So Blind...

Three factors that are invisible to neoliberal economists aka  market fundamentalists.
by Elizabeth Palmberg

 

• Your mother. Actually, parenting of any kind, plus all the other unpaid labor family members, mostly women, do in order to raise children, care for  the sick, or haul clean water. When trade agreements pressure/force governments to privatize essential services such as water, women's jobs get harder.

 

• Diseases of the poor. Activists forced the WTO to recognize poor countries' right to generic medicines in public health emergencies such as AIDS. The U.S., in the pocket of Big Pharma, then started pushing direct and backdoor prohibitions on generic medicines into other trade agreements.

 

• The protectionism double standard. The economists, journalists, lawyers, and doctors that decry "protectionism" for lower-wage workers are themselves protected from substantial foreign competition by U.S. immigration and professional licensing laws.

 

 

Sojourners Magazine

May 2007