DeLong Smackdown Watch! (Nathan Newman Edition)
Nathan Newman comes to Jeff Faux's support, and inflicts heavy damage on DeLong:
Why Mexico is Not Enough | TPMCafe: It's the oddest thing that progressives demand higher wages for workers in the developing world and we get accused of wanting to keep them impoverished-- a neat trick by folks like Brad, admittedly. But here's the deal we should all want. Chinese workers should be able to demand higher wages to the point THEY WANT; if those WORKERS decide that trading off lowering wages for higher employment in the global economy is what they want, so be it. But right now, they are settling for low wages based on the decisions of Chinese and allied US CORPORATIONS and GOVERNMENT decisions.
So here's the global deal we should demand. Full trading rights for countries that honor the basic free speech rights of their workers to collectively organize. No trade rights for countries that don't. This isn't an argument for shutting down trade with China; it's a demand that they give free speech rights to their own employees as a condition of trade....
The question is not do We WANT Chinese workers to be poor and barefoot; the question is whether we are willing to fight seriously and consistently for them to have a voice to say what THEY WANT?