That would be nice to debate, but I hardly see how that is possible. I see you posted that the EU does colonialism in Africa… The EU per se, only finances some NGOs that may have some hidden agenda but hardly substantial in those countries. The other EU’s domain is to assign free trade agreements with the poorest countries, but I don’t think it is conditional and hard to see as malicious. Now, the EU is clearly now exercising power well beyond its mandate and, what it is worse, for evil… Gosh, it is now even blatantly violitig it is own laws. What I do see exercising colonialism is by some member states, usually correlated with its own GDP and that they now shield themselves behind the EU flag.
I recommend reading this article going over imperialism. Imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism, whereby capital seeks to exploit foreign markets and leverage economic and millitary power to get super-profits domestically. The Slovenian carpenter likely gets cheap nails and tools based on exploitation of the global south, and is paid with money gained by others based on that exploitation in other areas.
I hear you Cowbee! I’ll be be reading that wiki page latter on today. But again, the regular European carpenter does not benefit from an “exploited” cheaper iron ore in the form of cheaper nails… Not even from cheaper wood, if anything, people will appreciate more wood and hire more carpenters to fix wood cabinets rather than dispose after being worn out… It is a complicated economy…Companies like Ikea do indeed benefit from exploitation, but not the Slovenian carpenter with a market with cheaper wood and cheaper nails.
Now, you could go with that Ikea does benefit, so that those companies pay taxes that the carpenter will ultimately benefit from… I could see that, but, again, we know that these large corporation do not pay their fair taxes, let alone, compensate for the negative externalities they create, so i do see no net benefit to the average EU citizen on the exploitation their countries participate on.
First, there’s no “fair share” with taxes, capitalism is built on unpaid labor as capital valorization. However, again, as a country, Slovenia benefits from Imperialism. The robust healthcare system and other social safety nets are largely paid for via the profits of imperialism. IKEA benefits from imperialism more than the carpenter, but also passes along its profits in higher wages and cheaper commodities. The reason IKEA and Slovenia does this is to depress revolutionary pressure and maintain profits. Thus, there is a labor aristocracy in the global north, and a super-exploited proletariat in the global south.
I have to disagree here. The carpenter would ultimately had a similar quality of life with empire or without… Life in the west would be very different for sure, but i would not qualify it as worse. Consumerism would be replaced by a far more sustainable lifestyle and we would have replaced our incentives based on GDP long ago, but does not mean less quality of life, just a more just one.
The living standard of a carpenter in Slovenia is directly built on the brutal exploitation of the Global South.
That would be nice to debate, but I hardly see how that is possible. I see you posted that the EU does colonialism in Africa… The EU per se, only finances some NGOs that may have some hidden agenda but hardly substantial in those countries. The other EU’s domain is to assign free trade agreements with the poorest countries, but I don’t think it is conditional and hard to see as malicious. Now, the EU is clearly now exercising power well beyond its mandate and, what it is worse, for evil… Gosh, it is now even blatantly violitig it is own laws. What I do see exercising colonialism is by some member states, usually correlated with its own GDP and that they now shield themselves behind the EU flag.
I recommend reading this article going over imperialism. Imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism, whereby capital seeks to exploit foreign markets and leverage economic and millitary power to get super-profits domestically. The Slovenian carpenter likely gets cheap nails and tools based on exploitation of the global south, and is paid with money gained by others based on that exploitation in other areas.
I hear you Cowbee! I’ll be be reading that wiki page latter on today. But again, the regular European carpenter does not benefit from an “exploited” cheaper iron ore in the form of cheaper nails… Not even from cheaper wood, if anything, people will appreciate more wood and hire more carpenters to fix wood cabinets rather than dispose after being worn out… It is a complicated economy…Companies like Ikea do indeed benefit from exploitation, but not the Slovenian carpenter with a market with cheaper wood and cheaper nails.
Now, you could go with that Ikea does benefit, so that those companies pay taxes that the carpenter will ultimately benefit from… I could see that, but, again, we know that these large corporation do not pay their fair taxes, let alone, compensate for the negative externalities they create, so i do see no net benefit to the average EU citizen on the exploitation their countries participate on.
First, there’s no “fair share” with taxes, capitalism is built on unpaid labor as capital valorization. However, again, as a country, Slovenia benefits from Imperialism. The robust healthcare system and other social safety nets are largely paid for via the profits of imperialism. IKEA benefits from imperialism more than the carpenter, but also passes along its profits in higher wages and cheaper commodities. The reason IKEA and Slovenia does this is to depress revolutionary pressure and maintain profits. Thus, there is a labor aristocracy in the global north, and a super-exploited proletariat in the global south.
I have to disagree here. The carpenter would ultimately had a similar quality of life with empire or without… Life in the west would be very different for sure, but i would not qualify it as worse. Consumerism would be replaced by a far more sustainable lifestyle and we would have replaced our incentives based on GDP long ago, but does not mean less quality of life, just a more just one.