War on… Stuff
Can we finish one war before starting another one? We have War on Drugs, War on Terror and now War on Piracy. None of these “wars” has ever accomplished anything. Why? There is a reason for this.
What do those three have in common? Just stop and think about it for a second.
War on Drugs keeps the illegal drug prices high, so that certain groups of people can make high profit from trafficking and keep the cheep competition at bay.
War on Terror keeps the old prices high, pumps money into military contractors’ pockets, and allows certain groups of people to score huge governmental contracts.
War on Piracy keeps the prices of music and movies high, and allows certain groups of people to make big money by creating a draconian copyright hegemony, and stifling distribution of free and independent content.
These wars are not supposed to be won. They are supposed to allow certain interest groups to make big money by using taxpayer money to directly attack their competition.
This is yet another example a corrupt government throwing it’s political weight, and directly interfering with internal affairs of foreign nations to secure the profitability of US based corporations. At least with the two other “wars” we could claim the moral higher ground and pretend we are trying to stop global terrorism, or interfere drug trafficking. But war on piracy? We are essentially telling other countries to change their IP law because US just can’t compete with countries where copyright laws are fair and balanced.
I think it’s time we declare a new war. War on Corruption which will aim to crack down on the sell-out politicians, make corporate lobbying illegal and reform the way campaign donations and governmental contracts are handled.
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June 16th, 2006 at 8:36 am (234) [Quote]
I think it was either George Carlin or Lewis Black who said it. But there’s no war on homeless people or hunger because there is no money to be made from it.
Posted usingJune 16th, 2006 at 9:51 am (235) [Quote]
War on homeless people actually sounds kinda wrong.
But yeah, there is no “War on World Hunger” or “War for Human Rights” because there is no profit to be made from these. Sigh…
If you read that article, you will see that US does not mind at all the fact that human rights are violated in China. They regret letting China into WTO mainly because they do not respect American IP laws. Apparently torture, genocides, and child labor are less important than bootleg DVD’s. It’s sad.
Posted usingJune 16th, 2006 at 9:55 am (236) [Quote]
you want to make things more interesting.
After WWII ended and the formation of the UN. The UN created their own doctrine of natural human rights. Within that, healthcare, job security, and i believe social aid were included. (i’m abit sketchy about the 3rd on). america didn’t like those things included, and created GATT’s, which excluded the things named above. Why? Because big buisnesses would have to shell out the extra money if these rights were included.
And question of the day, what did GATT’s evolve into??? –> WTO
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