It seems like there's a contradiction between protecting labour in one's own country and having solidarity between the working class.

This was inspired by this fast food chain outsourcing their cashiers to be Zoomed in digitally from Nicaragua for $3.75/hr CDN.

Canadian labour is against this, but $3.75 is an incredible wage in Nicaragua and surely this is a net benefit for labour?

I know there are often environmental issues with internationally shipping outsourced goods, and exploitation opportunities to put global south workers in dangerous positions or to pay them even less (taking into account PPP) because of lax labour laws in said country, but for now I'd like to set those aside. They are important, but even if they can be resolved there is still a central contradiction I think.

Also obviously a major problem is that all this does is increase usurped surplus value by the capitalist class, these gains are not distributed among the population of workers who are now unemployed.

But sometimes we have to take positions on things being better or worse assuming capitalism will remain in place. Assuming global capitalism is held constant, is it a net good if a Canadian worker loses a job that doesn't pay a living wage so a Nicaraguan worker can do the job and make a decent living?

I'm sure there's a lot written about this dichotomy of labour support and internationalism, I just don't know where to start thinking about this.

  • meme_monster [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    It does nothing to change the workers relation to the product of their labor. It's open to means tested, neoliberal administrative bullshit. It's pure ideology.

    • comi [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It does change conditions of exploitation (le sl/nl ratio) which gives power to porkies. If minimum wage in usa was 50 bucks, and productivity is 50 bucks capitalism would explode into smithereens with price controls or hyperinflation

      • meme_monster [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        If it is not a universal minimum wage, all it does is reduce the rate of exploitation/rate of surplus-value to a level where neoluddites won't arise to smash networks and kiosks.