World Systems Theory and related concepts often come up whenever people try to explain why Westerners are psychotic counterrevolutionary scum, etc. It's often suggested that white Americans in particular love third-world exploitation because it directly benefits those same white Americans. We might say "White Minnesotan Joe Cracker wants child slavery in southern Africa so he can get his cheap electronics." And yeah, that makes sense up to a point...
But Joe Cracker might not understand the relevant supply chain or even the basic composition of his smartphone. He probably doesn't even know about the existence of said exploitation, much less its nature or purpose. Maybe Joe Cracker WILL revolt without his cheap goods, but he probably doesn't actually know what goes into producing them or keeping the prices down. So what decisions is he making that render him "complicit" in the profiteering of some massive international corporation like Apple? Falling for their ads?
It's also worth pointing out that his iPhone doesn't actually make him richer any more than a Hulu membership does. It's a cute little toy, but it doesn't obtain food, housing, medicine or fuel. It's a cell phone with a billion bells and whistles and a monthly subscription fee. One could starve to death with it in hand. Is this really the "wealth transfer" we keep talking about? This is the socialized bribery Americans perfected?
It seems to me that Joe Cracker is complicit in fuck-all. He doesn't materially benefit from low wages in southeast Asian textile plants even if he wears one of those shirts they make every single day. It seems that he's just a different kind of poor from the Bangladeshi serfs who make his sneakers, the kind of poor with tap water, McDonalds, and WiFi. Poor overseas workers make the stupid shit, poor Americans buy the stupid shit, and they both struggle, but at least Joe Cracker has some killer kicks to go along with the Taco Bell and the wireless internet in his shitty apartment. The Nike execs, meanwhile, can smoke cigars and watch the line go up from the VIP lounge.
"Bread and Circuses" seems like a much better explanation for the behavior of these Westerners. Who says Joe Cracker has a good reason for throwing his verbal weight behind an ongoing genocide in Gaza, screaming about nuking Moscow over a slice of Ukraine, and pearl-clutching about the 100 billion victims of Communism in Xinjiang?
Labor hours and cost of goods are only directly translatable in their respective countries since we're discussing labor disparities. Its error to equate what a Vietnamese person could buy in the us. As you don't disagree it it takes 3 hours to make a shoe. This would be regardless of who is making it. What it costs to purchase a nike is whatever the person selling the shoe says it is. In the us that is 9 hours, what it costs in Vietnam idk but people there seem to wear and buy shoes. Shoes are essentially a fungible good and the cost in the us is about 3 labor hours for the cheapest [1]. I used Nike BC they are the company that comes to mind when one thinks of exploitation and it was mentioned at the above.
The flights I found cost about 90 ($1600) hours of labor for the median worker pre tax so this isn't as a reachable thing as you may think. Especially considering most Americans must go into great debt for education, healthcare, and spend about 30% of their income on rent [2]
This was presented without evidence and can be dismissed without evidence.
I look around and I see Americans living sick, in debt, working gig work, in shit conditions, and with no legal protections from their employers. Then I'm told they have no revolutionary potential because they're benefiting from exploitation. I don't see that with my eyes or by research. I understand that some Americans most definitely do benefit but it seems me that they are a small minority and thus solidarity and revolutionary potential can be found in the US. This whole Joe cracker shit seems Taylor made for ultras and mtw to wreck for whatever reason.
[1]https://runrepeat.com/average-shoe-cost
[2] https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-do-households-spend-on-rent/country/united-states/