Supply chain law? The state denies its responsibility

A commentary by Peter Haisenko.

The exploitation of the “Third World” countries for our “luxuries” has long been a subject of intense discussion. Right now, the next attempt to put a stop to this with a law has failed. Altmaier and Merkel have again bowed to lobbyists and prevented an effective law.

The Minister of Agriculture, Klöckner, only makes herself look ridiculous when she makes regulations on species-appropriate animal farming or organic farming ineffective with the label “voluntary”. In this way, she refuses to take responsibility, and this behavior is reflected in the actions of the entire Merkel government.

This is also the case at present with a supply chain law. It is documented that Altmaier and Merkel in particular granted generous access to lobbyists on this issue. The approach was promising but inconsistent. It was easy for lobbyists to lead the whole issue ad absurdum. Helpfully for them, once again the wrong people were to be held accountable. Private companies were supposed to assume responsibility for compliance with fair production conditions, which they are unable to do. The bill was bound to fail.

“Enrichment of the higher strata of society with villains”

In an ideal world, in which everyone without exception acted only according to humanistic principles, the brutal exploitation of entire nations would not have existed. But this ideal world does not exist. On the contrary, the world is dominated by greedy psychopaths who literally walk over corpses for even the most minimal advantages. Although they are a small minority, they have managed to occupy the decisive leadership positions everywhere and are thus leading our world bit by bit into the abyss. Professor Dr. Hermann Oberth has aptly described why this is so. Oberth, who was the founder of space travel and one of the brightest minds German culture has ever produced:

(translation)

„In life, a decent character has such and such a number of ways open to him to get ahead. To a villain, with the same intelligence and drive in the same place, these paths are also all open. However, besides that, there are others ways decent fellow will not go. He therefore has more chances to get ahead, and as a result of this negative character selection, an enrichment of the higher strata of society with villains takes place.“

This is exactly the situation we have today, an enrichment of the higher strata of society with villains.

It is precisely these villains who, in their greed, cannot or will not even recognize that treating each other fairly will not take anything away from anyone, but rather will improve everyone’s life. From the beginning of the supply chain to the end consumer. It’s a simple calculation. If appropriate wages are paid in all countries, with appropriate currency parity, new markets will open up for our high-tech products. Simply because previously poor countries will then also have sufficient (financial) resources to import these products and also pay for them. In addition, children in these countries will be able to go to school, enjoy education and a new potential of bright minds will be able to grow up. What inventions will these minds be able to come up with that are fundamentally different from ours?

In the Anglo-Saxon world, competitors are not welcome

Without education, they cannot develop this enormous potential, and we cannot benefit from it either. But if we look at the claim of the Anglo-Saxon world to sole superiority (“full spectrum dominance”), we have to assume that this is exactly what they want. It is not about providing a decent life in peace for all human beings, but rather about preventing competitors from growing up somewhere, with whom one then has to compete and possibly falls behind. This perfidious mindset accepts foregoing potentially groundbreaking inventions that would also advance oneself. They cannot tolerate not being entirely dominant in free and fair development.

To maintain that, they wage wars against every nation that is on the verge of becoming serious competitors because of their development. This goes so far that they even accept massive damage for their own country up to the point of overloading their own economy. According to the maxim: If we are already going down, (and can no longer be the most powerful,) then we will make sure that the rest of the world goes down with us. Around 1900, the formerly dominant British Empire was confronted with the problem of not being able to compete economically with the German Empire. That’s why they staged the great wars against Germany and, together with the USA, all the following ones until today. Hundreds, continuously, because they are not good enough on their own to stay on top. A side effect is that they can lure smart minds from the destroyed countries into their country, which they cannot develop because of their messed up education system. Take a look at the origin of many of the Nobel Prize winners in the USA.

The greed of the marketing corporations determines what happens

Let’s get back to the supply chains. I have shown why there is no interest in making them fair all the way to the last level. What effects would it have if fair wages were paid? If the wages of the seamstresses in Bangladesh were increased tenfold, the manufacturing price for textiles would rise by a few cents per item. Even if it went up by a euro per piece, what would be the problem? It lies in the greed of the marketing corporations. They always want to pocket a profit that is in proportion to the purchase price of the product. That goes for everyone involved in the supply chains.

It works as follows: If you buy the product for one euro, you want to earn a minimum percentage of the purchase price, for example 30 percent or 30 cents. On the other hand, if you have to pay two euros for the same product, you want to make another 30 percent of your profit, meaning 60 cents. Again, this applies to the entire supply chain. The joke here is that the cost to everyone in the supply chain hasn’t changed. It’s still the same shirt. So the actors in the supply chains would have the same profit, with the same amount of work, if they were satisfied with the old profit, just the old 30 cents, for the same two euro product they would now buy.

Nothing happens “voluntarily” in the capitalist pursuit of profit

If this calculation is carried through the entire supply chain, the product, the shirt, only has to become one euro more expensive for the end consumer. But if the actors in the supply chains insist on the percentage profit in relation to the purchase price, i.e. their “capital investment”, then the price increase is multiplied with every link in the supply chain and the end consumer then has to pay double the price compared to the one-euro purchase price of the product.

We can see from this simple example where the problem lies. The consumer in Germany would not care if he had to pay one euro more for a shirt. He wouldn’t even notice. But he would notice the double price. So it is the greed of the supply chain corporations that insist on percentage profit from the “capital investment” instead of being satisfied in a humanistic way with the profit that has been sufficient so far and is not too small anyway. Oh yes, there is no word for “satisfied” in English. It is not for nothing that the Catholic Church has declared greed a mortal sin.

So if our government wanted to do something for fair dealings with Third World countries as well, it would have to pass a suitable law. Even a simple regulation at EU level would be sufficient. This can be very short: For every product that may be imported and sold in the EU, the minimum wage for all those involved in the supply chain must be one euro. This must apply from the cotton picker to the seaman on the container ship. The rest will actually be regulated by the market itself. The end consumer will not accept a possible doubling of prices. So everyone involved in the supply chain will quickly have to realize that they have to be satisfied with the old profit margins simply because they can.

It would be as simple as that if our chiefs would not avoid responsibility and once again try to pass on their tasks to private corporations. We should have learned by now that “voluntarily” doesn’t work at all and if there is a danger of involuntarily, the lobbyists are let off the chain. Thus, with the failed supply chain law, we have to realize once again that our governments of Western values have no interest at all in making the world a fairer and more livable place for everyone, something we would ultimately benefit from as well.

They obey the oligarchs and their lobbyists. The day when they will do something on their own to make the world a better, a fairer place is already fixed to the day that never comes.

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This article was published in advance on 03.05.21 on anderweltonline.com.

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Image source: CRS PHOTO / shutterstock

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