[*BCM*] Fair Trade Bike Frames & Components?

[Moz]

turtle said:
> So, are we spoiled, or are they really suffering?  The truth of the
> matter is probably somewhere in between.

Actually, the truth is very simple: the USA is still a slave-owning
society. Free trade zones exist purely as pools of captive labor where
people are forced to work in appalling conditions for wages that would
be a sick joke if levity was appropriate. The alternative facing
low-level employees in most FTZs is the capitalist ideal - work or
die. They "choose" to work for low wages, they "choose" not to worry
about their local environment, their health, their quality of life or
anything else, because their other option is so stark.

You'll note that the "free trade" catch-phrase is much used to
describe this type of exploitation, because it fits the
neoconservative dogma that so neatly justifies the earth-raping
behaviour of the US elite. "free trade zone" is the obvious extension
of the tax holidays and bidding wars that state governments engage in
in an effort to prevent corporate/job flight, and I'm sure we all
appreciate just how beneficial that game has been to everyone in the
USA. Likewise a "free trade deal" like NAFTA or the impending one with
Australia is a great way to mobilise stubborn wealth in an upward
direction. I note that the USA has mysteriously exempted itself from
the "need" to lower trade barriers whenever an important USA lobby
group might suffer, while insisting that other countries lie back and
think of England (as the saying goes).

> I would wholeheartedly support a bicycle made by a fair trade
> company, no matter what culture it was built in.

So you will be buying either a Canondale or a custom built bike from a
local framebuilder, then, to go with other similarly sourced bikes in
your collection?

I build bikes, I buy locally made bikes, but I still have to use
foreign-made parts - tyre factories for example are almost all in FTZs
now.

-- 
Moz
Save homo ped plumbium - they're driving themselves to extinction.