Huh, I guess if tuna is chicken of the sea, then is lobster the cat of the sea? Don't really wanna eat lobster now...

@chilaxe

Studies are showing that the healthiest and longest-lived people in the world do some daily manual labor their whole life. There's nothing tedious about accomplishing something with your own sweat and two hands: in fact there's nothing more rewarding.

@rougy, @BansheeX

BansheeX's argument makes sense on principle, but there are recent examples of the dangers of corporatism, and some old examples that we like to forget (sweat shops, factory conditions in the 1800s). The ideal is a capitalist system with strong regulation and oversight from a magically uncorruptable democratic government. Corrupt oversight and regulation is worse than none at all; but responsible oversight is absolutely necessary.

It's interesting that Chicken of the Sea didn't even relocate to a new country with different rules. They simply invested in robotics when manual labor became too expensive. Samoa was very poor before, but it's even poorer now that Chicken of the Sea is gone. They will need aid from the government but it has to be used properly to build their infrastructure and provide better jobs that are stable in the long-term.

@RedSky, @Lodurr,

Alright, then nationalize the economy of Samoa.

You can force companies to pay living wages.

In fact, it's about the only way you can get them to do it in the first place.

Back in 1997, when Chicken of the Sea was in full stride, 48% of all Samoans did not have enough money to buy adequate food supplies. Not only were they living in poverty, but they were on the brink of starvation.

The problem is, free-market devotees think that a problem like that will magically solve itself.

The fact is, problems like that are caused by free-market "necessities" in the first place.

The exploitation of labor is not an occasional, unfortunate side-effect of corporatism.

It is its very heart.

>> ^rougy:
Solution? Tax the shit out of Chicken of the Sea and subsidize the people of Samoa.


That doesn't sound like a solution. Hopefully Samoans can find some other market niche to occupy. I don't think permawelfare is a state anyone would want to live in, though I agree they weren't doing great even when they had those canneries.

I don't have any education in economics but I've played RTS computer games. It seems like Samoa needs to tool its industries towards providing for their residents because importing costs so much. Once they're more or less self-sufficient (which you might define as 90-95% living above poverty level), then they can look for industries that they can produce at home and export abroad, and pay for their imports. The canneries might have even hurt them, because they became so reliant on one export to provide the capital for their whole economy, and if that company goes under or pulls out or tuna has a bad year, the whole country suffers. I remember a story like that in Africa where they tried turning a region into a heavy peanut-producer, in order to export them to foreign markets, and the plan totally failed and the farmers were even worse off than before because the peanut market went through a sudden change and prices dropped.

Sixty Minutes is pretty liberal? Riiiiight.

Same old shit.

The investor class has too little, the working class has too much.

Minimum wage saves jobs, because we all know it's better to work like a slave for a pittance rather than be unemployed altogether.

Fuck you, Peter Schiff.

Solution? Tax the shit out of Chicken of the Sea and subsidize the people of Samoa.

"From the results of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey in 1997, overall 48% of households do not have sufficient daily food expenditure to meet their estimated food requirements."

(source)

Yeah, Pete, they were living high on the hog with only 48% of the population who couldn't afford enough to eat properly.

>> ^Enzoblue:
Maybe we should realize that one year of bonuses given to the CEO of Chicken of the Sea would pay all the wages of every Samoan worker alive for 5 years.


You would be very surprised how quickly wages add up. Chicken of the Sea only recently became profitable again.

"Chicken of the Sea has been around since the early 1920s and the company generates an estimated $400 million in annual revenue and employs 2,500 workers."

This isn't some oil or insurance company we are talking about...its canned tuna. They don't make enough to pay for powerful lobbyists...and even if they did what piece of legislation would help in canned food besides lowering min wage?

"Signorino’s (new, ambitious CEO) goal is to take the firm from its annual revenue run rate of approximately $400 million to double digit growth within three years on the top and bottom lines, with the bottom line outpacing the top line. In addition to a more financially sound organization; Signorino wants to leave behind a new culture as his legacy."

That guy deserves a bonus if he can pull it off, his over all goal would most likely employ close to double his current number of employees. There is a difference between a bonus for someone who bankrupted a company knowingly or by risky investment. It is another for a dude to take a company that was about to fold and return them to profitability, and potentially expanding their market share...not just anyone can do that.

But he wasn't able to, he had to close his plant because of outside people telling him how much to pay his workers.

Maybe we should realize that one year of bonuses given to the CEO of Chicken of the Sea would pay all the wages of every Samoan worker alive for 5 years.