I watched the episode of Anthony Bourdain’s excellent “Parts Unknown” that was shot in Puerto Rico literally a few weeks before the island was annihilated by Hurricane Maria. One of the gobsmacking things discussed by the locals is that they no longer produce any of their own...erm...produce, because indigenous farmers cannot compete with the prices of goods imported from the US mainland.

I heard the same story when I was in Hawaii, which used to grow much of the world’s supply of sugar, but now everything is turned over to tourism – service jobs – because there’s no money in anything else. The joke there is that the lovely piece of fish you’re having for dinner probably arrived on the same flight you did. They don’t even grow pineapples there any more; they all come from Mexico now. You drive right by the derelict Dole canning plant on the way out of Honolulu.

The problem for people is that capitalism moves much faster than we can adapt. Even China – which attracted manufacturing jobs away from much of the western democracies – is expected to see a drop in production volumes as it loses work to cheaper, less developed venues. China’s middle class is exploding, meaning they want nice things and they want the jobs/salaries to make that happen. Those jobs aren't ones making iPhones. Manufacturers see this inevitable shift in China’s cost-benefit analysis, and immediately move on to new, more economically beneficial locales.

Just as there's always a bigger fish; there's always a cheaper place to get your s*** made.

Read The Guardian cover to cover for the first time in absolutely ages the other day. Surprisingly rational apart from Polly Toynbee having a rant but all the actual news journalism was impartial.

Edited by Kermit8 (23 Nov 2017 1.32pm)

Actually it's probably the mail and it's racist rhetoric that helped make the man what he became.

Of course if it was a Muslim running round with a big knife asking people if they were Christian, we wouldn't hear the last of it.

If words didn't affect people's reasoning and choices then advertising nor written propaganda wouldn't exist.

The guy is an idiot and needs locking up. Big time.
But to say its the daily mails fault...well words fail me.

If anything its watching kids being blown up for some medieval f***ing religion..or thier warped interpretation of it.
To blame a newspaper is lazy and ignorant.