Page 20 RAIN July 1979 I···········:·:·.·:·:·:·:·:·.···:·.·=·:·:·:·:·.···········=-==--=====······=···=·=·=·······.·.·=·=·=·=·:·=·······=·=·=·=·=·=···(:·:·=·:·:·:·:·······=·=···················· ,by Phil Henshaw ~ THEKNACKOFFINDINGTIUNGS • ~ \ cJh' If you have gone on walks with others, y_ou ~re likely to be aware that some folks have a knack for fmdmg the path, observing the lay of the land and the paths of people or an~mals who have walked there before. This and other knacks might seem to be born with people, but for most of us, I think, they are learried by patient self-teaching. There seems to me to be at least one similarity betweep all ·knacks. Knacks seem to revolve around an ability for accepting the obvious. This is to say that all knc:!,cks seem to include the ability to respond directly to simple observation. . . . Modern life is mysterious to me. There is both grea~ deh~ht and much to fear in our intensely aggressive way. My question ,is do we have the knack for it? Do we have the ability to res~ond to the obvious? ·W~ seem so self-ass_ured, so committed to how some things are nght and some thmg~ are wroD:g. ~~t I wonder is our self-assurance an understandmg or an illus10n? Do our c~nfidences come as responses to clear observation of - the true nature of things.or are they just for convenience or for relieving a guilt of ignorance? I observe that our society's expe.ctations of what nature has in store for us have·changed radically in the ·past 20 years. They have clearly changed to the point that we ~an safely say that the expeqation of joy in unlimited wealth _is wrong, or · more precisely, has been shown to be woefully maccurate. It also seems relatively simple to observe that not one of our leaders has said simply and directly that they themselves, along with all of us, have been and are probably still wrong in our opinions on this question of great importance. Why;> Rooters or Looters? ~ continued trade economy. On the international level the period has ended when we had a substantial monopoly on many manufactured goods and could name our price, while playing one raw material producer off against another, squeezing them to ·the lowest possible price. During that period we used up much of our own resources and a considerable amount of the rest of the world's. Now the countries with remaining resources are be~oming able to sell them at monopoly prices (OPEC, for example), while we have to compete in the sale of our products against other nations with newer equipment, lower wages, and more initiative. We're moving from the long to the short end of the trade balance, and the underdog we're concerned about, of course, is ourselves. The other reason we have to become concerned with fair trade is that our servants, the multinational corpoations, who have dutifully plundered the economies of poorer ~ountries fo~ in the name of "development,".are threatenmg to become our masters- controlling our food and manufactured goods supplies, and making us compete with _other starving countries for the privilege of actually producmg the ~oods and therefore gaining employment. The massive economic power we've granted them forms an increasingly omino~s. threat to every democra~ic society, including our own. Polmcal p~wer often follows economic power, and without prudent act10_n we will soon reach a. point where the control of our own lives and destiny is irretrievably lost to us. The growing ability of MNCs to operate _beyond control by any national government has ended the penod w_hen th~ U.S. profited from their activities. Now U.S. taxes are as easily avoided as other nations, U.S. consumers squeezed by marketing monopolies, more and,more U.S. jobs and union yower lost through plant relocations to low-wage overseas locat10ns, and ~~-~/\f' / I / ' • ~/ :J;J '/ '<J I .:a ~ ~ ! c,Ji1- ' / C: ' _ _.....- -2. .... ~ ........... -..... -... -... -.............. .:.•·-:. : ... : . : . : . : . : -:_: -: -:-: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :.•.•.•.•.•.•.• -........ -• -•.•.• -• -•.•.•.• ~ ·: ·: • .•.•.• ~ ••.•• -• -•.• ••••.••.• I observe that the subject of our natural destiny is not often treated as a question at all, hut as a co11clusion, and therefore requires little or no consideration of its accuracy. Now that that former notion of destiny is fa~t dissolving, we seem to not be very curious ,-bout what nature really does have in store for us. It seem~ that while some nervously cling to the old, that others just want to discard the old without valuing it, to pick up a new destiny in the same easy unconsidered way. This is not the behavior of a culture with a knack for making •the best out of their place in nature. It is the behavior of a culture at the mercy of nature. Had we the knack for the obvious, we'd observe that the U.S. timber, agricultural products and raw materials exported for trade balance, resulting in domestic shortages ;i.nd skyrocketing prices. , , U.S. consumers do not profit from the lower cost of production MNCs obtain in other countries. Westinghouse radios made in Asia sell for $17 in Japan, are priced at $21 at U.S. ports, but have suggested U.S. retail prices of $60. Tape re7 corders selling for $70 in Japan cost U.S. consumers $220. They charge what the market will-bear-lower costs go to , increase Rrofits which support further over~e_a·s corpor~te expansion\ not to consumq savings. In addit10i:1, the highe: •foreign profits set the sights for corporate profit demands m the U.S. and become the basis for high interest rates throughout our economy, wh.ich make our planning and capital devdopment ev<;n more dangerously short?ighted. . As a result of these changes, the self-mterest .of Americans is shifting to coincide with that of countries ~e formerly . exploited. It is in the interests of all of us to msure that fair trade rather than free trade occurs where trading is desirable, and to realign our economies upon the principles of sel~- . reliance that can allow us both control of our own destmies and the fruits of our own labor. Our so-called free-en.terprise/free-trade system means free~ do~ only for the powerful and the rich-:-those who_ can control the terms of trade. Fair trade is trade from choice, not need or threat; of surplus, not of essential food, en~rgy, materials or manufactures. It is trade where any partner can refuse if mutually satisfactory conditions cannot be established. It depends upon a self-reliance of the trading partners. which can give that freedom to refuse. It is trade where pro- ,ducers are paid a fair living wage for their work, where forest, soil mineral and ocean resources are protected so they can . ser;e,future generat'ions as well as the present, ar:id ~h_ere the accumulation and exercise of power and wealth is limited to protect the well-being of the rest of a society.
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