Gates: "Where are the computer science students" 4161

Kamal R. Prasad

You do understand, that there are other examples I can give you, don't you?

How about child labor? Is it moral for children to work? The normal answer would be "no" until the age of ~16. The question here is not about "right to live". 200 years ago it was normal for children to work in coal mines. Now this is considered savage and laws in most countries forbid this.

As your age goes high, your compebreastiveness rarely goes up. In fact, 10000 years ago humans rarely lived longer than 40 years. If we apply this to our society, then most of us will have to quit working after the age of 45-50. This is the natural law. Still, there are quite a few countries, where discriminating for age is against the labor law. We are humans, we are not savages.

The male-female regulations would be another example.

Cast segregations would be another example..... which is particularly important for India, as I hear.

....

What I say is, that imposing labor standards for free trade should be the next logical step for the humanity and for the "investors".

Maybe yes. But the investor should not forget that we are humans. Return of investment is secondary to the humanity. No return of investment would be of use if we become animals.

I know about the low cost of living. But this will change very soon in India and China. It is not very true even now. What are the prices in Bangalore? Quite high, I hear... The same is true in the main centers in China.

I agree, that in many cases the compebreastive advantage will remain (in the sense of Adam Smith) for some time, but the transient will be slower and the system will be more stable.

Another factor is, that currently US education system is somehow broken. And the education in China, India provides more engineers. If this is the natural advantage, then be it. But labor conditions should be imposed.

This is correct. However, not everithing should be left to bisiness. Market forces are natural, but there are quite a few cases, where the humanity is opposing the natural forces. Earthquakes, tsunami require global humanitarian response. The same holds true for the market forces of the labor market.

I work is Asia and I have 1% or less overtime. Actually I stayed overtime less than 5 days during the last year.

If somebody can work, he will be able to do his job in the normal time. Working overtime is a simptom of poor organization. Either the boss should be kicked out, or the employee should fild something else to do.

--JS