[extropy-chat] Re: riots in France

[Jack Parkinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brett Paatsch" <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au>
To: "Jack Parkinson" <isthatyoujack at icqmail.com>; "ExI chat list" 
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2005 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Re: riots in France


> Jack Parkinson wrote:
>
>>>Quite untrue. If everyone you knew was making zero
>>> cents an hour and was 24 hours away from starvation
>>> and you were making 7 cents an hour and was a
>>>full 48 hours away from starvation you would feel like Rockefeller.
>>
>> This is not 'quite untrue.' So far as I know there is no country
>> on earth where 7 cents an hour is sufficient to meet a person's
>> basic needs. Yes, a desperate person will accept your 7 cents
>> (in much the same way that drowning men are supposed to
>> clutch at straws). However, you can be assured that they will not be 
>> delighted with you.
>
> There would be relevant social psych, organisational behaviour 
> (remuneration) data on this point.  Even studies with great
> apes like chimps and gorillas suggest that it is not just the
> size of the reward (food/money) but the relativity that
> influences how the recipient feels about getting it.
> I'd give extremely long odds (and be confident I could source
> the research to bear that contention out and win the bet for
> so doing) that no one normal would be happy receiving 7 cents
> an hour IF they knew that others were getting substantially better paid 
> for exactly the same job.
> It must be something to do with how social creatures have evolved to 
> expect some sort of proximity to equitable treatment and to resent the 
> hell out of its absence.
>
> What does matter however is that the inequitable treatment
> be seen in comparative terms order for it to be perceived as
> inequitable. Chimps may be happy with small rewards so long as they don't 
> realise they are being comparatively short
> changed.  On that point one of the first things that goes into
> developing countries are broadcasts from Western media
> showing the locals how others elsewhere are doing.
> Brett Paatsch

Yes. Those are all points I would entirely agree with. Inequitable treatment 
must  be seen in comparative terms in order for it to be perceived as 
inequitable. And it doesn't take a genius to work out just how equitable 7 
cents an hour is.

People who migrate to Europe/US because they are told they will earn twice 
as much or even four times as much, often fail to realise that their lives 
will be perhaps four or five times as expensive. They have stars in their 
eyes!

An illustration of this is an email I received only this week from a Chinese 
ex-colleague of mine working in New York. Here in China, she earned a 
professional salary of just $233 (Australian dollars - say $175 US) per 
month. After just three weeks in the US she has a job working (natuarally!) 
in a Chinese restaurant. She told me she is "over the moon' because she nows 
earns over $600 (US) per month. Given that she is working until almost 
midnight 6 days a week - I wonder how long that euphoria will last?

Admittedly - I know little about wage scales in New York - but it didn't 
sound too enticing to me. The other factor is that here - she is a 
professional. In New York - she is a skivvy, doing menial and essentially 
meaningless work.
On the plus side, being intelligent, young and good-looking, she'll probably 
marry a stock broker and make good that way - unfortunately not an option 
open to all...
Jack Parkinson