Some things I wonder about... (PT perhaps)

[JaseSF]

Big business wields a lot of power even going so far as to fund the campaigns of many politicians and political parties. Some big business interests may not be even native to an area yet they may still wield influence, is this or is this not so? Anyways whether native or not, they definitely hold political sway in this fashion so perhaps it's not so strange when raw materials here are shipped overseas to be processed in some often inadequate, below standards and under the radar foreign factory when said item could also be done in one's own country at an higher cost but with an higher quality with regards to standards and production. Am I the only one who finds it a betrayal of one's country to send stuff to other areas to be processed when said jobs could be created in one's own country instead? So the question of profit is there too, obviously with big box stores selling foreign crap for such low prices, how can one's own country's higher priced items compete? Well maybe with advertising the fact they are produced in one's own country, maybe a reaffirment of belief in doing things in one's own country, in supporting one's own country, and in so doing not having to rely on others yet the politics of control do not seem to want it so...they seem to want a rich elite controlling the vast majority of the world's wealth and the rest of us left to do the work at little difference between wages unless you're right at the top rung of the ladder - a worldwide poor and a minimum wealthy elite - that does seem to be where we're headed. I sincerely hope I'm wrong though.

[indianasmith]

I think sometimes the people forget the reason that businesses exist.  There purpose is not to create jobs, not to stimulate the economy, nor to promote a political or ideological agenda.  The sole purpose of business is to make a profit by selling a product or service people want for the highest margin of profit the market will allow.  In the process, they may indeed create jobs, stimulte the economy, or promote an ideological agenda, but all these things are incidental to their primary purpose.
  However, what makes the business model and free enterprise system work is that ultimately businesses HAVE to have consumers.  If no one can afford their product, it doesn't matter how good the product is or how cheaply it is produced.  So ultimately, most of the problems created by the business process are fixed by that same process in a self-interested desire to keep selling their product and make a profit.
  This is why I ultimately trust business more than I trust government.  Business just wants your money.  Government, left unchecked, seeks to control every aspect of your life.  After all, how many of your liberties have been taken away from you by businesses?

[JaseSF]

But are governments and businesses really, truly separate anymore? Or are there powers behind the scenes pulling the strings of those in government? "Pull the string!"
 
Marketplace, a Canadian news show here, recently exposed Cold-FX, a flu remedy company and exposed them for putting forth false advertising and having the raw material ginseng for their medication produced overseas in a filthy Chinese factory even beneath Canadian standards (yet somehow that all flew under the radar) and then shipped back here, claiming that the product was "proudly Canadian" on their labels. How then therefore can one trust the claims put forth by companies? If they'll ship out stuff like that and put it on the shelves, how does one know?

They want to take jobs out of  my province and send more overseas. I see this happening. Who's to gain from this? Those at the very top and shareholders gain the most.   Every other day on the news is companies saying they need to cut back wages in order to compete. By doing so they no doubt hope they can reduce wages here to the same poverty levels they have overseas but at what cost? A world filled with poverty, a means of population control perhaps? Who knows?

[The Gravekeeper]

Do corporations have sway over governments? Absolutely. Exactly how much is uncertain, but they do certainly have lobbyists and there are enough politicians who worked for these corporations to be suspect, to say nothing of the crap that these corporations are permitted to get away with. Ideally, consumers would have the power to enforce ethics on these corporations by choosing not to buy, but it's almost impossible to do any sort of thorough research on many of them because they reveal so little about how and where their products are made. If the law doesn't say they have to reveal any information, they won't.

Simply bringing all those foreign jobs here would cause numerous other problems, especially since for overseas workers that job may have been the difference between being able to feed and clothe their family and having absolutely nothing at all (not to mention that all those low prices we're used to seeing will be driven up since the factory workers, farmers, etc will be expecting things like a living wage, health benefits, etc).

But constantly shifting jobs to countries with cheaper work forces and lower standards means that fewer people are able to find work here, which (in my opinion) undermines our current economic practices since they run on the assumption that capital is able to flow more-or-less freely throughout the system. If only the rich have money, the whole thing will collapse since your average joe won't have the money or the will to buy much of anything. Even with our advertising conventions and culturally ingrained need to constantly consume, if a person is in a bad enough situation they will stop buying luxuries so that they can afford to pay the rent, keep the lights on and eat.

It's a very difficult situation since we neither want to sacrifice our way of life/quality of life, but we know that many of the corporations we buy everyday products and services from force completely unethical and immoral situations on workers and governments elsewhere to make their product more affordable for us to buy. Getting any one government to impose ethics on companies would likely just convince said company to just pack up and go elsewhere, but the odds of getting every country involved to work together to enforce anything is pretty much impossible.