Life of Riley: Memo — Re: Globalisation

July 26, 2000
Issue 

Life of Riley

Memo — Re: Globalisation

Over there, people live in garbage tips. Over there, you work for next to nothing. Over there, life is cheap.

The root problem over there is (a) there's too many of them over there, or (b) they're not over here.

Over here, you can live the life of Riley if you work hard. But we don't want them from over there working hard over here.

If they were over here who'd be working over there making all the stuff we buy over here?

So all those over there need to stay over there so over here can stay the same. If they weren't over there we couldn't enjoy over here as much as we do. So we need them over there. And they need us over here. That's the rule, the status quo — that's geography in the market place.

Without us over here, who'd buy what they've got to sell? It's a well-known fact that over there you can live much cheaper than over here. Over here we don't live on garbage tips. Over here we've got a mortgage, a car to run and reticulated sewerage. Over there you can get by without those things.

Over here we've got problems. Over there they have them too. But the problems over there are just so BIG.

Over here we have a big enough task making ends meet. Over there it is probably the same — but hey! we're not over there, we're over here. And since we are over here, over there is a world away. So who gives a stuff, if over there gets it tougher than we get it over here.

It's relative. That's life. Fortunately's it not ours.

BY DAVE RILEY

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