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Where do the great ships go to die? When these behemoths are no longer fit to sail safely on the seas, they're dismantled piece by piece and sold for scrap.

Most end up in third world countries, where thousand of workers risk their lives for mere pennies a day dismantling the world's ships, including Canada's. It's some of the most dangerous work in the world, done in the name of profit for shipping companies, where it's cheaper than a certified facility in our own backyard.

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But the images from India, they were kind of scary (not unexpected mind you). I think every time, even though I should know better, the images of the third world shock and appall me. They did so to my roommate as well - I think the comment was "what the fuck, they still do that?" Not that he is nieve either, just I think the same sentiment of being shocked by the images.

I do not understand why principles have to be thrown to the side for "economics" (though I guess those are principles as well). It infuriates me that they allow the sale of toxic material to be dealt with by the poor. We have hardly advanced out of the 19th century industrial revolution, it merely got shifted. And most canadians do live in the countryside mansions of England, isolated from the horrendousness of pollutive industrial work (though we manage just fine to pollute our own stuff somehow).

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Originally posted by Amy:
Did anyone else catch this? Where Old Ships Go to Die

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great journalism

I guess this is what the economists like to describe with the tidy clinical term "externalities". Which is just a fancy way of saying, once we use it up, it's Somebody Else's Problem.

And it's so utterly pervasive. Don't most of our dead computers end up dumped in China, where peasants strip them down and get exposed to all manner of toxic substances? We're such fucking pigs, aren't we?

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I believe this is the point where some laissez-faire advocate jumps in and tells us how the Invisible Hand will magically set all to rights

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