A different explanation of extraction
Nowadays it’s quite common to hear people complain that everything seems to be political.
While your boomer dad is probably worrying too much about people living the way that makes them happy, the statement is actually correct! Everything is in fact political, but not in the way he may expect.
We live in a globally interconnected society where almost every country in existence subscribes to a market-based economy. This means that individual nations can make deals to trade for goods and services, which can help them to overcome domestic shortages.
In a vacuum this sounds great but there is this pesky thing called capitalism that throws a wrench into the gears. A common misconception is that capitalism means markets. This isn’t necessarily true. While capitalism demands markets, it’s actually more accurately defined by embracing the concept of private property.
“But Ric! What is private property?” I hear you ask. Private property for this article’s purpose doesn’t necessarily mean the stuff you own, but only the stuff which you own in order to make more money.
One example is owninge shares in a company. If you own shares in a company under capitalism you are given access to two things: first, dividends. You get to keep part of the profits of that company and thus receive passive income without moving a finger. Second, the right to sell those shares, which may increase in value, in case you need some money right away.
“But Ric, how does any of this have anything to do with my toilet?” I hear you ask. Simple: by people owning factories and companies outside of your own country.
Due to historical reasons like famines, natural disasters, or white people waking up feeling naughty and doing a colonialism, some places enter into the global relations in a weaker position than others.
Because these places needed liquidity, they were often forced to sell some of their industries or even access to natural resources. Not just that, but because their economies were stifled, the people tend to be more dependent on having a job, and that dependency can be exploited to ensure salaries stay as low as possible.
So far so bad, right? It gets worse. Because some countries come into these global relationships in a more advantageous position, they get to buy up all the stuff the poorer ones are selling.
Here is where your toilet comes into play. Let’s take the US as an example. Every year the US imports so called “toilet ceramics” in the value of 1.5 billion dollars. But from where? China.
“Ric, will you finally talk about my toilet?” First, let me introduce you one last metric: Worktime/commodity.
What does this mean? It means that to try to compare how two countries relate to a product, we try to compare their median incomes per hour to something they both want to buy. To put it short: “how many hours do I need to work to afford this?”
Let’s talk about toilets! If you go online and look for the cheapest toilet you can possibly buy coming from China you can find some for as cheap as 30 dollars. Now let’s try to solve for out units.
US Median Wage: 16 dollars
Chinese Median Wage: 5.5 dollars
Toilet price: 30 dollars
This leaves us with an American having to work 2 hours to afford his toilet while the Chinese has to work almost 3 times more!
This means that even though the toilets are produced in China, the Chinese person has to work 3 times more to afford what they themselves produced!
Here is the reason why your toilet is political: everything that we in more privileged countries buy in some way, shape, or form is connected to foreign markets. Even if the product is produced domestically, the raw materials probably weren’t.
Instead of comparing to the price of a Chinese made toilet how about we consider a US made one? I went to the website of the toilet manufacturer Kohler in the US and tried to pick out the cheapest toilet possible. I came to a price close to 200 dollars.
This means an American person would have to work for six times as long to buy a domestically produced toilet. The American person’s comfort and privilege end up being paid for with indirect contributions of foreign, more exploited workers.
This process is what we call “unequal extraction”. This process is what we call: imperialism.
