Missing Link Friday – Last post before Christmas

Missing link is taking a vacation. See you next year!

The destruction of the tea: What did the original tea party patriots stand for? Alfred F. Young looks at the history behind the Boston Tea Party.

Are Slaves Growing Your Fair Trade Cotton? Matthew Yglesias links to a story about child labour on ‘fair trade’ farms in Burkina Faso by Cam Simpson at Bloomberg. According to Yglesias, it’s not just about poor monitoring of a fair trade program, there’s also a link between organic certification and forced labour: "organic agriculture is less capital-intensive and thus more labor-intensive than conventional agriculture, so paying a premium for organic cotton creates an extra incentive to add forced labor into the production mix."

How do rich countries lift up the poor? The answer is something no politician wants to hear — transfer payments. According to Lane Kenworthy, countries that kept transfers rising in line with GDP did better than those that indexed payments to prices. In an article for Pathways magazine he argues that "we shouldn’t pretend that paid work is a realistic route to guaranteeing rising incomes for everyone."

If women do the spending, does it matter that they don’t do the earning? It’s no secret that women earn less than men. But according the the Philosopher’s Beard, women are in charge of most household discretionary spending. "It would seem that a full gender justice analysis of the economy should include not only how gender relates to the composition of household income, but also how household consumption is gendered."

Santa’s other helper: Nice children get presents but what happens to naughty children? According to Michael the Researcher, Santa has a demonic helper who beats naughty children with a swtich and carries them off in sack. In some places he is known as Krampus, in others. Knecht Ruprecht. "My Mother went to a Bavarian all-girl school in Augsburg in the mid-to-late 1940s", writes Michael, "and she remembers when Knecht Ruprecht came into the classroom and took a naughty girl away, kicking and screaming the entire time."

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murph the surf.
murph the surf.
12 years ago

Would like to pass on thanks to the writers and contributors at Club Troppo.
Wishing you all a great holiday season and looking forward to reading more of your excellent work next year.
I have enjoyed the threads addressing the rebalancing of inequality and Peter Whiteford’s contributions particularly.

Pedro
Pedro
12 years ago

Yes, a very happy Christmas to all.

Dan
Dan
12 years ago

Yes, echoing these sentiments: thanks for the fascinating posts and discussion, and some fun stoushes.

A happy and safe break to you all.

KB Keynes
KB Keynes
12 years ago
Dan
Dan
12 years ago

KB: try clicking on your link.

KB Keynes
KB Keynes
12 years ago

yikes what happened.

Try this.

She couldn’t even get basic facts correct. and she boasts of her forensic skills!!