Good Evening Friends,

You know, I was wondering something. Remember I made reference to the relatively new form of offshoring, Naomi Klein makes us aware of, which I called "ghost" factories? What is the relationship, if any, of these spirit workshops to the financial structure called "micro-credit?"

I could be wrong, but I suspect that these financial structures enable - perhaps unintentionally but nevertheless inevitably - the God-fantasies of the multinational corporations, in that they make the ghost factories possible. If you're a CEO of a multinational, having a ghost factory is great. No carbon footprint is traceable to you; and no "sweatshop" working conditions are traceable you either, why, people are just leisurely "working from home;" and, more than ever before, the products you want to sell, appear to materialize out of thin air - at your command. Man is the desire to become God.

Now, I think it will take a real effort of economic anthropology to make the relationship clear. But here's what I was thinking. You know how, in the advanced capitalist world, millions of people work for different companies - and every once in a while, someone leaves their company to start their own firm? They develop a business plan, a proposal to pitch to a bank in application for a loan....

It is my understanding that recipients of micro-credit loans are people living in the developing world. Do the recipients of these loans also tend to be former employees of these ghost factories?

If that is so, then we can see why capitalism is so tenacious, durable, and adaptable. This would be - if my understanding is correct - what Slavoj Zizek calls the "chocolate laxative" effect; because capitalism takes with one hand and gives with the other - or at least appears to. Some people say that God is a lot like that.

Lastly, if one argues against globalization (really, capitalism itself), there is a counter-argument people can make against you: that you are against "progress" ( a problematic word and concept, which we may discuss at another time).

wingedcentaur