Economic Colonization: Good Thing or Bad?

Having never heard the term ‘economic colonization’ I tried to break it down and figure out what this meant in today’s world. ‘Economics’ is pretty much a countries money system and how businesses within that particular country work together to bring wealth to the country and the citizens of that country. The idea of ‘supply and demand’ comes to mind when I hear ‘economics.’ Colonization to me is a very outdated practice. When I think of colonization I think of the European nations sailing around the world during the Age of Exploration and claiming every bit of land in Africa and Asia, and of course the British coming to the ‘New World’ and colonizing what would become the United States of America. After reading only a few lines of the article entitled, “The Economic Colonization of Iraq: Illegal and Immoral” I realized that it was pretty much a no-brainer to what this term actually means.

In the article it discusses how the United States, under former President George W. Bush (article if from 2004), invaded Iraq for military purposes, but is now attempting to make economic strides for themselves while they’re in Iraq. The author of the article, Antonia Juhasz, says in her article that under international law, this is illegal for the U.S. to do, as well as being immoral. I can see why Juhasz thinks what is happening is immoral, because usually when the United States or any other economically powerful nation outsources things to be made or produced, which is what is happening in Iraq, the ways in which laborers involved are treated are questionable. One of the main reasons for these powerful countries to outsource is because in other countries it is cheaper to pay people in the particular country. The pay is lower and the working conditions in many cases are almost inhumane: people working for over twelve hours a day for six or seven days a week, not well-lit or well ventilated warehouses, performing the same monotonous job countless times over and over again, etc.

One of the issues that the article discusses is the fact that our ‘purpose’ for going into Iraq was to help the Iraqi people rebuild and reconstruct their government, as well as helping them jumpstart their economy. However, the U.S. is rebuilding Iraq in a way that is attempting to make the Iraqi way of life more American. I think it was Gabby who made the point in class last week that more powerful countries try to make ‘struggling’ nations more like their own country, when the resources and means of accomplishing that are not available. It is true that the U.S. is one of the most economically successful nations in the world (minus our whole economic situation at present). The U.S. has good relations with many countries it trades with, as well as having products being produced within its borders and having a labor-force available. Not all of these things are available in Iraq and to their citizens and not only that but the resources to have these things in Iraq are simply not there.

Economic colonization affects the global economy by having products made for very cheap labor prices. As stated before, the reason for going to other poorer nations to ‘set up shop’ and have the poorer country’s citizens work is because it is cheaper labor than getting the same job done in the wealthier nation. This brings down the prices for a lot of goods and services and because of the economic idea that when price goes down the demand for goods goes up; this will have a very positive effect on the economy of the world.


“The Economic Colonization of Iraq: Illegal and Immoral,” Antonia Juhasz.
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=232.