Governmental Influence on Global Wages

Nearly half the world's population in living under the poverty line, and the world's impoverished are rising in numbers. In the United States the number of people living in poverty rose to 34.6million in 2002. In China the poverty rate has fallen substantially, but the gap between the rich and poor has opened up. It is also said by Mr. Fang Jue in an interview with The Epoch Times, “I am of the opinion that China's poverty line standard is consciously, instead of unconsciously, set low. Its purpose is to cover up the widening gap in China between poor and rich, and also to conceal the Chinese regime's serious mistakes in poverty eradication. China sets a poverty line “defined according to Chinese characteristics," which is only one fourth of the international poverty line standard. This is an act to fool Chinese people and the international community”. This causes the world and China herself to turn away from the real underlying problems of China. This causes the poor to get poorer without government help and the rich to get richer. These problems could be confronted by trade reforms and reforms within countries. One thing that could happen is that the UN put a division together that would set a standard for all labor across the world. They could set minimum wages and make labor laws that made a safer environment for the world’s workers. This would be difficult, but then the poor would get the opportunity to raise up the economic ladder and achieve things they wouldn’t ever dream of. The down side to this would be that prices for everything would go up because the companies have to pay their workers more. Lots of Americans have lost their jobs to the fact that China has a minimum wage of fifty cents (USD). The global minimum wage would make cheap labor very hard to find.
China could also raise their poverty line. This way they cold actually see what is happening to their country. Instead of only seeing the good they would also see the bad things that poverty is doing to their population. This would lower the standard of living in China and make their cheap labor force even bigger, so it is a bad thing and a good thing. The good thing is that the people in need will finally get the attention they need. The bad thing is that the government would need to do something about the poverty level, and this takes time and money.