Chinese workers live where they work and work 15 hour shifts.

[MJinZ]

I rather pay more knowing my product comes locally. As in, North America... even though I'm Canadian I rather buy a US made product,then China, of course if it's made in Canada then even better.

Heck, 10 years ago, a motherboard for example was around 500 bucks. Now you can get one for 100-200 bucks. We are spoiled by being able to buy electronics so cheap. This is because of slavery. I would rather pay more knowing I am not supporting slavery, but that I am supporting a local economy. I think over time it would get cheaper regardless due to mass production and local competition.

Put that mentality to everything you buy and suddenly, you're broke. A huge reason for the high quality of life and prosperity most people enjoy is due to globalized markets, including sweatshops. If people really wanted to pay humane wages, expect material proliferation to stunt, until technology catches up with Robots being the new slaves.

 

[Matthiasa]

Put that mentality to everything you buy and suddenly, you're broke. A huge reason for the high quality of life and prosperity most people enjoy is due to globalized markets, including sweatshops. If people really wanted to pay humane wages, expect material proliferation to stunt, until technology catches up with Robots being the new slaves.

At which point the only people making money would be the owners and operators of said robots.

 

[MJinZ]

At which point the only people making money would be the owners and operators of said robots.

Why? Are the only people making money now the owners and operators of the slave-laborers (aka sweatshops).

Obviously not. Menial labor has a purpose, but people do far more and are paid far more.

 

[DesiPower]

what eff do they do for the rest of the 9 hours a day??? that's unacceptably inefficient. We here are making less money by the day, we need even cheaper products, get of your ass and put atleast a couple more hours a day...

 

[kitchiku]

abusive labor practices is not uncommon in china. Many Chinese are forced to work in those conditions due to poverty. Although China has been getting explosive growth throughout the years, there is still a lot of poverty specially in rural areas.

 

[Imdmn04]

This is way better than working in rural China with no clean water, food, phone, tv, etc.

Context people. Do not compare 1st world living standards to a developing country's standard.

If you were born in rural China, you go to those factories too for a better life. Is it better compared to Western standards? Hell no, is it better than what they had? Hell yeah.

 

[Turin39789]

Put that mentality to everything you buy and suddenly, you're broke. A huge reason for the high quality of life and prosperity most people enjoy is due to globalized markets, including sweatshops. If people really wanted to pay humane wages, expect material proliferation to stunt, until technology catches up with Robots being the new slaves.

you don't need all the stuff you think you do

 

[MJinZ]

abusive labor practices is not uncommon in china. Many Chinese are forced to work in those conditions due to poverty. Although China has been getting explosive growth throughout the years, there is still a lot of poverty specially in rural areas.

The problem is that there are billionaires in China who derive their wealth from the poverty of others. The government doesn't give a shit. They don't give a shit. NO one apparently gives a shit. At least in the US, we have minimum wage laws and government assistance to aid those in poverty.

 

[Red Squirrel]

you don't need all the stuff you think you do

This. I find we tend to take lot of the things we have for granted. I'm not saying we should not have those at all, but perhaps we need to work harder for them. I also think if stuff was generally more expensive, it would maybe spark a bigger "repair" market. Now, if your TV breaks, you buy a new one. But if TVs were more expensive, you'd get it fixed. It would even be better for the environment as we'd throw out stuff less often and get it fixed instead.

 

[TehMac]

Is that the alternative a minor faces in China? How about they go to school and these companies not hire and abuse them?

my goodness you are so utterly clueless. Has it ever occurred to you that schooling is expensive, and that the kids would rather work?

Unlike the self entitled U.S.A. where people go moaning about how every little thing isn't free and that our Dear Leader should fix it, people in these other countries have this concept of work.

Perhaps the next generation of Chinese will get to go to school, but frankly, their Marxist government is holding them back.

Sounds familiar, our Marxist government is holding us back too.

 

[Matthiasa]

my goodness you are so utterly clueless. Has it ever occurred to you that schooling is expensive, and that the kids would rather work?

Unlike the self entitled U.S.A. where people go moaning about how every little thing isn't free and that our Dear Leader should fix it, people in these other countries have this concept of work.

Perhaps the next generation of Chinese will get to go to school, but frankly, their Marxist government is holding them back.

Sounds familiar, our Marxist government is holding us back too.

Holding them back so much, that without it they probably would be worse off economical right now if they were democrat. 🙁

 

[llee]

Many of the luxuries that we enjoy today have been the product of previous times of struggle. Don't be so quick to judge and point fingers until you realize that China has a whole different culture and historical experience than westerners do.

 

[Hacp]

Haha I love how you want to boycott the factories. Well you boycott the factories, the women have no job, they go sell themselves for money. Liberals.. sigh.

 

[Hacp]

I rather pay more knowing my product comes locally. As in, North America... even though I'm Canadian I rather buy a US made product,then China, of course if it's made in Canada then even better.

Heck, 10 years ago, a motherboard for example was around 500 bucks. Now you can get one for 100-200 bucks. We are spoiled by being able to buy electronics so cheap. This is because of slavery. I would rather pay more knowing I am not supporting slavery, but that I am supporting a local economy. I think over time it would get cheaper regardless due to mass production and local competition.

Ok you go pay 500 bucks for that expensive motherboard made in the US. I enjoy my 50 dollar motherboard just fine thank you.

 

[lyssword]

slave labor.. and I thought I had it bad. A typical poor college student who has to eat ramen soup lives like a king compared to them :O

 

[Aharami]

So you think it's better to starve than work 15 hours a day and get paid?

if they choose to work 15 hr days and get paid, that's fine with me. It's these that I have a problem with

•Workers are prohibited from talking, listening to music or using the bathroom during working hours. As punishment, workers who make mistakes are made to clean the bathrooms.
•Fourteen workers share each primitive dorm room, sleeping on narrow double-level bunk beds. To "shower," workers fetch hot water in a small plastic bucket to take a sponge bath. Workers describe factory food as awful.
•Workers can only leave the "compound" during regulated hours.
One worker is quoted as saying they are "like prisoners."

Do YOU, JS80, think that this is fair treatment of the workers?

 

[Hacp]

if they choose to work 15 hr days and get paid, that's fine with me. It's these that I have a problem with


Do YOU, JS80, think that this is fair treatment of the workers?

They can leave and go home whenever they so please. They are not slaves. They are free.

 

[her209]

This is awful. But it's a Chinese problem.

LOL... it only becomes an American problem when the product is found to contain lead, melamine, etc.

 

[brblx]

So you think it's better to starve than work 15 hours a day and get paid?

no one deserves to have to work every waking moment of the day just to survive.

this must really blow the stereotypical rightwingers' minds. more 'free market capitalism' in a 'communist' country than in the US.

maybe we should send glen beck and his followers to china to get a better taste of freedom. damn these deplorable US regulations.

 

[Aharami]

They can leave and go home whenever they so please. They are not slaves. They are free.

If they are free, why was one worker quoted saying that they are like prisoners? What exactly are you saying here? That you are ok with the workers getting no bathroom breaks over a 15 hour workday? That you think it's fine that the workers make 52 cents an hour when the chinese min wage is 85 cents?

 

[Farang]

That's life. I'm on top of the food chain even if I'm on the bottom here in the U.S.A. Those people in China working the 15 hour days are probably in the middle. The bottom is something most of us don't want to know or think about, but its worse than this article describes.

Life sucks and then you die.

 

[halik]

That's a wrong analogy. They do not have to follow us in the exact same manner. The 100 year difference should have taught them what and what not to do.

/facepalm

You apparently missed out on econ in college.

China has a comparative advantage in cheap unskilled labor. As such they'll specialize in as-cheap-as-possible production.

 

[Hacp]

If they are free, why was one worker quoted saying that they are like prisoners? What exactly are you saying here? That you are ok with the workers getting no bathroom breaks over a 15 hour workday? That you think it's fine that the workers make 52 cents an hour when the chinese min wage is 85 cents?

They are free to quit whenever they want. They won't do that however, they want the money.

 

[Narmer]

/facepalm

You apparently missed out on econ in college.

China has a comparative advantage in cheap unskilled labor. As such they'll specialize in as-cheap-as-possible production.

You missed my point entirely. The working conditions today have changed compared to 100 years ago, even in China. 15 hour work week was common in America 100-150 years ago when it was legal. You're telling me a country as capable as China does not have laws prohibiting this? A communist country founded on workers' rights? I'm not naive to believe that the government believes in the communist idealism. However, I am sure that their constitution makes it illegal for employers to abuse employees like this.

 

[kitchiku]

They are free to quit whenever they want. They won't do that however, they want the money.

I think they would if they can find a better place to work. But it seems to me that these practices are quite prevalent and that companies with better working conditions are too few. They really don't have any choice, either work in a place like that or starve to death.