"I want the consumers to be aware - that the workers have a hard time. We pay for this with blood and sweat. We toil and we sweat. And at the same time the companies never make a loss. I do not want you to stop buying - but you should know about our difficult situation."
5 comments:
not sure this was the best way to start my day. someone at the school was talking about christmas lights being made in china, and the amount of little tiny lights they have to put together per hour, and i can't remember the specific number, but i do remember thinking that it would be horrible. and when i hear this stuff i become overwhelmed. workers unions can help, but they can also harm. but, the thing i come away with is that my feeling of being overwhelmed does not give me an excuse to not think about this. this is hard stuff.
iPads aren't made in such great conditions
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7763699/Protest-at-Chinese-iPad-maker-Foxconn-after-11th-suicide-attempt-this-year.html
The list is very long. I don't buy as much any more, but not for the sweat shop reason, though it I feel better abut not buying for that reason. My husband had a roommate at college many years ago who had family who lived off of those conditions as well as in them. It's a damned if you do or don't buy. The thing that is so feared when your livelihood depends on this work, is a slow down in purchases of what you are making because, if the need for the item decreases, the hours are cut and then the workers are in worse shape. It's the best they can get.
There are some countries that impose strict import quotas and tax the heck out of the imports so that there are more possibilities for work here in the US. Products would then cost more, for which I would not be heart broken when it comes to many of these non necessities. I am very much against sending work out of the US anyways, and resent that it is done, given our unemployment issues.
What suggestions to you have for this status quo?
Yikes. What the hell is the answer?
Jenn - It was rather grinch of me to post this documentary right before Christmas, but I just couldn't get it out of my head... it's still haunting me. It is very overwhelming to think about it, but I feel it's wrong to look the other way. i don't know what the answer is.
Kristina - Thank you for the link.
Cathrine, Elizabeth - I have no idea what the answer is. I wish I knew. I know I would rather pay a higher price for a product and own less stuff if it guarantees better circumstances for the factory workers. I wish there was a way of knowing whether a product was manufactured under fair circumstances, like with fair trade coffee and chocolate. I feel like boycotting goods that are manufactured in China is not a solution either, since that hurts the workers as well, but then, it makes me sick to think that I perpetuate this horrible situation by buying them. I have no foggy clue what I can do, let alone what the answer is, but it deeply disturbs me.
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