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Photos of Chinese Sweatshop Used By Microsoft
MongooseCN has a follow-up to last week's Chinese Sweatshop story. He says "The image Microsoft doesn't want you to see: Too tired to stay awake. These Chinese workers earn just 34p an hour (about 52 cents in US dollars), work 15-hour shifts, and deal with other abuses to package US-made products."
By comparison to our own industrial revolution and the labor abuses then this seems rather luxurious. They get sponge baths, offices (albeit crowded), and company meals? During the industrial transition children aged 9 and up were subjected to much worse conditions. It's a normal part of economic development. A country does wheat Reagan suggested and pulls itself up by its bootstraps and still people complain.
Hope is the currency of fools
I am not trying to be an apologist, but try to think outside the story for one quick minute. Did it mention that they were picked up out of their village, by force, and dropped in this factory-prison to work for a meager wage in intolerable conditions? Nope. These people did it on their own free will. Now if there is illegal coercion, harassment, or any other nonsense going on then by all means prosecute. I am all for equal rights, safe working conditions, and fair wages; but when workers willingly go to work somewhere, knowing full well what the conditions are, and they keep on working there year after year, what exactly is evil about it? People are great subconscious economists; if something isn't worth doing, they probably won't do it.
Things could be a lot better in China... They could be a lot worse too. One picture of some napping factory workers is just a stunt to get people riled up.
its ok for microsoft to employ a sweatshop, because the slaves in there consented to being exploited ...
Read radical news here
Idealists can run easily run a corporation at a profit. Fools can not
Isn't that what I said?
Fools can not. I've got a Buddhist friend who owns a medium sized bakery business that specifically employs ex-cons, runaways, homeless folks, and so forth. He operates it at a small, reasonable profit
Unless these cons/runaways/etc are living in China, I'm not sure what this has to do with the discussion.
Just admit that you aren't an idealist and you don't care about others; you don't need to put idealists down just because you aren't one.
Quite the contrary - I have a wide variety of idealistic desires. I just do my best not to let them get in the way of reality. It's always a huge mistake to confuse your own view of what "should be" with what is.
you're required to live in the dorms and you have specific hours you're allowed to leave the dorms, even when not working. That's not exactly the typical boarding house and it is completely unacceptable. Remember "freedom" is an incredibly important concept for most of these company's customers.
Bzzzt. You can live "off campus" no problem, if you want to.
Bzzzt! that is not what the human rights report says. Workers are not allowed off campus except during specified hours, so unless they can find alternative housing in the plant, which they can afford, yes they have to live in the dorms. Are you being paid to spread misinformation?
Do they live in dorms? Some do, but the conditions aren't terrible by low-end Chinese standards, and considerably better than the farmhouse the worker most likely moved from.
Did you read the report? Average workers last 6 months at the factory before leaving in desperation and giving up two weeks pay to do so.
Do some women get sexually harassed? Sure. Heck, here in the US we have Presidents committing perjury about their sexual assaults!
First, in the US there is legal recourse. Second, since when is consensual sex, sexual assault?
Bottom line: this "article" is a hit piece for political purposes, it does nothing to improve conditions, and in fact hurts worldwide relations by fomenting undeserved anger.
That's a fine opinion, but it stinks like shit to me. The anger is fully justified. No one should be forced to live on the premises and forbidden to leave except an hour and a half a night, in order to work in a factory. It is completely unacceptable to me and I won't do business with the kind of scum that are that exploitive and value freedom that little. if you're part of that, I include you in my last statement. I'm not some blind patriot and I know conditions are bad in many places, but I'm sure not paying people to create those conditions.
You're saying that if Exxon-Mobil (for example) makes 2 Billion dollars profit instead of 30 than there will be severe repercussions in the world?
Yes. If they suddenly made less than a tenth of what they normally do, their stocks would plummet. That, in turn, would lower the value of hundreds of thousands of 401k's and similar savings plans. It would also lead to an increase in spending on R&D, making them less competitive in the future with other businesses in their field. It would make them less capable to adapt to changing oil prices, thereby, again, limiting their competitiveness in the global marketplace. The reduction in competitiveness would guarantee further drops in future earning, thereby setting in motion a cycle which would eventually end in bankruptcy.
Only complete ignoramuses think that companies can shell out massive portions of their earnings on a whim, without harming tens if not hundreds of thousands of people.
Your ideas are only based on the fact that you live a comfortable life, because if you were a poor person in, say, China you would not be so greedy.
Now THAT is "such a HUGE bullshit". If I were a poor person in China, I'd be more greedy. There's nothing quite as good for encouraging the accumulation of wealth as the lack of it.
Yours are not ideas everyone can agree on because they are extreme.
Yes, we live in an age where being informed and thoughtful really can be considered "extreme". It's a sorry state of affairs.
That's quite an interesting perspective. Here in the US, almost anyone who criticizes nationalized healthcare is reminded of how supposedly brilliantly the single-payer systems of Canada and the UK work. So, I'm curious...What is your perspective on nationalized healthcare in general?
The usually don't talk about how doctors and nurses are treated, just the patients. Do the patients get poor service due to practitioners being overworked? Do you think it's a fair trade-off to put people in your wife's type of situation in exchange for providing free healthcare to the masses?
When you spread lies, don't be surprised that you're called on it. Simple as that.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!