Slashdot Mirror
China Alleged To Use Prisoners In Lucrative Internet Gaming
SoyQueSoy pointed out an article that reveals it's not all fun, but forced games for some Chinese prisoners. It is alleged that after a day of hard labor some inmates are forced to work through the night as gold farmers. "Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," [prisoner] Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."
In a country where you can be jailed for bitching to the government, do you really think that the bosses of the prisons are at all independent of the power structure?
And the fact that exploitation of human desperation is common does not make it right, in or out of prison. China's brand of socialism is bullshit. It's plain fascism, where workers are cattle and the government gets all the value they add.
That has been deemed fine, as the powers that be decided that only hard labour is cruel. Sewing for a few dollars a day is apparently fine. My real problem with it is the loaning to commercial enterprise, seems like a conflict of interest for a few parties involved, which can lead to, yeah, you know... If it's truly voluntary and not benefiting to private outfits I think it's fair enough. or if working for private enterprise, the outfit they are contracting for pays market wage, and it goes to a charity if they don't want the prisoners to collect. That way there is no advantage for the outfit, no kickback to the prison, etc.
Wouldn't mind seeing hard labour come back for violent offences myself, at least for recidivists. Some folks you just can't reach and all that.
Sent from my PDP-11
I guess you missed the part about them being forced to gold mine all night after a long day of hard labor. Are people skipping the summary now too?
No, just ignoring the parts that make no sense whatsoever.
If I have you as a slave, and you can make me $100/12hrs doing manual labor or $500/12hrs goldfarming... Do you seriously think I'd waste half your income-generating day having you fill potholes?
The "after" makes no sense when they could farm gold for both shifts and make their jailers 66% ($600 vs $1000) more per day.
They still have to answer to their superiors when China's projects are not being completed with slave labor.
but they are NOT some rapist, some pedophile. See how programmed you are. It's people just like you, when the cops want to meet their quota, when they don't like you, when they just had a bay day. There are TENS of THOUSANDS of people better then you in jail, dude, believe it. But keep it up thinking everyone in jail deserves it. When it's your turn, you can tell it to yourself at night when your starving.
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
It's plain fascism, where workers are cattle...
Well, you wouldn't have 'Everyday Low Prices' without it..
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I'm guessing that NOBODY makes 5000 RMB a day gold mining. That's almost $1000 US! Or 1 month's salary for a skilled professional, or a semi-skilled worker in a dangerous job.
5000 a day may have been for a large team. 60 prisoners making 85 a day? And the boss gets 5000. It could have been a lucky day when some guy found a +100 sword of ass-kicking. No idea, really.
But if you could make 5000 a day gold farming, I'd do it, and I hate those soul-sucking games. Cruel and unusual punishment, indeed.