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Use of Forced Labor "Systemic" In Malaysian IT Manufacturing

Posted by samzenpus on from the passing-on-the-savings-and-the-misery dept.

itwbennett (1594911) writes "The use of forced labor is so prevalent in the Malaysian electronics manufacturing industry that there is hardly a major brand name that isn't touched by the illegal practice, according to a report funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and undertaken by Verité, a nonprofit organization focused on labor issues. The two-year study surveyed more than 500 migrant workers at around 200 companies in Malaysia's IT manufacturing sector and found one in three were working under conditions of forced labor."

2 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"forced labor" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Isn't that the GOAL of Capitalism??

    No, maximizing profit is the goal of a capitalist. An immoral capitalist has no problem with it if it maximizes profit. Now before you get your panties in a bunch, remember that any other immoral idealogue will also tend to have no problem with it if it maximizes their objectives. Thus, while communism in theory doesn't espouse slavery; in practice those who profess communism will send you to a "re-education" camp or "assign you to a dangerous project that's vital for the advancement of the workers". These will be no better than any form of slavery resulting from the desire to maximize profit. Perhaps they will be worse.

    So. People are immoral jerks, and sometimes they need to be shot... by people who would rather not shoot but know they must, as opposed to people who will shoot you simply because they want a better cut of beef (capitalists), or can't stand the color of your drapes (ideologues of other types).

  2. Re:"forced labor" by timeOday · · Score: 3, Informative
    Well, slaves actually did have substantial market value. Piketty has an interesting section on this in "Capital". Quoting from it :

    What one finds is that the total market value of slaves represented nearly a year and a half of US national income in the late eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century, which is roughly equal to the total value of farmland...

    In practice, in the antebellum United States, the market price of a slave was typically on the order of ten to twelve years of an equivalent free worker's wages... In 1860, the average price of a male slave of prime working age was roughly $2,000, whereas the average wage of a free farm laborer was on the order of $200.

    For reference, the US National Income in 2012 was $15.7 trillion, i.e. a few percent less than the GDP. 150% of that is about equal to the total value of all residential real estate in the US.