Thread: Chinese Badger knots and sweatshops

Just be thankful no one decided that White Rhino whiskers make the best brushes.

It's the age-old problem with Capitalism: the people who do the work only ever see a tiny fraction of the price of the item - most of the money goes to the middle and top because the wages of the people who do the actual work are considered a "cost", and costs are there to be minimised. That's just good economics.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Just be thankful no one decided that White Rhino whiskers make the best brushes.

If white rhinos were raised for profit there would be more of them, treated better, fed and housed better than what the wild nature affords.

Originally Posted by Longhaultanker

If white rhinos were raised for profit there would be more of them, treated better, fed and housed better than what the wild nature affords.

Isn't that what we do with cattle?

The post on migrant workers struck a chord with me - Dubai has an indigenous population of about 400k but a regular population of about 1.3million - the vast majority of the guest workers are from the Indian sub-continent working in construction and general labouring roles. They too are housed in compounds with their own shops because they could not possibly afford normal prices for accommodation and other necessities. Nonetheless, they take the work because it pays incomparably better than they could expect at home.

By the way, when the temperature starts creeping up there, the whole peninsula could be classed as a sweatshop.

Originally Posted by UKRob

The post on migrant workers struck a chord with me - Dubai has an indigenous population of about 400k but a regular population of about 1.3million - the vast majority of the guest workers are from the Indian sub-continent working in construction and general labouring roles. They too are housed in compounds with their own shops because they could not possibly afford normal prices for accommodation and other necessities. Nonetheless, they take the work because it pays incomparably better than they could expect at home.

By the way, when the temperature starts creeping up there, the whole peninsula could be classed as a sweatshop.

Crikey! I believe they call that Modern Day Slavery in the Middle-East

Not sure if the Gulfies or British expats sweat as much in the air-conditioned bubbles.

There are times when people choose to go through some grueling times to get to the prize. When I was a young man I worked a lot in the commercial fishing industry. Living conditions onboard the vessels, and the working conditions were not pleasant. We chose to work at those jobs and under those conditions because we made more money that way, it did not last forever and we were well compensated. When people are backed into a corner and have to live like that or starve is the extreme that most of us are not wanting to see. In the fish plants there were tons of migrant workers and locals who would all do a similar thing for the season. The migrants would cram in many people to a house, and hire a family member to be a support worker and make sure that meals got cooked and laundry done for everyone that was working 16 hour shifts. The Mexicans and the Philippians were very good at figuring out the systems of getting the most people in the house to maximize everyones profits.

Originally Posted by RezDog

There are times when people choose to go through some grueling times to get to the prize. When I was a young man I worked a lot in the commercial fishing industry. Living conditions onboard the vessels, and the working conditions were not pleasant. We chose to work at those jobs and under those conditions because we made more money that way, it did not last forever and we were well compensated. When people are backed into a corner and have to live like that or starve is the extreme that most of us are not wanting to see. In the fish plants there were tons of migrant workers and locals who would all do a similar thing for the season. The migrants would cram in many people to a house, and hire a family member to be a support worker and make sure that meals got cooked and laundry done for everyone that was working 16 hour shifts. The Mexicans and the Philippians were very good at figuring out the systems of getting the most people in the house to maximize everyones profits.

That is part of the reason the industrialized western world can't compete in a global free trade economy. Nobody here wants to live like that for any length of time never mind as the norm for a standard of living.

Bob

Originally Posted by UKRob

The post on migrant workers struck a chord with me - Dubai has an indigenous population of about 400k but a regular population of about 1.3million - the vast majority of the guest workers are from the Indian sub-continent working in construction and general labouring roles. They too are housed in compounds with their own shops because they could not possibly afford normal prices for accommodation and other necessities. Nonetheless, they take the work because it pays incomparably better than they could expect at home.

By the way, when the temperature starts creeping up there, the whole peninsula could be classed as a sweatshop.

This type of migrant worker brings in a whole other issue. Migrants within China for example, they can easily travel by train from the central part of China to the coast where all the factories are and find a job. Places like Dubai have no worker population so they import workers. Often there are head hunter type people who go and find these workers. They pay their air fare, finder fee, etc to get them there. The worker would not be able to afford this otherwise. The problem you run into there is that they owe this back, they become indentured and cannot freely leave their job until their debts are repaid. If they do leave they can be arrested for breach of contract. Basically they stole the money that was fronted for them. And how would they get home if they did quit their job?
Management knows that the employees cannot leave are often tempted to make increasing demands on the workers who can't do anything about it.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Isn't that what we do with cattle?

Exactly. That's why we like leather goods. Got a second leather roll up from classic shaving in CA. Just beautiful.

I avoid Chinese made items as much as I can, even buying used made in other countries than new Chinese.

I have seen the videos of the Chinese fur farms, and that was enough for me to not buy any fur, or leather product that comes from there. Seeing the animals skinned alive then tossed in a pile to die is just wrong in my opinion.

At what point do we put our own interests/greed/low price dreams aside, and do what is right? We expect others to buy our products at a high price, yet we want the cheapest low cost items we can get....

Before I got interested in straights I had seen a couple of fresh road killed badgers down the road from me. I should have picked them up....