Before my mom had me and my 3 brothers, she worked at one time for the PaperMate
Pen company and the pay was low, 2cents per pen made and their was only ONE
restroom for some 50 lady workers and No Brakes of anykind, lunch was a 10min
deal if you got it at all. All this for a 10 hour work day 6 days of the week.
Where was this? Right down in Los Angeles after the war. Wonder where they are
made now?
Plus I've never been Rich, and now I live on a fixed disabilty income that's
just enough to keep me going.
--
"In this universe the night was falling,the shadows were lengthening
towards an east that would not know another dawn.
But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning
lingered: and along the path he once had followed, man would one day go
again."
Arthur C. Clarke, The City & The Stars
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"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 20:49:15 +0200, "szozu" hoppbunny at hotmail dot
com wrote:
"animaux" wrote
There is no
way I can buy merchandize any more which I KNOW is being made by either
children, or very poor people.
I understand your motives, but If you won't buy things made by very poor
people, how are they supposed to survive?
Childhood can be viewed as a luxury provided by well-to-do societies.
Children have traditionally learned to work alongside their parents as soon
as they were able to help.
In a similar vein, I've heard people say that if they were to move to an
underdeveloped country, they couldn't imagine hiring a maid, since they feel
it would be a demeaning position for the maid; yet in actual fact, they
would be resented by the locals, who would view them as "rich" yet not
contributing to the economy by providing at least one person with a chance
to feed their family.
Interesting points. "I have to fire you because someone told me I was
oppressing you." I think intelligent, well-informed campaigns to
expose and improve conditions under which brand-name items are
produced is a Good Thing. There *must* be some middle ground between
brutal worker exploitation, and trying to force Guatemalan industries
to pay US minimum wage.
Animaux says she would never buy merchandise she *knows* is made by
very poor people or children. How does one know? How poor is "very
poor"? Lobby for fair coffee prices, or for laws designed to regulate
child labor in foreign countries. Badger Nike and Anne Klein to make
sure their foreign contractors are providing conditions at least as
good and preferably better than the local norm. We might also take a
look at the conditions our own workers labor under. Child labor
(except on farms, mostly) isn't a problem, but minimum wage workers
are regularly treated very badly in many situations.
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