Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg
I suppose that if someone really believes in buying American or other first world goods, they would stick to paper books and not even be in this forum. Correct?
|
Probably.
Depends on how deep you look at the supply chain.
If you simply look at the final assembly some PCs might qualify. Or if you look at where the money ends up, which is what the ECONOMIST article was pointing out.
There is a fine line between commerce that helps ramp up a country's economy (as happened with Japan, S. Korea, and the other "asian tigers") and outright exploitation. Generally, countries decide for themselves where to draw the line but China is problematic there because the political system doesn't give the local citizens quite as much say-so as in, say, Japan. Or even in early 20th Century US, where factories were hardly a model of anything good. (The Triangle Shirt Fire being just one of the horrors of the era.)
Ethical considerations are never easy to settle but thinking about them is definitely better than trying to sweep them under the rug. I'm not arguing for any position myself but I do think that being aware of the realities of the modern world can't hurt.
There is no such thing as a free lunch.
And it isn't a bad thing to ponder the actual price from time to time.