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ProfCrash · 02-15-2012, 08:05 AM

So the people that we read about working well over 40 hours a week, not getting paid over time, complaining about living conditions, for our garments and electronics are a small percentage of the population or there are a small percentage of factories where things look pretty and the media and human rights groups are brought to those factories?

Because if all Chinese factories enforced 40 hour work weeks and labor laws that were similar to the US and Europe we would not be having this conversation.

And if things get better in all of the factories in China the factories will move elsewhere.

Have things gotten better? Probably. But there is still plenty of evidence that the improvements still come no where close to Western standards. And there are still regular reports of abuses and companies being punished by Nike and other companies precisely because the companies don't want to change. The cynic in me says that we get the occasional "Look we are doing something about it" company change but that is me.

There is no denying that there is a growing divide between the wealthy and the poor in China and that factory workers are not a growing middle class. They are in the poor. They are moving to the factories looking for work because there is little to be made in the farms in rural China.

02-15-2012, 08:05 AM	#33
ProfCrash Tea Enthusiast Posts: 8,554 Karma: 75384937 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Somewhere in the USA Device: Kindle1, Kindle DX Graphite, K3 3G, IPad 3, PW2	So the people that we read about working well over 40 hours a week, not getting paid over time, complaining about living conditions, for our garments and electronics are a small percentage of the population or there are a small percentage of factories where things look pretty and the media and human rights groups are brought to those factories? Because if all Chinese factories enforced 40 hour work weeks and labor laws that were similar to the US and Europe we would not be having this conversation. And if things get better in all of the factories in China the factories will move elsewhere. Have things gotten better? Probably. But there is still plenty of evidence that the improvements still come no where close to Western standards. And there are still regular reports of abuses and companies being punished by Nike and other companies precisely because the companies don't want to change. The cynic in me says that we get the occasional "Look we are doing something about it" company change but that is me. There is no denying that there is a growing divide between the wealthy and the poor in China and that factory workers are not a growing middle class. They are in the poor. They are moving to the factories looking for work because there is little to be made in the farms in rural China.