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Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#91

Post by siam »

pavs wrote: post #78
eksith wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're in Bangladesh and in a well of part of the city, you say. A family of 6 with 2 maids and 2 drivers too. Your entire post reminds me of something else I read : http://newint.org/features/2013/01/01/india-elite-sense-of-e... While the countries are all different (I'm from Sri Lanka originally), the attitudes are astoundingly similar. It's the Western equivalent of let them eat cake since they're used to eating g…

Please get off your moral high horse. I used to be like you all smug-faced and judgmental sitting behind a computer, until I was on the field with brac ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(NGO) ) and see for myself how the real world works. They are NOT underpaid for the most part (If you actually bothered to read what I wrote). They are under-paid to "western living standard" but not according to the local living st…

You are from BRAC! I have heard they are some sort of BLOOD SUCKER, by giving small money to poor they take 80% interest. Even some rural farmer had to suicide after taking loan from Brac. And you are talking about "living standard" how funny man :)

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#92

Post by hackerboos »

jellicle wrote: post #76

Hacker News response: "They knew the risks they were taking. They were all expert electricians who fully knew that their pay of almost $10,000/year would compensate them for the risk they were taking. If we started regulating companies like this, pretty soon there wouldn't be any companies and the entire world economy would collapse, people eating people, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and you don't want that, do you? B…

Hacker News certainly seems to lean toward the Libertarian-right.

Some of the comments I read regarding regulation (or abolishment of it) is frightening.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5647898

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#93

Post by bobbydavid »

DanBC wrote: post #70
bobbydavid wrote: post #66

There are a lot of comments about the awful working conditions in China and how we should push for better conditions, but none I've seen are by the workers themselves. I can't help but wonder: what is the sentiment on this issue in China itself? As we've seen countless times before (look at Istanbul now), widespread civilian unhappiness has a way of bubbling out. Can someone provide some pointers to Chinese sentiment…

> I just think it's important to stay grounded in the reality that what's best for them is what _they_ want for themselves. That's a baffling comment. ( https://secure.flickr.com/photos/george-photography-pictures... ) ( http://www.indigenouspeople.net/garbage.htm ) ( http://oliver-vaccaro.com/index.php?/root/pepenadores/ ) People are trapped in this lifestyle, but feel that it's better than the alternative. That doe…

I'm not exactly sure what those photos have to do with anything, but what you say is true: there are situations where people stay in upsetting situations because there are no better alternatives. However, they key point is that they will still be upset. It's the "upset-ness" of these workers that I am trying to gauge.

I say this because when a people are not upset, it is paternalistic and imperialist of another group to come in and say, "no, you're doing it wrong. You don't know it but you're unhappy. Here, do it the way I prefer instead."

I don't mean to insinuate that nobody is upset. Just that it's important to keep it in mind, and to remember to ask.

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#94

Post by jiggy2011 »

TDL wrote: post #87
jiggy2011 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, if you are a net exporter and most of your countries citizens never travel abroad. It might present an issue if they wanted to buy a lot of US made weapons for example, but China is big enough that it largely does not need America.

How does China "not need America"? The U.S. is China's largest trading partner.

It doesn't need to buy stuff from America.

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#95

Post by pavs »

siam wrote: post #91
pavs wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please get off your moral high horse. I used to be like you all smug-faced and judgmental sitting behind a computer, until I was on the field with brac ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRAC_(NGO) ) and see for myself how the real world works. They are NOT underpaid for the most part (If you actually bothered to read what I wrote). They are under-paid to "western living standard" but not according to the local living st…

You are from BRAC! I have heard they are some sort of BLOOD SUCKER, by giving small money to poor they take 80% interest. Even some rural farmer had to suicide after taking loan from Brac. And you are talking about "living standard" how funny man :)

You are confusing brac with something else that happend in india.

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#96

Post by jacquesm »

gbog wrote: post #46
jacquesm wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's quite a feat of misunderstanding. And I tried pretty hard to make sure that that exact comment wouldn't be made in order to reject the thing out of hand. I'm fine with producing goods in the far east, but the fact is that the low prices are in fact powered by more than just a simple difference in value between currencies and standard of living. The pollution and the work place risks (including death) are…

It's not misunderstanding. You link to an awful video, draw general conclusions on the account of one event, and your unsaid conclusion is that Chinese people disdain human lives. 100 years ago you'd have added infanticide. So, no, Chinese people are not heartless zombies workers, they cherish human life and had a full structured ethical system when Europe was Barbary, and they are taking themselves out of survival m…

You're more than just a little bit disingenuous here.

Besides adding a whole pile of strawmen you seem to have a pre-conceived notion that in order to get out of a planned economy into a market economy there is no route other than those that lead through tremendously unsafe work practice and disregard for environmental issues.

And we already know that that isn't true.

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#97

Post by randomchars »

pavs wrote: post #83
ronilan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we live in a pretty well off part of the city in dhaka, a family of 6 with 2 maids and 2 drivers (thats how the local culture works). I have never seen a comment, anywhere, that so clearly, and concisely, explains how a local culture works.

Seriously, when I first moved here it bothered me a lot. I am used to cooking for myself and wouldn't mind learning how to drive. But I was absolutely prohibited from going to the kitchen even by accident and not go anywhere without having someone with me all the time. Now as I have learned my way around I do go out by myself but kitchen it still off limit.

Who stops you from going into the kitchen?

Re: Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap

#99

Post by pavs »

randomchars wrote: post #97
pavs wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, when I first moved here it bothered me a lot. I am used to cooking for myself and wouldn't mind learning how to drive. But I was absolutely prohibited from going to the kitchen even by accident and not go anywhere without having someone with me all the time. Now as I have learned my way around I do go out by myself but kitchen it still off limit.

Who stops you from going into the kitchen?

Mostly mum, I am really grown up. But people here lives with their parents, until they are married (even when they are married). Nothing wrong that AFAI am concerned. But most people from western culture won't probably get it.
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