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SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

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Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#11

Post by chodk »

KPLauritzen wrote: post #10
wodenokoto wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Danish version had the same angle. They where terrible at the sweatshop work, but wouldn't admit it. One of them ended up stealing food from the film crew.

What was the Danish version called? I don't recall hearing about it

Blod, Sved og T-shirts http://www.dr.dk/Undervisning/Gymnasium/Samfund/Oekonomi/Glo...

I think it is besides the point that they were pampered upper middle class kids. The things they saw were horrible. In the danish edition, they went to India where there was a whole town build up around a mountain of trash. The folks there would drink black water from the mountain.

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#12

Post by colmvp »

So, I remember seeing this on Reddit a few weeks back.

Some commenters mentioned that sweatshops are a necessary evil for developing nations. It's better to have a shitty job than to have the alternative of being jobless and resorting to theft/prostitution for sustenance.

How true is such an argument?

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#13

Post by mkristian »

KPLauritzen wrote: post #10
wodenokoto wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Danish version had the same angle. They where terrible at the sweatshop work, but wouldn't admit it. One of them ended up stealing food from the film crew.

What was the Danish version called? I don't recall hearing about it

"Blod, sved og t-shirts"

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#14

Post by CmonDev »

colmvp wrote: post #12

So, I remember seeing this on Reddit a few weeks back. Some commenters mentioned that sweatshops are a necessary evil for developing nations. It's better to have a shitty job than to have the alternative of being jobless and resorting to theft/prostitution for sustenance. How true is such an argument?

There is no guaranteed minimum income even in developed nations (not even with those huge debts). Most likely thing to happen is that those sweatshops will become automated and the population will have to drop to pre-industrialisation levels.

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#15

Post by colechristensen »

JonnieCache wrote: post #7

The BBC did their own version of this in 2008 called Blood Sweat and T Shirts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood,_Sweat_and_T-shirts The gimmick was that most of the kids were ludicrous pampered upper middle class fashion students with no sense of perspective, or at least the programme was edited to portray them as such. Much of the entertainment came from watching them subjected to backbreaking labor while their s…

The problem with the gimmick is that it's intellectually dishonest when it comes to making the strongly implied point. Hand picked young people forced into any difficult labor, even in high payed rewarding first-world careers, would probably react in mostly the same way (especially with the benefit of film editing) as they would in a third world sweatshop.

You can see young people crying on "reality" TV when all they have to do is be alive in a house when everything is provided for them.

Of course I'm not defending the conditions in sweat shops or saying they're not awful, it's just that you can get a (selected) pampered upper middle class young person to cry on television about nearly anything.

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#17

Post by fmdud »

colmvp wrote: post #12

So, I remember seeing this on Reddit a few weeks back. Some commenters mentioned that sweatshops are a necessary evil for developing nations. It's better to have a shitty job than to have the alternative of being jobless and resorting to theft/prostitution for sustenance. How true is such an argument?

The jury's out on whether or not this is "true", as macroeconomics tends to not be an exact science by any means.

What strikes me is how comforting the idea is for us as the wealthy; if the companies have an agenda to have us believe this (which they do) and the idea is very comforting (which it is), it only really matters whether we can be convinced that it's true.

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#18

Post by sjtrny »

colmvp wrote: post #12

So, I remember seeing this on Reddit a few weeks back. Some commenters mentioned that sweatshops are a necessary evil for developing nations. It's better to have a shitty job than to have the alternative of being jobless and resorting to theft/prostitution for sustenance. How true is such an argument?

It is definitely not a neccesary evil. Minimum wage in those countries could be increased (or one created and enforced) so that there is a dramatic improvement on the workers lives without much of an impact on the end consumer. Consider how cheap a t-shirt is in the U.S. However politicians are scared since they think it will drive business out of their country. Or they are corrupt.

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#19

Post by fmdud »

CmonDev wrote: post #14
colmvp wrote: post #12

So, I remember seeing this on Reddit a few weeks back. Some commenters mentioned that sweatshops are a necessary evil for developing nations. It's better to have a shitty job than to have the alternative of being jobless and resorting to theft/prostitution for sustenance. How true is such an argument?

There is no guaranteed minimum income even in developed nations (not even with those huge debts). Most likely thing to happen is that those sweatshops will become automated and the population will have to drop to pre-industrialisation levels.

I've never been a big fan of the "it would be OK if they all just went away" line of thinking.

Re: SWEATSHOP – I can´t take any more

#20

Post by niklasni1 »

Kenji wrote: post #16

I wonder, how can we in the first world change our behaviour here to stop things like that? Does the very way we live cause this or are the causes local?

Local labour laws allow this. Who's to say if it's internal or external pressures that keep them like they are -- there are certainly locals who are also making money off this.

As for what you can do, you can sew your own clothes.

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