Link to the text only version: https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=629871725
I still think NPR should consider redirecting to the requested article. Can't be that hard, can it?
A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
61–70 of 72 posts
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Putting it in terms of cost & productivity is very clinical, very inhuman, but it's also virtually unassailable. Nobody will argue "We should continue to treat people badly and make less money". So to me it seems like the gold standard result. You don't have to argue ethics, morals, or worry about people cheating. Because you've just made humane treatment of workers economically rational.
You've missed my point. I'm not saying that putting it in terms of cost and productivity isn't virtually unassailable. I'm saying that it's ridiculous that this experiment was necessary to convince management that ensuring the basic welfare of its workforce would improve that productivity. Just as it's obvious that productivity isn't maximized if workers aren't permitted to sleep or eat lunch (and we don't really nee…
I would go on a limb an say you have never been to India?
I'll let someone else play hobby-anthropologist as to the reasons why, but complete disregard to the plights of the poor is rampant among the middle and higher class Indians.
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
You've missed my point. I'm not saying that putting it in terms of cost and productivity isn't virtually unassailable. I'm saying that it's ridiculous that this experiment was necessary to convince management that ensuring the basic welfare of its workforce would improve that productivity. Just as it's obvious that productivity isn't maximized if workers aren't permitted to sleep or eat lunch (and we don't really nee…
I would go on a limb an say you have never been to India? I'll let someone else play hobby-anthropologist as to the reasons why, but complete disregard to the plights of the poor is rampant among the middle and higher class Indians.
I'll take the armchair anthropologist bait. It's rampant because there are so many of us.
If you see a homeless man rotting away, your heart goes out to him. If you see ten thousand of them, then...meh. Human empathy is finite unfortunately, and available in vanishing quantities among the Indian rich. The Indian rich are vile in a way that cannot be adequately described in words. Those of us who've made it outside India and are living abroad often like to discuss the vast differences in the value of life in the west vs east, and also the much higher dignity of labour.
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> two words: angry boomer. Yup. In my early 30s I had one challenge me to a fight after a lifeguard ejected him from the "fast lane" for swimming too slowly. I said I'd meet him in the parking lot, then left the back way. I still wonder whether he showed up. I assume something was wrong with his meds. While riding in a group of 20+ sportbikes we had another try to start a fight with us at a gas station. Twenty peopl…
Any theories as to why those "boomers" are so angry?
Typically entitlement.
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#65While I'm glad that this experiment was done, because it resulted in better conditions for the factory workers, it bothers me that experiments like this are necessary in the first place. I get that managers and owners, qua managers and owners , are concerned with maximizing productivity, but it should be obvious to anyone with a modicum of humanity and common sense that productivity will increase when labourers are t…
> anyone with a modicum of humanity and common sense
There's a lot of people out there who don't have those. And can be very driven for their own aims with zero regard for the lives of others. There are a lot of managers in every industry for whom unhappiness of the employees is a sign that they're "working hard".
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> two words: angry boomer. Yup. In my early 30s I had one challenge me to a fight after a lifeguard ejected him from the "fast lane" for swimming too slowly. I said I'd meet him in the parking lot, then left the back way. I still wonder whether he showed up. I assume something was wrong with his meds. While riding in a group of 20+ sportbikes we had another try to start a fight with us at a gas station. Twenty peopl…
Any theories as to why those "boomers" are so angry?
Many people tend to be less patient with age (rather than more patient). They see younger people as a disappointment and treat them as such.
I have to wonder though if millennials won't get to the exact same point. If feels like this is the classic generation divide rather than a specific "boomer" issue.
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#67I wonder if the spectrum difference in the light sources would also have an effect?
Sorta, though I don't think normal office hours matter much here. Blue-spectrum light influences the circadian rhythm in your body by shifting it forward, keeping you more awake. Red-spectrum light doesn't influence that rhythm as much and from personal experience, will get you sleepy relatively quickly if it's late at night or you're otherwise exhausted. On the other hand, blue light keeps you awake however once you eat into the normal sleep time of your day enough, you'll start experiencing heavy eye strain, headaches and sore muscles rather quickly. (Personal experience is an Arduino-controlled LED strip with RGBW setting, which allows me to very precisely control the white temperature)
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maybe Americans and European yuppies can pay a couple of extra bucks for their Gap t-shirts and Gap can insist that Indian factory owners install air conditioning instead? Like they weren't already overpaying 100x+ for them. Maybe Gap, H&M and others could cut their margins a bit...
H&M’s operating margin is at 10%. It seems that many clothing retailers are somewhere around that point. 100× doesn’t even work as hyperbole for me. H&M likely wouldn’t even survive a 2× reduction in clothing prices. Which is not to say that H&M (or others) are blameless in this. It’s more to say that this is a structural issue.
That's because while the clothes themselves are sold for 10x or 100x the price they cost to make (which is dirt cheap, these stores pay the sweatshops close to nothing), the difference is spent on having stores in high rent areas in most cities.
This is part of the branding strategy for stores like H&M or Zara. Many of the items on sale are of similar (or slightly better) quality with what you find in cheap outlets at the edge of the city, even the ones that sell en-gross. But having a store in an affluent part of town gives them more credibility and a better image.
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
H&M’s operating margin is at 10%. It seems that many clothing retailers are somewhere around that point. 100× doesn’t even work as hyperbole for me. H&M likely wouldn’t even survive a 2× reduction in clothing prices. Which is not to say that H&M (or others) are blameless in this. It’s more to say that this is a structural issue.
That's because while the clothes themselves are sold for 10x or 100x the price they cost to make (which is dirt cheap, these stores pay the sweatshops close to nothing), the difference is spent on having stores in high rent areas in most cities. This is part of the branding strategy for stores like H&M or Zara. Many of the items on sale are of similar (or slightly better) quality with what you find in cheap outlets a…
Which, again, hints at a structural problem (and gets the Marxist inside of me all tingly).
Because capitalism H&M can’t move those stores elsewhere.
Re: A Drop of 4 Degrees Made a Big Difference for a Garment Maker's Bottom Line
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same problem, the decline (opt-out) seems to make it impossible to read the article. Android chrome.
I feel like the majority of people downvoting my original top level comment haven't had to click the decline/opt-out link.
I feel like you did not really look: