NYT Expose On Chinese Working Conditions In Apple Factories - Microeconomic Help Please

[Inny Binny]

They are a part of a free market. It's true that it's illegal to unionize, but even if Chinese could unionize, it wouldn't solve much. The video below is for anyone who thinks this way.

Third world countries artificially suppress wages in order to attract capital. It's good for the Chinese government, as they get more revenue and large GDP growth. It's good for western governments and their citizenry, as they get cheap goods. The only losers are the billions of people who are forced to work essentially as slaves.

It is truly ridiculous to try and pass this sort of international trade as part of the free market. In order for that to be the case, both the US and China would have to be free themselves - which is obviously insane.

[GBurr]

This is not even really controversial among economists. Paul Krugman has written articles calling for more sweatshops. The four tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan improved their incomes from 10% of American income to 40% in a single generation. Sweatshops made this possible. The only comparative advantage that these workers have is their cheap labor. Take away their comparative advantage and they will be living on a trash heap scavenging for food.

China needs to establish strong private property rights and allow for free markets.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/22/we...ted=all&src=pm
http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...eap_labor.html

[FlatIron]

I am not sure, if China is a free market. Sounds like state-capitalism to me.

[hazek]

This is nothing else but the consequence of their government's monetary policy of debasement and debt/inflation slavery. If their people weren't being robbed daily through this enslavement, they could easily afford to work less and live better.

It's basically what in one degree or another plagues the entire world.

[hazek]

I am not sure, if China is a free market. Sounds like state-capitalism to me.

It's not, there is no free markets on the entire planet today when you have a centrally controlled currency everywhere. The only market that is free right now is the Bitcoin economy and even there, I bet, consequences of the dollar policy can be felt.

[Watch]

China is the only nation in history who's GDP was higher in 1000AD than it was in 1950.
They started all over again after the State pillaged.

[Brian4Liberty]

The mistake most people make is that they compare the working conditions of sweatshop workers to their own Western conditions. You need to compare the conditions in the sweatshops to the alternatives they have, such as working on a farm. Sweatshops are almost always far superior to farmwork.

So if someone shows us a picture of the poorest person in a country, that is what we call the "alternative"?

Well, in this far off country called the United States, people should be happy to work long hours for low pay in terrible conditions.

Otherwise this is their alternative:

[eric_cartman]

The mistake most people make is that they compare the working conditions of sweatshop workers to their own Western conditions. You need to compare the conditions in the sweatshops to the alternatives they have, such as working on a farm. Sweatshops are almost always far superior to farmwork.

Slavery is pretty rare in South-east Asian sweatshops actually. In China it's a bit more common.

i backpacked around south east asia about 10 years ago... and even though you could tell that these countries were growing and developing and people were improving their quality of life... many of the jobs looked like really hard work.

a lot of people worked in the rice fields. it looks like back breaking labour in really hot weather.

you see people sewing carpets by hand.

and we went to see how they made bricks... and it was a bunch of guys who would hammer big metal spikes into giant boulders and split them in half. and they kept splitting them until they were the size of normal bricks. so these guys were making these bricks just using giant mallets and metal spikes. and the weather there was really hot and these guys had to do this kind of work in the sun all day.

i couldn't imagine having to work that hard for so little money. but i think that working in these "sweatshops" is probably pretty comparable to working in rice fields or doing some of this other manual labour in the hot sun.

[The_Ruffneck]

Because the Chinese workers have no better alternative. The US workers have a better alternative than those working conditions because we are futher along the capitalism road. Same reason we have no child labor. We can afford it.

So just because something was OK 200 years ago it's OK now?
Show your disdain by not giving Apple any cash , if you do want apple products just buy second hand - theres a flood of second hand sales every 6 months when the sheep run off to buy the latest thingamabob.

[eduardo89]

Chinese labour laws are atrocious. You get thrown in prison if you even think about organising a union. Don't justify these awful conditions as being part of a free market.

A law like that might go a long way in making the US a better place