--- "William Robb" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: << They do not support sweat shops. >>
That statement depends on two things. First, it depends on what you call a "sweat shop". Many people simply take this to mean any plant which operates on labor rules not as strict as in the US, Europe, or other highly-industrialized - which basically means that anything made in China, Vietnam, etc. is "sweat shop" to these people. Second, it depends on whether one believes the company in question. Wal-Mart attackers tend to assume that they must be lying, while their defenders tend to assume that they must be telling the truth. Personally, I don't know whether they're lying or telling the truth. But it's all a moot point if one's definition of "sweat shop" is what I outlined above. << North American consumers in general do support sweatshop labour, whether unwittingly or otherwise by insisting on, and shopping for the best price they can find. >> Er, and which company promises "Always Low Prices" ;-)? (One could argue that they're forced to by the market - or, one could argue that they came up with the idea and conditioned the market to demand it.) << Those foriegn workers, btw, need to make some sort of income to stay alive too. >> NOW you've gotten to the core of why I, personally, am moderately pro-globalization. (With reservations, of course. It has to be done right.) The fact is, export trade makes poor countries richer! Japan was poor once; now they're rich. Same for Taiwan. And South Korea. And the same will happen in China and all the other Asian countries that are rapidly industrializing today. Their industrialization may not be pretty - but then, no country's has ever been. Like sausages, if you want to enjoy industrialized economies, you probably shouldn't watch them being made. New Doug __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
