

Is cheap Chinese labor really why we can get so many gadgets for Christmas? - antrod
http://theonda.org/articles/2010/12/24/dont-feel-guilty-about-your-gadgets-this-christmas

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A1kmm
The cost of production of many consumer goods are determined by a combination
of efficiency in manufacturing (good) and unreasonable exploitation of workers
and the environment (bad). Consumer pressure in the market can sometimes cause
a temporary back-down, but as a whole I doubt it is very effective, simply
because consumers can't easily differentiate products produced by workers
getting fair pay and with appropriate environmental safeguards.

The most effective response would be for governments to set tariffs determined
so that manufacturers who can't prove labour below a certain cost wasn't used
(and other similar social and environmental measures), so manufacturers can't
outsource to avoid laws that exist for the wellbeing of society.

These types of measures often meet opposition, because they get lumped in with
overzealous protectionist policies because both are aberrations from the
principle of free trade. However, the former are aberrations which are
beneficial to the world economy, while the latter can be harmful. Separating
the two types of measures legally is difficult; I think the best approach is
to avoid free trade treaties, educate the public about the benefits of free
trade done right and the pitfalls of it done wrong, and let each country
unilaterally decide which tariffs are beneficial and which are harmful to
impose on imports into that country.

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jpitkin
I don't know that I see the point. Just because they could pay more doesn't
mean that the fact that they don't doesn't enable a cheap consumerist society
where we benefit off of their poor working conditions.

