FORUMS > The Sin Bin > The Price of Cheap Clothes |
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TotalRl.com - Home of Stupid Questions, Friday Pix and of course Millward is a Gurner.: |
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| Quote: Big Graeme "Of course it is that is the whole basis of the first post.'"
no, the first post is the usual 5 minute reaction to something that happened. next week it'll be something else. lets not pretend we give a toss, otherwise we wouldn't fill our cars with fuel from those lovely places in the middle east or use mobile phones with that ethically mined coltan.
and then there's apple, rlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/25/apple-child-labour-supplyrl, "demonising" children to build pretty computers, but hey, it's their "industry standard" and everyone uses 'em.
Quote: Big Graeme "And that means we in the West should exploit them to feed our cheap retail society?'"
absolutely. because no matter how crap the conditions seem to us they're better than what they were doing before, which was mainly starving. in time, things will improve.
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6673.jpg --------------------------------------------------------
Winner, Salford Reds RL Prediction League 2005
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Founder Member: Chorley Reds Chapter
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| Quote: Big Graeme "But that competetive edge is only gained by exploiting the work force.'"
But is it exploiting the workforce if the national minimum wage at the time was being applied?
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6673.jpg --------------------------------------------------------
Winner, Salford Reds RL Prediction League 2005
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Founder Member: Chorley Reds Chapter
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| Quote: El Barbudo "Agreed.
I don't know if that Thai rice is for export or for domestic consumption but I would say that, if and where the goods are for export, I think the minimum wage could be imposed faster and more effectively if, say, the EU used judicious import restrictions unless fair wages in decent workplaces are proven.
It does seem that Western businesses are sanguine about the conditions in which their goods are produced, until it comes out in the press or a pressure group gets hold of the info and publicises it, then we hear all the "we are working to improve ... " etc.'"
The rice is for both domestic and export - Thailand is pretty much the largest rice exporter in the world.
Western business have some degree of blame, but the fact remains that there is a difference between a living wage and a nationally adopted minimum wage: the same is true in the UK
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973_1515165968.gif Last edited by Ferocious Aardvark on stardate Jun 26, 3013 11:27 am, edited 48,562,867,458,300,023 times in total:d7dc4b20b2c2dd7b76ac6eac29d5604e_973.gif |
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| Quote: Man in Madrid "But is it exploiting the workforce if the national minimum wage at the time was being applied?'"
Paying the national minimum wage means you are 1p the right side of illegality. It has absolutely nothing to do with the issue of exploitation.
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2051.jpg The older I get, the better I was
Advice is what we seek when we already know the answer - but wish we didn't
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full-frontal lobotomy
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kirkstaller wrote: "All DNA shows is that we have a common creator."
cod'ead wrote: "I have just snotted weissbier all over my keyboard & screen"
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"No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin." - Aneurin Bevan:2051.jpg |
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| I found a book in a charity shop yesterday a large-format paperback that cost me more than the 1968 cover price of 12 shillings and 6 pence (I paid 69p). It's the history of the TUC from 1868 to 1968 and the first part is available to read online rlHERErl.
I suggest people should read it, British working conditions 150 years ago are very similar to those we pay to make our throwaway items
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Rank | Posts | Team |
International Board Member | 37704 | No Team Selected |
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May 2002 | 22 years | |
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Aug 2018 | Aug 2018 | LINK |
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2051.jpg The older I get, the better I was
Advice is what we seek when we already know the answer - but wish we didn't
I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full-frontal lobotomy
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kirkstaller wrote: "All DNA shows is that we have a common creator."
cod'ead wrote: "I have just snotted weissbier all over my keyboard & screen"
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"No amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin." - Aneurin Bevan:2051.jpg |
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| Quote: Derwent "Yes in certain sectors you could, no doubt about that, in others you couldn't. It wouldn't make much of a difference to higher end retailers who are buying jeans for £3 and selling for £75, but it would make a difference to Primark-type retailes who buy for £1 and sell for £5.
But again the retailer works on a target profit margin so any increase would be passed on to customers which would create the inflation I mentioned some time back. Unless the retailer is prepared to absorb the extra cost (which is unlikely) then somebody else in the chain has to pay it, and that would be the consumer.'"
An increase in the labour cost to produce a t-shirt in Bangladesh has absolutely zero effect on the fixed and variable costs of a UK (or other Western developed nation) retailer.
The TUC has determined that a doubling of the rate paid to Bangladeshi garment workers would add all of 2p to the cost of a t-shirt rlLINKrl. Of course you could argue that the TUC are taking a simplistic view and are not factoring in the applied percentage profit margins at each stage of production, distribution and sale. But I would counter that with: other than "that's the way it's always worked", why should that be the case? There is simply no sensible reason, other than sheer greed, why those workers wages cannot be doubled.
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