I save a lot of money by not buying things marked “Made in China”. If I don’t really really need it and that’s what’s on it, I won’t buy it. I’m sure a lot of things are made there that aren’t marked as such, though.
Johann Hari: We shop until Chinese workers drop – Independent Online Edition > Johann Hari
Over the past decade, an old word once used in the Maoist gulags has come back to China. It is “gulaosi” – and it is used to describe the men and women who are literally being worked to death producing clothes, electronics and toys for you and me.
Wie Meiren was a standard-issue gulaosi, the kind you can find in every Chinese town. She was a 32-year-old woman with three kids who left her hungry village and travelled to Dongkeng, where she got a job assembling the toy cars for the British kids’ market.
There, she was expected to work 360 days a year, from 7.30am to as late as 9.30pm, with only a half-hour break for lunch and fines for taking too long on the toilet. As in many Chinese factories, military drills were often yelled: “Long live the company!” If anybody argued back to the managers, they could be punched in the face.
One day, Meiren had a family crisis at home. She was forbidden by her bosses from going to take care of it – so she became angry and fainted. She forced herself to keep going to work for the next fortnight, but eventually she became so exhausted she collapsed – and died before she reached the hospital. The autopsy indicated gulaosi – heart and organ failure caused by extreme exhaustion.
Some 50,000 fingers are sliced off in China’s factories every month. Tao Chun Lan was a 20-year-old woman from Sichuan province at the heart of China who moved to Shenzhen and got a job working in a handicrafts factory. One night, she discovered the factory was filling with smoke – and the workers were locked inside. Some 84 workers were burned or trampled to death. Lan jumped out of a window, irreparably damaging her legs. She has received no compensation. “They don’t care if I am crippled for life,” she says.
9 Responses
yes, workers in china are treated miserably. chinese workers–and others– in new york sweat shops are also. for me simply buying less stuff is the goal. my world is so awash in “made in china” things, i would not know where to begin if i wanted to limit these.
Such an excellent reminder for all of us. There IS a price for all of the ‘cheap’ goods we import from China – a human cost. I tried to buy a pair of winter boots that I could afford that weren’t made in China. I ended up with a Canadian pair and spent more than I wanted to. But I guess you have to put your money where your mouth is. I would happily buy from China if Chinese workers made a living wage and were treated humanely by their employers.
This is shocking. I am ready to join your China stuff boycott.
Thank god the free market is setting everyone free.
I’m afraid that if we apply this standard to all sweatshops even those not in China we’d be walking around naked. Unfortunately other countries around the world are very abusive to their slave labor employees. Excellent reminder, but I don’t know what to do but what Howard Dean suggested, which is to demand that anyone doing business with the US must comly to a minimum labor standard, even if it means that the prices at Walmart goes up. Whatever the price is it can’t be higher than someone losing life and/or limb.
The conditions that Chinese workers toil in is reprehensible. But let’s not kid ourselves, millions of workers here in America work in horrible conditions, too. If you don’t believe me, stop by your local poultry processing factory/farm plant some time. Blood-soaked workers struggling to keep up a frantic pace, as they fight with birds who’re clawing them and defecating on them. Sometimes I really wonder how much our society has changed since the days of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.”
Hey, I hate the evil Tyson with a passion, too.
I also refuse to buy Tyson products. Evil, evil company.
Re; made in China
You know what is really sad? all the knowledge and technology that has gone over there. we basically showed them how to do it. except they cut corners and use cheap materials. they use teenagers untrained in dangerous jobs. the quality of most made in china products is sub-standard. but try to find made in the U.S. or Canada?? I agree to boycott china wherever possible!
belive it or not, buying american made products is not that hard to do online. every thing i wear from my workboots to my ballcap is american made, and is no more expensive than wal-mart. all you have to do is try to buy american made, and you’ll be suprised at what you can purchase. by the way, if anybody cares anymore, it’s good for america……