Its not a matter of willing, its do this or starve. That's not choice.
And anyone profiting off putting workers through conditions like those should be prosecuted for manslaughter ... I don't care if its corrupt Bangladesh officials or stock traders on Wall Street.
It gets really old listening to the wealthy complain about how greedy workers are, slamming underpaid workers as not being responsible when their full time wages don't even cover the basics of food, shelter and medicine, yet the same wealthy people deny all responsibility for profits they make circumventing basic human rights, labor and environmental laws by exporting production to places like China and Bengladesh that have little or no regulations nor enforcement.
Shame on you, Brad. Not that its unexpected from you ... but still, shame on you. Your right to profit does not come at the expense of others' basic human rights.
Shame on me for what? For believing that people have the right to choose their own destinies without the interference of pampered wealthy foreigners telling them what they should and shouldn't do? Or perhaps I should be ashamed for not accepting that some arbitrarily chosen group is blamed for a particular tragedy?
I don't think workers are "greedy". That's not a term I'd use anyway. What is "greedy" anyway? What I do know is that given the choice of buying two shoes that are identical in every way except price and where it is made, virtually every person will choose based on price and not where it's made. It's a fact of life.
Every time someone buys a product made in China, they have outsourced. I'm not judging people for doing that. But it strikes me as hypocritical for people to complain about outsourcing when odds are, they do the same thing every day.
Everyone posting in this thread is "wealthy". Trying to single out whether you're in the top 0.1% of the human race or merely the top 0.5% of the human race strikes me as ridiculous.
The best way to solve these problems is to either make a conscious choice not to buy products from companies that are involved in the poor treatment of employees or vote for politicians that will try to encourage other countries to pass laws to protect their workers.
However, it is important to remember that the US and Europe and Canada went through this same phase as well. The 1850s through the 1940s saw the same kinds of things routinely. Moreover, we still have this kind of thing happening in the United States regularly -- it just doesn't get reported because it occurs out in rural America in our agribusinesses.
As a business person, what I can do is try to hire the best people I can, pay them competitive wages and try to make sure they're treated well. Unless you've done more, then spare me your "shame on you" rhetoric.
Shame on you for trying to excuse profiting off circumventing every human rights, labor and environmental regulation on the books and claiming wealthy employers have no choice but to increase their wealth at the expense of both jobs in the U.S. and intolerable conditions overseas. Its an outrageous, if unfortunately uncommon for right-wingers, deceitful excuse for reckless profit with no regard to how much harm is inflicted on others in persuing the profit. Those with the power and the means to do as it wish, whom never have to worry about food on their table, whether they will be murdered for trying to negotiate for better wages or work conditions, or whether your place of work will fall apart and kill you because your employer and nation refuse to give any regard to your life you /insist/ 'have no choice' but to make themselves richer cutting these corners. You can't figure out where the shame on you should be when you fabricate excuses for this!?
"What I do know is that given the choice of buying two shoes that are identical in every way except price and where it is made, virtually every person will choose based on price and not where it's made. It's a fact of life." Which is why we needed to stop apartheid with sanctions, and we need to impose similar standards to prohibit import into the United States any goods produced anywhere that may include forced, unpaid labor (such as laogai political prisoner camps in China; I am not as familiar with Bangladesh but I know forced, unpaid labor does exist in several third-world nations -- besides China -- and American corporations and stockholders profit off it). I am not an isolationist/nationalist; I don't care if everything sold in the U.S. is necessarily made in the U.S., but I find it intolerable that every single hard-fought U.S. law, including basic human rights laws and the Emancipation Proclamation are completely circumvented every time a CEO dumps their American workers for some overseas sweat shop with appalling conditions, unchecked murder of labor leaders and little or no labor protection laws or enforcment, some raw components processed with forced and unpaid political prison labor, environmental calamities and the like. It is absolutely inexcusable for anyone to profit off this; while little may be done directly in the internal affairs of foreign nations, the slightest amount of decency would demand we prohibit anyone in the U.S. from profiting off such. Stop the flow of money to the corrupt foreign nations, stop rewarding those running these appalling shops and the situation will change. It worked in South Africa. Rewarding those already profiting from the status quo has never changed anything.
We can't even make a conscious choice in the U.S. anymore, as mega-corporations like Wal-Mart have killed off domestic production by effectively demanding their suppliers overseas production and using that to put smaller retailers out of business whom would not import from suppliers using appalling conditions in third-world nations, and lobbied Congresspersons to kill any and all legislation that would prohibit or restrict import of goods.
There is no right to profit, certainly not a the expense of others' human rights including the right to life and a complete and total ban on slavery, the global environmental health and other serious negative externalities where some very privileged few profit at the expense of many more.
Yes, I am much better off than most folk, but there are a lot of nations I would be better off in, and I would gladly emigrate had I the means to do so legally. We are all naturally inclined to only see what's immediately around us ... how well do you know the janitorial staff at your offices or your groundskeepers? Are they just a bunch of dirty workers costing you money for their meager pay? Do you cheer when the governor of Wisconsin outlaws organized labor? Do you feel shame for the workers of Hostess whose union accepted pay cuts over the years even while the pay for the CEO increased by double digit %s? Does your personal right to profit exceed the rights of others?
I will not spare you the "shame on you" retorts for your deceitful excuses for profit off murder, appalling working conditions, pollution and other irresponsible calamities made by wealthy American "job creators" and the corrupt 3rd world tyrants they are in bed with to make each other mutually rich while stranding American workers and exploiting-to-mass-manslaughter 3rd world workers. I doubt anyone will ever change your mindset, but hopefully I make you work just a bit harder to continue to delude yourself with your excuses for supporting profit off of third world exploitation.
