Re:Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap
by math on Sunday June 02, 2013 @10:10AM
(#5808532)
Maybe worth sharing an observation from my building endeavors in Cambodia: often the workers don't realize the risks they are taking, so before lobbying for decent standards, they often need to actually comprehend what they are. This can be more difficult to get through to them than you might think. For example getting welders to always wear eye protection, getting people spray paint for a living to do so in a properly ventilated space. You can try to explain to them the risks - and buy them all the stuff - but many of them will just ignore you and do it the "sensible way without all that silly overhead".
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We [the west] didn't understand it either until people started dying. Sometimes lessons have to be learned the hard way.
Re:Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap
by betterunix on Sunday June 02, 2013 @12:32PM
(#5809067)
It sounds like the lessons were already learned. Why are workers still being endangered? Just because they live in a different country?
One of the shocking things (to those of us in the developed world) is that in many cases, human life is treated as less valuable in less-developed parts of the world. Not just by other people, but by the person themselves.
Re:Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap
by kamakazizuru on Sunday June 02, 2013 @01:13PM
(#5809269)
bingo! its people themselves - when your option is to starve - or take a potential risk that maybe in the future you'll get sick from the spraypaint. You pick spray paint. People dont realize that not everyone has that many options in the developing world.
Weren't we talking about people who have the option of protecting themselves from the spray paint and choose not to?
Re:Why Stuff From China Is So Cheap
by kamakazizuru on Wednesday June 05, 2013 @05:57PM
(#5828914)
No.