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Comment by groby_b | Hacker News Reader

It's not subjective. Having worked on a cruise ship 25 years ago: It was always somewhat exploitative, but it's gotten much worse over the years. Yes, you could use your one day off a week to go ashore. More importantly, you weren't yet asked to do two jobs at the same time.

By now, a lot of cruise workers work 12-16 hours a day. Staffing/passenger has decreased. That one day "to go ashore" often goes to just sleeping for once, doing laundry, and various mandatory all-hands drills. So, yes, down time is vanishing. And the pay hasn't improved significantly.

But it's still a field that allows especially people from low-income countries to make more money than in their home country, so that too will fall under collateral damage.

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>allows especially people from low-income countries to make more money than in their home country

It seems strange to want to eliminate someone else's best employment opportunity simply because it isn't up to your standards.

If you were to take your business to another cruise line that provides workers better working conditions, I could see that, but is not going on cruises entirely really the best way to improve things?

If groby_b were arguing for bans on cruise ships, I could see your objection. But they are perfectly free to spend their own money in different ways.

Perhaps they would use the money saved on cruises instead to buy more cheap goods from China and Bangladesh? Those factory workers benefit from demand for their wares, too.

These jobs don’t have to be eliminated. They can be improved.

This mass commercial cruising needs to go the way of the dinosaurs.

It's a military style mandatory entertainment camp with a lot of retail, and very little space.

They are incredibly deceptive and exist solely to extract money from you (I'm talking about Carnival here)

> It seems strange to want to eliminate someone else's best employment opportunity simply because it isn't up to your standards.

"simply because it isn't up to your standards" is the reason for all labor laws - OSHA, child labor, etc.

We shouldn't treat those born in poverty differently than those born into wealth - and it seems like a tiny step to require cruise ships to treat their workers well.

>We shouldn't treat those born in poverty differently than those born into wealth - and it seems like a tiny step to require cruise ships to treat their workers well.

And neither do they. Their offer of employment is valid for rich people too.

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