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Comment by jsmith0295 | Hacker News Reader

"the global supply chain that exploits workers" can we please stop perpetuating that ridiculous myth, in the countries in which sweat shops exist, they are generally far better options for laborers than the alternatives.

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Exactly! The few rich people who bought up all the land and placed foreign-owned sweatshops on it are doing the workers a favor. Sure, many goods produced there are priced way out of the range of what the workers could ever dream of affording, but what the locals have lost in terms of self-sustainable living has been more than made up for by the pleasantries of factory towns, jobs for every man, woman, and child, and living quarters with meals for purchase on site, making it easy for children to fulfill the labor requirements they were contracted for as adolescents. And since capitalism has priced every other option but starvation and crime out of reach, sweatshops certainly appear to be good options for wage slaves.

Yes, this is exactly what every country which ever had sweatshops looks like. It's not like England, or the United States, or South Korea ever developed a middle class capable of buying the kinds of products being manufactured in their sweatshops. Capitalism only reinforced existing class divides, which is why the preindustrial nobility are still the only rich people in the world.

"Which is why the preindustrial nobility are still the only rich people in the world"

Obviously false.

Bill Gates? Jay Z? Zuckerberg? There are so many people on the Forbes Billionaires List who are self-made.

Um, that's my point.

That's like saying... "I know I chopped off 2 of your fingers, but the employer across the street will take a whole arm... so ya know ...this is better than the alternative."

Yes, it could be worse but that doesn't meant they're not being exploited and the issue shouldn't be brought up and examined for improvement.

I think bringing bodily harm into this is kinda disingenious. They're sweat shops, not human chop shops.

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/1/4/forced_abortions_sweats...

Here you go:

1. http://gokicker.com/2013/04/25/how-sweatshop-conditions-kill... ...even in America.

2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096551/Apple-shamed...

>>Workers are continuing to die and sustain injuries in horrific accidents as they are forced to work from morning to night for slave wages in sweatshop conditions.

Now tell me more about how disingenuous I am.... http://i.imgur.com/eu0AZF9.png

Exploit has become a dirty word. For an American claim that a global supply chain is a negative thing while writing for a British media company for money is a glaring hypocrisy.

Everything we have, every tool we use, every byte we distribute over the internet relies on that global supply chain. Abstract concepts do not abuse workers.

Exploit is a dirty word, and should be.

"make full use of and derive benefit from (a resource)"

please explain your disdain

https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=mountain%20to...

But you are disliking what people consider a resource, not the word exploit.

Well, she's not saying that, she states :"that represent something she [the authors daugther] opposes – the global supply chain that exploits workers."

So her 14 year old daughter has a fully qualified, informed opinion of the global suppy chain, how it came into being, and what it affects, and she wants you to respect that.

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