Are you saying lack of information is the problem? They don't understand the risks so they're making a poor decision to work there? Since we can't educate them,

Are you saying lack of information is the problem? They don't understand the risks so they're making a poor decision to work there? Since we can't educate them, the next best thing is to force their factories to be shut down and drive them back into subsistence farming? Workers in China absolutely do have choice. Even the least skilled laborer often has the option of going back to his family's farm and doing harder work for lower pay. And that's what he would do if he's forced out of all other kinds of work. Most workers aren't so desperate though. There isn't a serious surplus of labor in China anymore. Factory workers often earn more than university graduates. Here's a quick test that could help decide the matter. If you met such a worker personally and got to know him. Then you had the power to choose to fire him and prevent him ever finding similarly hazardous work again in his life, or leave him alone. Which would you choose? Beware that believing you know the best way to direct somebody else's life is a risky area to step into. Actually, this whole working conditions argument is a complete red herring. The people who promote it are really the people who are nationalistic protectionists and need an excuse to justify tariffs. But this isn't the reason the government imposes tariffs. There isn't a "foreign workers health and safety" lobby pressuring the government to apply taxes to imported products. But wait, there's more. Health risks are relative. We all accept them to some extent. Is there an absolute level of acceptable danger? Is it OK for a US construction worker to sometimes die but not OK for a Chinese factory work to die slightly more often? Who's to say another culture won't deem our western safety standards to be inhumane and try to prevent us driving all those cars and building all those buildings because of all he fatalities they cause?