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Swedish startup selling North Korean jeans
- arch_hunter 17y agoAnything made in North Korea, as long as it is not overly expensive, would be worth buying just for the sake of owning something made in North Korea. (At least in my humble opinion.) If North Korea wanted to they could probably make a whole lot of money, and improve the living standards of their citizens, by hiring a few good foriegn designers and created a whole line of specialty products "100% made in North Korea." Just imagine the premium they could charge! The only difficulty that I can think of is how they would rehabilitate their image.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoi don't understand. why would people want to own an artifact of human misery?
- AlphaMonkey 17y agoWeren't some rich Russians willing to pay for the privilege of a pirate-hunting vacation off the coast of Somalia? You're assuming everyone has a conscience, which is an unrealistic assumption.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agosometimes I forget I live in a chimpanzee insane asylum.
- jsrn 17y ago> Weren't some rich Russians willing to pay for the privilege of a pirate-hunting vacation off the coast of Somalia? No, that was a hoax: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/piratecruise.asp http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/piratecruise.asp
- AlphaMonkey 17y agoPlease note that I stated that some people were willing to pay for the privilege of blowing up Somali pirates with heavy weapons. You found evidence that the Russian company selling pirate-hunting vacations was a hoax. I am talking about demand for a gory form of entertainment, you're talking about supply. Hence, you have not defeated my argument. I personally know people who would pay to shoot pirates with 50-cal machine guns. You'd be amazed at how bored executives at big companies can get...
- ilkhd2 17y ago1) People in USA/Canada/Other western world are _addicted_ to products made in misery (in China, for example). Less miserable of course, but still far from good conditions. 2) If there are reasons to think that it can improve their condition, than it os a good idea.
- AlphaMonkey 17y agoVery good point. China is only the tip of the iceberg. For example, about 10 years ago, there was a scandal that Nike used slave child labor in Pakistan to manufacture soccer balls. http://www1.american.edu/TED/nike.htm http://www1.american.edu/TED/nike.htm
- ilkhd2 17y agoThe problem, that USA is _not_ much better in the ways how blue collar workers are treated there. There is a good book "the great squeeze", which talks about misery workers go through working on American industrial facilities. Google Books should have it.
- houseabsolute 17y agoRidiculous. They are addicted to inexpensive products, nothing else. Few people ever check a label to see where clothes are made.
- ilkhd2 17y agoInexpensive (or more correctly - cheap) are almost always made in misery. So by simple logic, people who prefer cheap products prefer products made in misery.
- ramchip 17y agoDoes not compute. High-level languages are almost always slower. So by simple logic, people who prefer high-level languages prefer slow languages. However, people wouldn't want anything to do with a slow language that's low-level. And in the same way for a shirt made in a poor country that's not cheap.
- rivo 17y agoyou might want to read this: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=292&wit_id=665 http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=292...
- InclinedPlane 17y agoHow could you possibly imagine that the North Korean regime would undertake any activity to "improve the living standards of their citizens"? The appalling levels of human misery achieved in North Korea are the product of the regime. It takes only the slightest mote of thought to imagine that without the regime the North Korean people would enjoy wealth and comfort of the level of South Korea.
- spazmaster 17y agoI just bought some cool propaganda merchandise from teh official North Korean website :)
- koevet 17y agoActually, I wonder if more entrepreneurs like those Swedish geeks started to invest in North Korea would initiate a "Chinafication" process of the country.
- mahmud 17y ago"Entrepreneurs" are doing brisk business with North Korea, to the tune of billions every year, doing arms deals, chemicals, construction, money laundering, commodities, and what have you. Second to the Chinese, Singapore government officials are deeply tied to the NK regime, for example.
- koevet 17y agoNaturally I was implying some sort of legit investment, such as goods that can be mass produced and sold to the world. It may sound cynical, but a fascination indeed exists with products coming from troubled places. Furthermore, there is a whole commercial philosophy behind supporting developing countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade
- ilkhd2 17y agoIf you like products, coming from troubled places I'd recommend to look at American products. USA is a very troubled country. Great inequality, corruption, pollution, crime, wars. Lack of labor law. Infrastructure is falling apart. There is chance the products are by slaves somewher in midwestern states.
- koevet 17y agoSounds like you have never laid a foot on a troubled place.
- ilkhd2 17y agoSounds like somebody have never been outside downtown San Francisco/Seattle/or whatever and saw real life in USA. I lived in Florida for couple of years, and I never saw (anywhere I had a chance to live) such grotesque contrast between poverty in the inside cities and absurd richness on the oceanfront.
- antidaily 17y agohttp://nokojeans.com/ http://nokojeans.com/
- chrischen 17y agoOn one hand if you deal with a corrupt government, you legitimize them. On the other hand, if you don't legitimize them, they can blame their ineffectivenesses on forced isolation.
- EugeneG 17y agoBy the way, this is the page they are talking about: http://www.korea-dpr.com/exports.htm http://www.korea-dpr.com/exports.htm I remember looking at this and laughing a few years ago. Ah, if only!