5 ms·

Ridiculous. They are addicted to inexpensive products, nothing else. Few people ever check a label to see where clothes are made.

ilkhd2 17y ago
Inexpensive (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 ago
  Does 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.
  - ilkhd2 17y ago
    I am not talking about their intentions - that is not a domain of "simple logic" anyway. What I am saying is factual statement: the set [made cheaply] is a subset of [made in misery]. So you cannot escape purchasing stuff [made in misery] if you buy suff [made cheaply].
- AlisdairO 17y ago
  That's some seriously bad logic. The fact that cheap implies misery does not mean that misery implies cheap. People aren't buying the product for the misery, they're buying it for the price. Adding misery without affecting the price will not make people any more likely to buy your product.
  - ilkhd2 17y ago
    Yes, you sound like Nazi's on Nuremberg process - "we just executed orders". And that is true: the did not care about people whom the tortured. In fact the would in other circumstances be friendly and polite to them. Yet they really-really needed their salaries or premiums or move up on their military ladder or other stuff.
    - dgordon 17y ago
      So if people didn't buy stuff from these miserable countries the people there would be better off? Absolutely wrong. Typically their other choices are subsistence farming, prostitution, or selling children into same. Also, I'm amazed that you tried to equate economic decisions to the acts of torture and mass murder committed by the Nazis. There ought to be a law about that sort of thing. ;-)
    - AlisdairO 17y ago
      What utter drivel. I made no comment on the rights or wrongs of the situation: I simply pointed out that your logic was horribly flawed. Which it remains, and no attempts to compare me to a nazi are going to change that.
alxp 17y ago
Americans aren't as ignorant as you think, everyone has now seen images of sweat shops and knows if you ask them that manufacturing conditions for the things they buy at Wal Mart are awful. However, they continue to buy them, just like an alcoholic continues to drink even though he knows that it's killing him. That's textbook addiction right there.
- hugh_ 17y ago
  Not really, it's just damn near impossible to buy anything that isn't made in China or some other crappy dictatorship.
  - ilkhd2 17y ago
    Difficult but not impossible. Amazingly enough, not everything affordable made in misery. LEGO kits for example are mostly made in Europe. Every once in a while you can see inexpensive toys made in Sweden, shirts made in Egypt, platic containers made in Germany, furniture made in Canada, hammers made in Russia, just look at the stickers. The problem is in my view is not that countries are dictatorships, the problems are: 1. Outsourcing everything to one country creates unhealthy dependence of recipient economy on manufacturer. Well you may say - China depends on USA as much as USA on China - and that will be false - you forgot about a big economy - European Union/Canada. Asymmetry is obvious. 2. Nothing bad in outsourcing some amount of production to poor countries - good way to help them in fact. But if you overstretch then will destroy wellbeing of the citizens of your country, forcing them out of job, and, because poor countries has poor environmental regulations, poison environment of the producer.
- jrockway 17y ago
  The problem is... say you don't want to buy something made in China. The alternative is to do without, as everything is made in China. (I would love to buy a laptop that's not made in China. Link me to one.)

ilkhd2 17y ago

Inexpensive (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 ago
Does 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.
- ilkhd2 17y ago
  I am not talking about their intentions - that is not a domain of "simple logic" anyway. What I am saying is factual statement: the set [made cheaply] is a subset of [made in misery]. So you cannot escape purchasing stuff [made in misery] if you buy suff [made cheaply].
AlisdairO 17y ago
That's some seriously bad logic. The fact that cheap implies misery does not mean that misery implies cheap. People aren't buying the product for the misery, they're buying it for the price. Adding misery without affecting the price will not make people any more likely to buy your product.
- ilkhd2 17y ago
  Yes, you sound like Nazi's on Nuremberg process - "we just executed orders". And that is true: the did not care about people whom the tortured. In fact the would in other circumstances be friendly and polite to them. Yet they really-really needed their salaries or premiums or move up on their military ladder or other stuff.
  - dgordon 17y ago
    So if people didn't buy stuff from these miserable countries the people there would be better off? Absolutely wrong. Typically their other choices are subsistence farming, prostitution, or selling children into same. Also, I'm amazed that you tried to equate economic decisions to the acts of torture and mass murder committed by the Nazis. There ought to be a law about that sort of thing. ;-)
  - AlisdairO 17y ago
    What utter drivel. I made no comment on the rights or wrongs of the situation: I simply pointed out that your logic was horribly flawed. Which it remains, and no attempts to compare me to a nazi are going to change that.

alxp 17y ago

Americans aren't as ignorant as you think, everyone has now seen images of sweat shops and knows if you ask them that manufacturing conditions for the things they buy at Wal Mart are awful. However, they continue to buy them, just like an alcoholic continues to drink even though he knows that it's killing him. That's textbook addiction right there.

hugh_ 17y ago
Not really, it's just damn near impossible to buy anything that isn't made in China or some other crappy dictatorship.
- ilkhd2 17y ago
  Difficult but not impossible. Amazingly enough, not everything affordable made in misery. LEGO kits for example are mostly made in Europe. Every once in a while you can see inexpensive toys made in Sweden, shirts made in Egypt, platic containers made in Germany, furniture made in Canada, hammers made in Russia, just look at the stickers. The problem is in my view is not that countries are dictatorships, the problems are: 1. Outsourcing everything to one country creates unhealthy dependence of recipient economy on manufacturer. Well you may say - China depends on USA as much as USA on China - and that will be false - you forgot about a big economy - European Union/Canada. Asymmetry is obvious. 2. Nothing bad in outsourcing some amount of production to poor countries - good way to help them in fact. But if you overstretch then will destroy wellbeing of the citizens of your country, forcing them out of job, and, because poor countries has poor environmental regulations, poison environment of the producer.
jrockway 17y ago
The problem is... say you don't want to buy something made in China. The alternative is to do without, as everything is made in China. (I would love to buy a laptop that's not made in China. Link me to one.)