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Do you mean that if people there only had access to more expensive clothing they would be better off?
by erfgh 5y ago
Do you mean that if people there only had access to more expensive clothing they would be better off?
- cryptonym 5y agoFair price locally can generate more work for local people, wealth and redistribution. Overall, more expensive clothing could also help reducing waste. Cheap fast-fashion fails to significantly improve my life (and, from post, negatively impacts lives).
- only_as_i_fall 5y agoHow does banning the import of secondhand clothing reduce waste? Unless you can prevent westerners from getting rid of clothes in the first place this really seems like paying people to dig and refill holes. Work for the sake of work.
- cryptonym 5y agoI didn't mention banning import of secondhand clothing, so I leave it to you. One way to prevent "westerner" from getting rid of clothes is by having them buying quality products at a fair price, including waste treatment. Now how that would be implemented, no idea. We all know any change will have side effects as we are in a complex economy and that doesn't mean we cannot try. Just to keep the discussion open on reducing waste, some random ideas: tax fast-fashion, ban disposable clothes, prevent waste export (non-wearable clothes qualify as waste).
- only_as_i_fall 5y agoOk, but this is literally a thread about how cheap second hand clothes coming from western countries affect the local industries of African nations so I don't really know what you're on about
- cryptonym 5y ago> Unless you can prevent westerners from getting rid of clothes in the first place I tried to reply on this. It sounds like you are oversimplifying this to cheap second hand clothes. This is also about pure waste and landfills. How people are profiting from clothes donated to charities, hurting local businesses, keeping local population in poverty and creating an environmental disaster.
- jeromegv 5y agoMany African countries actually prevent import of second hand clothing. They can produce clothing locally for quite cheap with local labor (that is cheap), but having literally FREE clothing showing up actually decimates your local industry. That's why you have anti-dumping laws in the western world.
- Scoundreller 5y agoBut can they even compete with first hand clothing made in south/Southeast Asia? I haven’t seen anything “Made in Africa” in North America.
- mikem170 5y agoThe idea is that "Made in Africa" clothes costs less locally in Africa than clothes made in Asia and shipped to Africa. Giving out free clothes in Africa puts "Made in Africa" out of that business. What costs less for you in America may not be the same as what costs less in Africa, because of transport costs.
- Scoundreller 5y agoWhat's the transport cost on a t-shirt in a container? 7 cents? My guess is that these countries have protectionist duties, which just makes goods more expensive for locals. Textiles aren't a very strategic industry. (Yes, everyone needs them, but it's not hard to find a selling country).
- mikem170 5y agoThere could be protectionist duties. These are sometimes justified due to the cost of loosing jobs. A trade-off. I'm just not sure of relevance of the cost of asian versus african shirts in the U.S. It's not just shipping containers, but the rest of the transport network, how many trucks are available, the retail networks, and the middle-men to facilitate the trade, the different labor and cost of living, currency exchange rates, regulatory stability, etc. Seems like there are a lot of confounding variables and it would be difficult to draw on what t-shirts currently cost in the U.S.
- syshum 5y agoGive a man a fish you feed him for a day, Teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime... What is more humane. Having them depend on the charity and free goods of others, or building their economy to be self sustaining
- the_gipsy 5y agoWhy should they do meaningless work?
- boringg 5y agoUm not to be crass but like most of the work everyone does on this form is probably close meaningless and often times redundant. I don't mean it in a derogatory way. And the adjective you should have used is redundant work. Clearly the work has meaning if it keeps people employed and building skills.
- the_gipsy 5y agoBut you are advocating against sending free clothes with the goal of creating a scarcity so that people work to produce clothing, which they’ll essentially buy back. This is macabre.
- AngryData 5y agoThey are advocating not crashing a local industry. How would you fair if your own industry or other local businesses was suddenly destroyed because China decided to give your work away for free in massive overabundance? With zero guarantees that they wont randomly stop supplying on an irregular schedule.
- mikem170 5y agoI don't know if that's fair. It could be said that you are advocating for putting people in Africa out of work, messing with local economies, and people's livelihoods. It seems these trade-offs are involved whenever talking about free trade versus tariffs, helping one group and hurting another.
- AngryData 5y agoYes, because it builds local industry, and textiles is often a key industry in industrialization. It is "easy" automation, builds local tooling and machining demands, and still requires significant further labor to finish which is cheap in that area. It certainly isn't the only way, but textile production often one of the first industries to get build in industrialization.