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Slave labor? Surely the ratio of Chinese laborers who feel enslaved is low enough that it's inappropriate to describe Chinese labor on the whole as slave labor.
by xapata 5y ago
Slave labor? Surely the ratio of Chinese laborers who feel enslaved is low enough that it's inappropriate to describe Chinese labor on the whole as slave labor.
- colechristensen 5y agoSome are literally slaves. Many are nearly so. Giving people a thin veneer of token but not real freedom and token but not fair salary or decent working conditions doesn't absolve you of abuse. Raise people in an environment where people learn that how they are being treated is right and make everyone fear dissent and you just won't hear about many peoples feelings from the other side of the world. Obfuscation is the name of the game in the 21st century, make absolute things grey areas, and add layers of abstraction to the extent that you can't really tell what's being done or whose fault it is so that the same kinds of exploitation can keep going on and it's not so easy to be opposed to it because finding the target is just hard.
- barry-cotter 5y agoHey, now I understand people who insult people by saying they have savior complex! It’s all about thinking you have agency and other people don’t. > Many are nearly so. Giving people a thin veneer of token but not real freedom and token but not fair salary or decent working conditions doesn't absolve you of abuse. “Real freedom”? “Fair salary”? “Decent working conditions”? What makes you think Chinese people can’t make their own choices? They’ve been leaving the countryside nonstop for 70 years. The pay for unskilled labor has been going up pretty much nonstop since Deng opened up. China has a lot bad about it but I doubt you would be pretending Thai people are unthinking automatons and they’re about as rich as Chinese. > Raise people in an environment where people learn that how they are being treated is right and make everyone fear dissent and you just won't hear about many peoples feelings from the other side of the world. Indeed. You could make children sit down, shut up and do as they’re told all day five days a week if you just told people it was normal. You could invade and bomb other countries with impunity. You could support other countries in intervening in civil wars to keep them going without end. Good thing we’re free. Good thing we right thinking people would never do anything like that.
- iratewizard 5y agoThat's a whole lot of whataboutism to excuse human rights issues in a brutal and immoral country.
- xapata 5y agoIt didn't sound like an excuse to me, but a distinction between slavery and something else. Not all exploitation is slavery.
- medion 5y agoGo watch American Factory to see what conditions/mentality is like in Chinese factories.
- karmasimida 5y agoOr just go to any major e-commerce warehouse here in US. It is not that different when the time you pee is measured and factored in pay
- AussieWog93 5y agoWatching a Netflix documentary is generally not a great way to learn about how the world actually works.
- medion 5y agoIt's a start.