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Cruises are priced such because cruise ship workers are paid incredibly low wages: "The Cruise Lines International Association says its "crew members are provi
by ch00 13y ago
Cruises are priced such because cruise ship workers are paid incredibly low wages:
"The Cruise Lines International Association says its "crew members are provided wages that are competitive with international pay scales." But a cleaner aboard a Royal Caribbean ship, for example, will work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for as little as $156.25 a week with no tips. U.S. labor laws are not applicable to provide protection to crew members at sea, nor is there any real oversight of the cruise lines' operations."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/13/opinion/walker-cruise-ships
- coldcode 13y agoUnlike people who read articles I like to talk with the working folks when I am on a cruise. Yes they work long hours for often 7-9 month contracts. But the pay they get is better than anything they could ever get in their home country. A lot of them get to spend several months at home for every contract but are always eager to go out again. It's isn't an easy life but looking at it from a rich country it seems like slavery. But most of them find the work acceptable for the pay compared to their home. Some cruise lines are much nicer to their employees than others and most of them know who. I bet that nice piece of fruit you are eating was picked by someone from a poor country who is likely working illegally because the money at that farm is pretty good where they came from. Yes it might seem exploitative to us but their own country is much worse. Something we might not be willing to do for any money other people are happy to do it for any wage.
- johnvschmitt 13y agoYou are both true & making good points. It sounds like another "offshoring" idea then. The bigger problem from my POV is that the old folks they serve are being treated as "steady state", when in fact their conditions are often deteriorating. And, when Grandma dies, will her family have to wait 1-2 weeks for her ship to return to port for a proper family gathering & funeral? Stinky...
- Fishkins 13y agoI've heard cruise ships all have morgues for this reason.
- 1337Coder 13y agoWell would you believe that it is not uncommon for one or two people to die on a cruise? I went on a 10 day cruise a few years ago and three people died on it. They chucked 'em in the fridge and carried on the trip like it was normal.
- nknighthb 13y agoYeah, that makes sense. The US annual death rate is 8.39 per 1000[1]. The newest ship in Carnival's inventory holds up to 3,690 passengers[2]. I can't find crew capacity, but some googling suggests there ought to be more than 1000 crew on a loaded cruise that size. So if you're floating around with 4690+ people, naïvely, about 39 people should die on it every year, or one every 9.28 days. On a 10-day cruise of that size, somebody is going to die. I bet once you control for the unusually high average age of the passengers and maybe other factors (how many drunken idiots fall over the side and drown every year?), 3 people in 10 days would be pretty normal. [1]https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... [2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Breeze http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Breeze
- desas 13y agoThe drunken idiots falling over the side and drowning don't usually get found. As far as I remember, the odds of being found after falling off a cruise ship are really low.
- netcan 13y agoAnother big element is the fact that it comes with room, board, few opportunities to spend your wages & fewer demands on your disposable income. $150-$200 p/w is an opportunity to save a few thousand a year, close to impossible in most alternative cases.
- e12e 13y agoSo, your argument is that since the mechanism of globalization works on such a, well, global scale, cruise owners taking advantage by purchasing labour at slave prices in order to sell cruises cheaply to those near the top of the global pyramid (if not on the summit) means it's not exploitation any more? > Something we might not be willing to do for any money other people are happy to do it for any wage. Define "happy". Happy to do it rather than starve, or happy to do it rather than live in the abundance a fair share of the global output would entitle them to (for almost any definition of "fair share" - other than "handed down by previous and current war profiteers"). > ... it seems like slavery ... Some cruise lines are much nicer to their employees than others Right. And I'm sure if it was slavery, some slave masters would be nicer to their slaves than others. (I think I'm coming off more harshly against coldcode than I really intend to here. I am trying to make the point that precisely because we live in a world that is unfair, defending unfairness when it is obvious will not help improve things. That is, assuming we would like to see things become more fair. I do agree that too many people will react to obvious unfairness, and then ignore all the not so obvious wrongs we tend to contribute to everyday -- and which is almost impossible to simply "opt out" of (eg: trying to do good by recycling electronics, only to find that circuit boards are melted over open flames by children in China, destroying lives and ground water tables)).
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- icebraining 13y agoI am trying to make the point that precisely because we live in a world that is unfair, defending unfairness when it is obvious will not help improve things. Playing Devil's advocate: it wasn't the cruise companies who created the unfairness; they are just performing arbitrage. Eliminating it won't eliminate the unfairness; in fact, it might make it worse.
- JulianMorrison 13y agoSo you regulate it. A good way to do that would be to have labor rights preconditions for docking or doing business.