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Isn't exploitation based on the idea that you're manipulating some part of the system to pay someone less than they're worth? If maids are typically worth $Y an
by bicx 13y ago
Isn't exploitation based on the idea that you're manipulating some part of the system to pay someone less than they're worth? If maids are typically worth $Y and you pay the maid $Y, that seems fair to me.
- kamakazizuru 13y agoYes - this is my point too - from an elitist western perspective it maybe exploitation - but the servants are not indentured slaves who dont have an option to go find better paying work! They are earning what the market is ready to give them and all of Indias middle class didn't get together one day and decide to manipulate that rate!
- jellicle 13y ago> all of Indias middle class didn't get together one day and decide to manipulate that rate! What do you think the caste system is?
- kamakazizuru 13y agonot that. the caste system has nothing to do with it AT ALL. my cook was a higher caste than my family was. Caste system is yet another concept people from the west who've watched a couple of documentaries about India like to throw around. You dont understand it - it doesnt work the way it used to. Being from a "lower caste" is actually a damn boon in todays India. IF you want to get into a decent engineering college atleast.
- mhogomchungu 13y agoI am an african from africa currently in the US giving my perspective.We have always had a house maid,we call them "house girls" and they are usually in the mid teens going up.Most families i knew had one too.Typically these are young girls from the rural places,they go to the city,work as house maids for a year or two and they go home and get married. This has nothing to do with caste system and everything to do with "cheap labor",if there were no minimum wages laws in america or if americans were getting paid much much much more than they are,it would also have been common here. Parents send their kids here to day care here because its cheaper than having a "house girl",if the other way was possible,the other way would be more common.
- vikiomega9 13y agoI agree, I don't like how people just throw the term around as if it were rooted in exploitation.
- bjourne 13y agoIf I purchase stocks for $X and then someone immediately comes and asks to buy those stocks for 50% more than $X I would absolutely accept (barring special circumstances). But if I pay someone $X to clean my house for an hour, and then someone asks me to clean their house for 50% more than $X I would absolutely refuse (barring special circumstances). This suggests that either a) a maids time is worth much less than mine or b) the market price for cleaning services is severely depressed below its "true price".
- kamakazizuru 13y agoyes it'a a). If you're well educated you can easily make 10*$X per hour - a maid usually isn't.