A Pair of Jeans for Only 20 cents

[Blaise (imported)]

I have been working and visiting China for about 18 years. I have visited poor factories but also some good ones. Many factories are joint ventures with Taiwanese or other investors. Ex government run factories tend to be the archaic ones. Foreign investment does tend to give the better working conditions. I have not witnessed child labour on any great scale. I have inspected living quarters and employment records. I am not in the toy or clothes industry but I am still visiting a typical factory enviroment though a little more engineering orientated. The vast majority of the workers I have seen are late teens to early 30`s. They live in dorms and send a lot of the money they get back to families in the country. It is not easy to get a job in the factories as these are often in special development regions and you need a special pass to get into these areas. I am not sure about the hire and fire issues you mention but I have heard factory owners complain that another factory is paying more and he was loosing his good workers. The working hours I have witnessed were often double shifts but with seperate work forces. Again this may be particular to my industry. I have been in the factoies and seen the break periods and I have eaten the food during the g lunch break, I have also kicked a football around the yard with workers at break time! I do not doubt that bad factories exist in China and I am sure there are some outside the special development cities like Shanghai. Actually I have not bought directly from China for a few years but I still occasionaly visit the area. It is quite a disturbing country to visit, so many people and the vast majority are not well off at all. It is difficult to know what is best for the people, they need work and money and they need the infrastructure to achieve growth. I appreciate your sentiments about not buying China product but you will also hurt a lot of good people and the bad will just move on to other countries. I have no magic answer and I can only say as a buyer I would never buy from a factory that i though was ill treating people. I just wanted to give my personal perspective and balance out the thread so you dont think its all Dickensian `dark satanic mills`

From PBS site: Did you know? Factory workers in Saipan making Levi’s blue jeans earned three dollars an hour in 2001. That same year, Levi Strauss CEO Philip Marineau made 25.1 million dollars—amounting to 11,971 dollars an hour.

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/new ... w/geny.htm

[Blaise (imported)]

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/bu ... nted=print

[balletkyle (imported)]

Conditions at the old factory at Blue Ridge, Georgia (I think that is where the factory was) that manufactured Levi products were awful. Pay was low. The work was tedious. I think the hours were long.

But were those jeans not better made and would they not last longer than the ones made in China? I wonder where those former levis employees are working now? greeters at the new walmart in thier town now selling levis made in China for an even lower wage?

[balletkyle (imported)]

I have been working and visiting China for about 18 years. I have visited poor factories but also some good ones. Many factories are joint ventures with Taiwanese or other investors. Ex government run factories tend to be the archaic ones. Foreign investment does tend to give the better working conditions. I have not witnessed child labour on any great scale. I have inspected living quarters and employment records. I am not in the toy or clothes industry but I am still visiting a typical factory enviroment though a little more engineering orientated. The vast majority of the workers I have seen are late teens to early 30`s. They live in dorms and send a lot of the money they get back to families in the country. It is not easy to get a job in the factories as these are often in special development regions and you need a special pass to get into these areas. I am not sure about the hire and fire issues you mention but I have heard factory owners complain that another factory is paying more and he was loosing his good workers. The working hours I have witnessed were often double shifts but with seperate work forces. Again this may be particular to my industry. I have been in the factoies and seen the break periods and I have eaten the food during the g lunch break, I have also kicked a football around the yard with workers at break time! I do not doubt that bad factories exist in China and I am sure there are some outside the special development cities like Shanghai. Actually I have not bought directly from China for a few years but I still occasionaly visit the area. It is quite a disturbing country to visit, so many people and the vast majority are not well off at all. It is difficult to know what is best for the people, they need work and money and they need the infrastructure to achieve growth. I appreciate your sentiments about not buying China product but you will also hurt a lot of good people and the bad will just move on to other countries. I have no magic answer and I can only say as a buyer I would never buy from a factory that i though was ill treating people. I just wanted to give my personal perspective and balance out the thread so you dont think its all Dickensian `dark satanic mills`

China does not respect any Copy Right Laws.

General Motors has tried and failed in the courts to persue one of China's domestic automotive producers for copying one of GM's cars. In court GM proved it's point by swaping the doors off the Chineese vehicle onto one of thier GM cars and proved that they were an exact fit/replacement/copy! and the GM doors fit flawlessly onto the chineese car!

If any of you are familiar with the 1974 Bricklin, a Canadian built sport's car with gullwing doors, rather boxy looking? Mr Bricklin is currently trying to import the Chineese cars into north america where he plans to retail them for under $5000usd.

At those prices US, European,Korean, and Japanese auto makers can't compete. these cars are already in the european market.

I too have lived in Beijing and visited China,thanks to my dad my passport permitted me to see things that tourists don't see.

From the 40's they based their industry on reverse engineering foreign products. In my opinnion one of the best looking chinese cars produced post ww2 and into the 60's is a copy of a 1930's Lasalle sedan, other than the Chinese script on the badges it's a Lasalle.

The five cylinder diesel engines in their trucks are copies of the engines found Mecedes benz's Unimog.

China doens't Play fair

I feel for the average chinese worker, but I worry for the north american economy.

In my eyes what is happening in China right now isn't nothing more than what was happening there in the 20's and 30's how did that all end?

[Riverwind (imported)]

I don't care, I go to the store, I see something I like or more to the point need, I don't look at the label. The last time I did this everything said made in Japan.

To Balise, I was just wondering if it is possible for you to make a post without "quoiting" someone. In this post you did it twice to the same post OR maybe we should just post everything from above and add to it.

River

[Blaise (imported)]

I don't care, I go to the store, I see something I like or more to the point need, I don't look at the label. The last time I did this everything said made in Japan.

To Balise, I was just wondering if it is possible for you to make a post without "quoiting" someone. In this post you did it twice to the same post OR maybe we should just post everything from above and add to it.

RiverOkay.