Made in Italy label: Read the fine print suggests that Chinese workers in Tuscan sweatshops are responsible for many “Made in Italy” goods. Interestingly, some of this is decribed as ”self-exploitation,” because the Chinese workers incurred debts to come to Italy and need to work to pay them off so they live in squalor and work in sweatshops. So much for buying from Western European countries with better labor laws.
February 20th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Wouldn’t that be called indentured servitude?
February 20th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I just finished a chapter in A People’s History of the United States that talked about that very thing before and after the U.S. Civil War.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Reaffirming my thoughts about buying nothing! It’s all just more crap anyway.
February 20th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
One concern I was always have with Made in USA is that there are plenty of sweatshops right here in this country. *sigh* Just another reason to buy locally made, and buy less so you can afford the locally made goods.
February 20th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I find Scott’s tag for Unions and Unionism helpful for identifying products made in the US with attention to labor laws and fair wages.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:46 am
Just so you know, I have some bad news about the hosiery industry. A lot of companies had mills here in the US (in North Carolina in fact.) Hanes, Gold Toe, Fruit of the Loom, all the biggest ones employed American workers (though not exclusively, the also have plants in China, Mexico, and the Phillipines) and actually paid very good wages (>$15/hr). However, the rising cost of production here in the US has caused several plants to close in the past few months.
It’s sad, NC used to be the last bastion of the American Industrial Revolution, and now it’s disappearing too. It’s wreaking hell on the economy there.