20th Feb 2008
Made in Italy
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.
Wouldn’t that be called indentured servitude?
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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.
Reaffirming my thoughts about buying nothing! It’s all just more crap anyway.
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.
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.
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.