i know that this topic has to have been discussed here before, but it needs to be talked about again. Sweatshop labor and slavery is a bigger problem now than it has ever been, and it needs to be stoped. the only way anyone can ever see how important and prominent this problem is is if they are informed. So that is why on september 30th, the last saturday of september, i'm going to go around Washington DC, where i live, and spread flyers like viruses throughout the majority of the major sweatshop label stores speaking out against the cruelty and injustice.
but i'm posting this here because i need help. if there's anyone in the Dc area who is willing to help, or perhaps someone wants to start their own protest in their hometown, please let me know. i need all the help i can get for this. my email address is Hexx@avara.net.

thanks, and cheers,
--jon

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Originally posted by sudha:
hey thats a very wrong way of putting it...we dont value slavery one bit and even if it looks that way to some super rich country..people dont work for low wages by choice...

Well, it just seems to me like we are kinda supporting the whole idea of sweatshop slavery by buying their products. I know that there are people working for lower than regular low wages, not by choice, but isn't the fact that if we are buying their product that we are giving their business/government the idea that it IS okay to keep paying their employee like ****?

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buying clothes from those countries in which still value slavery, when we stopped ours in like the 60's.

hey thats a very wrong way of putting it...we dont value slavery one bit and even if it looks that way to some super rich country..people dont work for low wages by choice...

First of all, we ARE getting a little bit off of the topic of sweatshop slavery, but secondly: there are other countries in which are just as powerful as the US.

Also, it's really shouldn't depend on the amount of power each countries have to be able to come to an agreement about the sweatshop slavery. Although, there are still some countires in which value slavery, but the US don't. So, I don't understand why we are still buying clothes from those countries in which still value slavery, when we stopped ours in like the 60's.

Peace,
Yuka

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'America First'

theres a shelf life for everything!!

Thats simply not the case, America does not have the power to stop other nations becoming as powerful as it over time, it is the natural course of world politics. Right now China is growing at an amazing rate, and the very idea around the world that China is going to become a superpower will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their alliance with Russia will also boost their military with war games between the nations now taking place.

The psychological idea that America is the only all powerful nation is being replaced by the idea that China will soon come to rival the US and create a new bi-polar world...and there is nothing US policy can do to help stop that, infact i think current US policy is shortening the time the nation will spend as sole hegemon in our world, but that is my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Yuka:
Hey Reactionary05,
Do yoiu think that America can just rule the world? There's another powerful country, just like us, who would try to fight us if we try to take over, such as Great Britan.

It is our responsibility to maintain American economic and military supriority. By instituting an 'America First' economic policy and a foreign policy outlined in the 'Project for the New American Century', we can keep any other country or alliance from posing a threat to our uberpower status.

quote:

Originally posted by sudha:
isnt that being a little to self centred...

Yea sudha, I believe that reactionary05 is self centered who doesn't want to accept sweatshopS.

Hey Reactionary05,
Do yoiu think that America can just rule the world? There's another powerful country, just like us, who would try to fight us if we try to take over, such as Great Britan.

Peace,
Yuka

yes, these companies can afford to pay more wages and still charge the same price for merchandise....its just this way profits are maximised.

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My priorities begin and end with America.

isnt that being a little to self centred...theres a world beyond america...if u guys are okay with sweatshops then apply the same policy to outsourcing and dont crib about that either...

clop i agree with u though..the alternative is always a very bad one..but instaed of all this drama cant these big companies just increase their wages by a little..cause it wud make a lot of diffrence to our standard of living...

Looked up Rhodes. Like him.

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quote:
Is all that you think about is America,

Uh... yeah. That's what nationalism is about.


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and not about the other countries that pays really low-rage for having sweatshops???

My priorities begin and end with America.

reactionary, you remind me of Cecil Rhodes, you can take your country 1st, but the passion at which you do gives you an air of suposed superiority, like Americans have been put on this earth to rule..maybe i'm wrong. Because Rhodes deemed many to be subordinate races to the british race, and nobody kneels before the Americans.

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Originally posted by Yuka:
Here is a question, Since when has the State cut the taxes for the American People? If I am not mistaken, our taxes are going up, and there are prices, such as fuel, that is going high-sky rocketing. I'm not sure if the taxes idea is going to come to an effective, soon. Although, it isn't a bad idea.

I don't know of any immediate tax raises on the horizon, but I fail to see what the has to do with gas prices...

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Gee, I wonder why. Some of these countries in which has a lot of people who are working at sweatshops can't even pay for their own daily food.

Yes, tragic, but not our problem.

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Is all that you think about is America,

Uh... yeah. That's what nationalism is about.

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and not about the other countries that pays really low-rage for having sweatshops???

My priorities begin and end with America.

Of course I wouldn't like to work for long hours at below-poverty wages. However, I have above minimum-wage jobs available to me. In the countries in which sweatshops abound, they don't have that choice. It's either fifteen cents an hour for a seventy-hour work-week, or nothing. Below-poverty, or worse.

Now, am I saying that's all well and good and we shouldn't do anything about it? No. The corporations exploiting foreign workers can, as some have said before, afford to pay more. But will my buying non-sweatshop items do anything to help? No. It will only hurt me, the consumer.

Sweatshops are bad. But the alternative is even worse. That's the point I'm trying to make.

quote:

Originally posted by clpo13:
Better than nothing.

Would you like it if you were working for tha tmany hours and being payed really crappy? That's even worst that our minumum wage for some jobs.

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Originally posted by reactionary05:
By cutting corporate taxes here in the States, we can lure foreign corporations to place their headquaters and factories in America...

Here is a question, Since when has the State cut the taxes for the American People? If I am not mistaken, our taxes are going up, and there are prices, such as fuel, that is going high-sky rocketing. I'm not sure if the taxes idea is going to come to an effective, soon. Although, it isn't a bad idea.

quote:

Originally posted by northstar316:
Yes, but the white trash does not care about lifting the people of the world up to a humane level, he wants only to feed off thier labor without having to put in too much for it. The labor in the factories should NOT be for fifteen cents per hour. As risk said, the companies can afford to pay minimum wages. If you have ever seen South Hampton, the Jersey Shore, Palm Beach, or Lake Placid you would know.Daresay if someone in America was working for $.15 (by which I mean a white person) he would be enraged to the point of murder. But it is ok because these people are of a lesser race in a lesser land on a lesser continent.

What are you saying? Are you saying that we should allow those people who are actually working for 15 cents work that that low of an income or try to find a way to raise it?

quote:

Originally posted by reactionary05:
No, these organizations are causing America to go further and further into debt, with no return on our money.

Gee, I wonder why. Some of these countries in which has a lot of people who are working at sweatshops can't even pay for their own daily food.

quote:

Originally posted by reactionary05
There is a reason its called Capitalism, because it is capitalist. Nothing would be de-privatized. Privatization is the key to making America run smoothly and effectively.

Is all that you think about is America, and not about the other countries that pays really low-rage for having sweatshops???

Peace,
Yuka

quote:

Originally posted by riskbreaker86:
Reactionary, you want to pull out of the World bank, WTO IMF etc?

Did I stutter?

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are you an idiot?

I think that's a rhetorical question.

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these institutions are what keeps trade moving freely,

No, these organizations are causing America to go further and further into debt, with no return on our money.

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what keeps money at consistent levels so investment is safer...to pull out and engage in such protectionism reminds me harshly of Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia...

protectionism reminds you of Nazi germany? You must be seeing alot of Hitler's ghost, eh?

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National Capitalism as you call it, would mean great legislation in order to keep American companies nationalised....your talking about de-privitising your entire economy, this is tantamount to communism.

There is a reason its called Capitalism, because it is capitalist. Nothing would be de-privatized. Privatization is the key to making America run smoothly and effectively.

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Plus, America always does whats in its best interests,

So why is it letting outdated trading policies bankrupt itself?

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so you and other western nations grow richer as a result.

That's the goal. America First.

Reactionary, you want to pull out of the World bank, WTO IMF etc? are you an idiot? these institutions are what keeps trade moving freely, what keeps money at consistent levels so investment is safer...to pull out and engage in such protectionism reminds me harshly of Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia...National Capitalism as you call it, would mean great legislation in order to keep American companies nationalised....your talking about de-privitising your entire economy, this is tantamount to communism.

Plus, America always does whats in its best interests, and the IMF and World Bank have been empowered by the nations which created it, of which the US is one. It widens the gap between north and south, so you and other western nations grow richer as a result. Sounds like your cup of tea.

If you think sweatshops are okay, then you should go work in one for a while and live only on what you make there.

quote:

Originally posted by clpo13:
I hate to agree with the hater here, but if no sweatshops means more money I have to shell out, I prefer the sweatshops. At least the people working there have jobs. In many places, the only job is at a Nike sweatshop.

Yes, but the white trash does not care about lifting the people of the world up to a humane level, he wants only to feed off thier labor without having to put in too much for it. The labor in the factories should NOT be for fifteen cents per hour. As risk said, the companies can afford to pay minimum wages. If you have ever seen South Hampton, the Jersey Shore, Palm Beach, or Lake Placid you would know.Daresay if someone in America was working for $.15 (by which I mean a white person) he would be enraged to the point of murder. But it is ok because these people are of a lesser race in a lesser land on a lesser continent.

By cutting corporate taxes here in the States, we can lure foreign corporations to place their headquaters and factories in America. If we can create a perfect atmosphere for American business, foreign conglomerates will be on the outside looking in. Since no businessman wants to be in that position, there will be a trememdous increase in insourcing here in the US. That will provide a drastic increase in job creation and provide the needed tax revenue to replace that which was cut in the initial tax cutting. In the meantime, protectionism is necessary to keep American industry from going under. We must pull out from organizations like NAFTA, the WTO, and the World Bank. We can produce goods at the same prices as sweatshops due to supply side economics. Our industrial might will undoubtly compensate for the higher wages companies must pay. The current trade situations allow domestic companies to move overseas, taking with them thousands of jobs. But once they have reached their full potential in production in sweatshops, they have to compete with everchanging international labor laws that, especially in socialist countries like China and India, are not friendly to American business. They have become a small fish in a big pond.
But there is another way, I call it National Capitalism. By making America the ideal country to operate a corporation, insourcing will greatly benefit our workers and our economy. The economy, with new previously untapped industrial power, will grow. Remember, economic progree is not measured in equality, but in growth. The growing economy will need to absorb new industry, or it will collapse in on itself. The once struggling American indutrial giants will pick up the slack, thanks to protectionism and not going under, continue to expand the economy into uncharted territory. American corporations have now become big fish, in a small pond.