China story

[frrom]

This is an interesting article about China, and recent violent clashes there.
What I find most interesting is two things:

One, Early Light's toy factory has 16,000+ workers. In one place. That takes WTF-ery to the third power

Comments

that would be

[baronalonzio]

the criminal element. yes, it is standard practice to have them in "forced labor". aka "Welcome to china"

many of the items that read "Made in China" are made in factories just like that one.

Re: that would be

[frrom]

These people aren't criminals, they are poor people from the isolated rural areas, and from a completely different culture/ethnicity.

Re: that would be

[baronalonzio]

i would put money on it that a real chuck were from the jails and brought in by the truck load and pressed into serivce.

but you do make it sound like american larger farming companies that get illegal immigrants to do much of the harsher labor

Re: that would be

[baronalonzio]

http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2008/05/13/2008-05-13_immigration_raid_at_meat_processing_plan.html

http://ufcw7.canvastoolbox.com/docs/News_4509.html

[fkmedocrity]

It's difficult for my mind to fathom as well.

[unique_name_123]

Imagine they are there against their will; eat, sleep, and recreate on company property, and have no common language skills with many of the people they work with. It is hard for my Westernized mind to fathom.

I believe they call that "slavery", and we learned that was bad. I will have to think about how much work is moral to get from those convicted of crimes. Can we make them work in the prison laundry to help contribute to their existance? OK. But can we make them produce happy meal toys and make a profit? Hmmm.

[dain]

It still makes me wonder why China is in the united nations, they breach almost every rule relating to the treatment of citizens and to this day breach rules which would see any other non-military power harshly treated in terms of ethnic cleansing, slavery, genocide, torture, freedom of speech violation, political persecution, etc.

I guess they take to heart the Stalin principals of, "Death solves all problems - no man, no problem." and "One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic."

[baronalonzio]

you forgot "most favored nation" status from the U.S.A

[byronhaverford]

>Who here works for a company with that many people all in one location?

Well, "UPMC is a $6 billion organization that has 43,000 employees". I'll bet Presby/Children's/Montefiore had more than 16,000 before Children's went to the new location. Certainly more than 5,000.

[frrom]

Ok, imagine that UPMC Montefiore is staffed entirely by forced labor from Mexico, none of whom speak the same language as the people in Presbyterian and (ex)Children's. And its not in Pittsburgh.
I simply find it very hard to understand.

[byronhaverford]

Hmmm. Actually, the transplant fellows fit that description surprisingly well....