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 Global Sweat Shop 
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The article on global sweat shops did not surprise me. To me this shows that nothing has changed in the thousands of years man has existed. From what I have studied in history, any time people see the opportunity to make enormous amounts of money, they will do it. Moral considerations are set aside.

It seems to me, we are all guilty of participation in this. Most of what I own has been made in a third world country. The quality is exceptional, many times it is better than what is produced in the U.S. and at a fraction of the price. How many of you enjoy the standard of living you have? I have read that we would not have the standard of living we enjoy without some unfair exploitation of other peoples.

In what was Zaire, I understand the U.S. helped put in the dictator that ruled it for several decades because he allowed the U.S. to mine for strategic metals (titanium) at favorable terms. So the cost of the space program (based on Nazi technology) would have been more expensive. Fighter aircraft would also be more expensive, this would make your taxes higher.

Would you be willing to pay even more for gas. The U.S. has been strong backers of the Saud family in Saudi Arabia since the 1920's. The U.S. also backed the Shah of Iran and has helped set up a government in Iraq. Has the U.S. been paying a 'fair' price for middle eastern oil?

Would you be willing to pay more for your electricity? From what I gather, the people of West Virginia have been exploited by the coal companies. Despite have been rich in coal, the people there are still some of the poorest in the U.S.

The sweat shops are even here in the U.S. I heard on NPR radio one evening where people were running brothels staffed with illegal immigrants. It said the city with the most of them was Washington D.C.. Most of the patrons were U.S. government employees with their I.D. badges still on. They had come straight from the office.

So, it appears to me we are all guilty of participating in sweat shop slavery at several levels. We buy goods made in countries that use questionable labor practices. We enjoy a standard of living that may have been partially subsidized by slave labor. We have a government that evidently is not penalizing violating countries with tariffs and may not be investigating instances of slavery in this country.

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Graham Ponder


Fri Jul 23, 2004 2:06 pm
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I do think that we all participate in global sweatshops as well. The problem is that we don't think about it that way. Why should we? Here we are living fairly comfortable lives without ever having to come face-to-face with a 12 year old child who works 12 hour days for 10 cents an hour. Unless it is directly placed in our backyards, we don't give it a second thought. Out of sight, out of mind.

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Christy J. Hall


Sat Jul 24, 2004 11:12 pm
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We keeping buy items that are manufactured in these types of areas, are we really going to stop buying the name brand shoes or sporting equipment? Probably not. If you have sports stars wearing and using these items people are going to continue buying these items. Now if famous figures in today's society would take a stand against the sweat shop slavery issue, we might see a difference. Wendy


Sun Jul 25, 2004 2:09 pm
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We do have a few alternatives but it would create some inconvience for peole to use. We can make cars that run on alcohol but it would require that they have a dual system with a gasoline backup. I feel most Americans have grown so accustomed to the convience they wouldn't be willing to change. I was watching a 60 min special tonight and they were talking about outsourcing computer jobs to India. They stated that the Federal Government now outsources about 8% of its computer work to India. With our growing unemployment does this make sense?

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Andy


Mon Aug 02, 2004 12:26 am
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Graham,

Unfortunately, knowledge of global sweatshops is not widespread in our nation. If more Americans--natural or naturalized--were literate in this area, then perhaps voters could voice their opinions about sweatshops to our politicians.

You mentioned that Americans "would not have the standard of living we enjoy without some unfair exploitation of other peoples," but how many Americans know about these slave labor factories in Third World countries? On the other hand, those who do know often have some way of rationalizing the situation: "We wouldn't have to have sweatshops if NAFTA hadn't taken away our jobs in America"; or "Their standard of living there is not like it is over here." I recently heard some men discussing this issue this weekend as if global sweatshops are more of a disadvantage for American workers than they are for the thousands of people who are subjected to work in such inhumane and demoralizing conditions.

The only way for this to end is for concerned Americans to voice their opinions to the government.

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Charlanda Ollis


Mon Aug 02, 2004 3:50 pm
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