I refuse to purchase Chinese products because of the slave labor conditions. Perhaps a better description is death camps as 140,000 Chinese died in work related accidents. Is saving a few bucks on shitty merchandise worth being resonsible for somebody dying? Hundreds of thousands more suffer horrific injuries. All so you can get useless garbage at Wal-Mart. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/07/international/asia/07CHIN.html "Ling Banghua, 23, a native of rural Jiangxi Province, arrived in Yongkang in early March. He was spending his fourth day making tops for bicycle pumps when a mold the size of a hockey puck took three fingers off his left hand. He has pleaded with his boss to give him enough money for a bus ticket home."
Watch it buddy! Where the hell would capitalism be without stuff like this?!?! Three fingers is a small sacrifice to make some kid happy with a Bush action figure complete with all genetic flaws batteries sold seperately.
China is run by the Communist Party. Granted they're just as capitalist as they are communist today, but most factories in China are still run by the state (altho this one apparently was not).
Not really -- while the Chinese govt grants citizens "permission" to run these factories (aka you pay your graft to local politicians), they are almost all privately-run nowadays. Private companies can negotiate their own deals and attract minority investors as they see fit. Not trying to justify it, but it's not like the US's introduction to the Industrial Revolution was rosy and happy, either.
Your post is mixed up. By definition, capitalism requires private property rights. Therefore, state run factories aren't capitalist. They are either socialist or communist.
There's lots of reasons to boycott China altogether...but, again, let's clean up our own backyard first. We (the U.S.) loses 1/9th of the total loss of the Vietnam Conflict every year due to workplace fatalities... The 2001 totals, by industry...
China is rapidly moving towards capitalism, but they're not there yet. Most factories where sh-t like this happens (altho not the one in the link) are still state-owned. Those that are privately-owned are often owned by Triads, or people connected to Triads, ruthless mob bosses who have connections to the CCP. If China ever truly opens up and these factories start to be run by American, European, Japanese, Korean, etc businessmen, working conditions will improve. I have my doubts that this will happen however. And in any event, the CCP calls itself the party of the workers and so should take steps to avoid stuff like this.
I know that, my point was that China's economy is a mixture of capitalism and communism, with the privately-owned factories being capitalist influences.
this is the post of someone who has never been to Chinatown, let alone China... When you've visited the nation, and spent some time there, come back and tell me how "capitalist" the Chinese are in China...go enjoy a life lived and stop sitting on your ass and reading the CNN/Fox/WSJ hype...
This is a ridiculous take that the left trots out from time to time. Let me spell it out for you: Executing child-molesting serial murderers is OK. Executing political dissidents and tax evaders is not OK. Understand?
I love educating the youth of America: I've been in dozens of overseas factories operated by American and Euro businessmen. They were full of kids. So that you can have cheap shirts and underwear. And so that the businessmen can make millions of dollars. So quit pretending that hundreds of thousands die every year in terrible working conditions because of communism. It's because you want cheap shirts and underwear.
To submit this, at any level, means that you are: (1) Someone who never spent any meaningful time in China (2) Patently stupid, ignorant, or incompetent (3) Both (1) and (2) There simply are no other options.
In Alex's defense, (Did I really just say that? Drugs are bad!) Capitalism in its most basic form, is human nature. While the govt of China is still Communist, and the country itself is still governed by Communist beliefs and tactics, underneath all of it Capitalism has greatly affected the lives of all the people in that country in the form of outside influence like the US and Europe as well as the greed of the high party officials in the country. They're not "just as Capitalist as Communist," make no mistake Alex, they are Communist. But Capitalism is in the heart of every person...well, not every person. The true believers in Marxism and Communism have been "learned" otherwise.
Sadly (horrifically?), this is the one self-fulfilling belief that will continue to sentence phenomena that are in the process of possibility - like today's America - to the ignominy that so may "empires" have gone to before her...
Sharing and equality are not part of human nature. Almighty Uni, explain to me why you think Capitalism isn't part of human nature. I have made this subject the topic of three papers for three different classes in my college career. An economics class, a psychology class, and a politics class. Each recieved high marks and was praised by the professor. The paper for the psychology class was submitted by the professor to a global psychology journal of sorts, but I never heard whether or not it had been published. Three very intelligent professors found this concept to be very interesting and my thought process to be true to the stated facts and ideals within the papers. I would honestly like to hear your beliefs otherwise.
Is Joseph Pakovits bedridden or is he just going into hiding in anticipation of the upcoming Fire season? By now, he should have posted that China is not communist but rather is state capitalist. All I know about China is that people are willing to live inside a cargo container for three weeks to leave it and sneak into a place with a pretty nasty history of racism, violence and economic disparity. And not too good a record on worker safety, either. If they let a nitwit like me drive a fork lift, is China really that bad in comparison to the US?
If that's what you think, then I'm glad I wasn't raised in your capitalistic family. I could also point out that "human nature" is more accurately reflected in primitive tribes, where sharing and equality are big deals. But somehow, I think your mind isn't big enough for new ideas like this.
Capitalism and communism are theorectical systems that have evolved over time in response to a variety of historical stimuli. To claim that one or another is inherent in "human nature" is ridiculous.
Dave, my mind can wrap itself around anything. I am more than open to a debate with you. I pride myself on wanting to hear and understand the other sides reasoning when getting into an argument. Here's (part of) my side: The tribes that you are refering to do have equality and sharing, but this is not human nature, this is a learned behavior that has developed over centuries and has been passed down from elder to elder. The most basic and primitive desire in the human mind is the desire to survive. Without being taught about sharing and equality a human will not engage in this behavior naturally. Also, my family values have nothing to do with my stance on this issue. My parents taught me well, but my education extends well beyond what they have taught me. One more thing: Why do you have to resort to shots at my intellectual capacity to try to get your point across? If you want to argue I'll be more than happy to, but why resort to personal attacks?
I agree with you, Capitalism is a theory that is well beyond the rhelm of human nature, but in my original post I said that "in it's most basic form, capitalism is part of human nature." Capitalism, when you boil it down, is tailored to you. It is about your survival. Such is human nature.
You know, you're probably correct that greed is a human trait and so is murder, yet civilized societies know how to curb these instincts and do not cherish them in order to win possessions and moral support.