Sweatshop Wages and Third-World Workers: Are the Wages Worth the Sweat?

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1. Hmm...I wonder how many armchair activists would be willing to stop purchasing any kind of sweatshop-manufactured products, including shoes, clothes, and even a smartphone or computer like the one they're using to comment on this video? Nope? That's what I thought.
2. Corporationists' propaganda meant to brainwash people in order to stay in power. Don't believe this piece of shit sell-out.
3. So play the workers against a worse condition and only pay marginally better while you make first world profits off their sweatshop labor? Great strategy, inhumane but, great profits.
4. The dark side of capitalism that no one wants to hear about, these people driven by desperation to work in these sweatshops, it's the only alternative, in many cases it's this or die on the streets and thing is each of us is guilty. If you've bought nike or Apple products you have contributed to this. These people are put in trap.what do we do about?????
5. Instead of listening to this lack of real world experience economist in the video presentation here, have a look at this amazing story for the truth on sweat shops:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uYCWVfuPQ
6. What is really sick is realizing that the very people who make the Nike Air sneakers in these countries can't even afford to buy the very products they make. However, Nike doesn't mind dolling out millions to Sports jocks like MJ in one year that would amount to more money than a thousand of these workers make in a lifetime combined. Pretty sick world we live in when you think about it. Why can't Nike build some stadiums in these countries to advertise their products, and help the country out at the same time instead of giving millionnaire sports jocks more money they dont really need? I wonder if we will all be doomed to returning to prostituting ourselves as labor wages continue to go down as automation and robotization replaces human labor while the numbers of people in the world increases?
7. I don't get why we are all racing to the bottom to find the cheapest labor and cheapest material to make today's products other than its alot more profitable for big companies to make shoddy quality goods with the cheapest available labor. Goods that can be discarded and bought again. Long gone are the days of real economics when we use to make quality goods that had durability, and were not just thrown out. Long gone are the days when one salary was high enough to afford a home here in north America. Real economics is about economizing, by utilizing our resources efficiently, not by producing the lowest quality crap that has built in obsolescence, with the cheapest workmanship. You get what you pay for, and if you want cheap that is what you will get.  Sweatshops will never fade if us consumers continue to vote for low quality goods with our dollars. Now the only exception to this rule is for high tech items like computers and electronics, but I am talking about our essential goods like clothes, food, furniture etc... 
8. One point though if capitalists who can't cope with having to raise minimum wages and increase benefits for their workers are forced to leave their countries despite banal profits then let them and definitely plenty of competitors (maybe less greedy) will be more than happy to replace them. Yes there is price to be paid and people may choose to endure anything in order to feed their families but governments should act in what's better for economic long term prospects of their countries and budgets, and gradually but firmly push forward with wages-benefits reforms.
9. Trade unions do not only look after there own members i am a shop steward and i have helped many a non union member all i see in front of me is a co worker a man/women trying hard to earn a living i have listen to this guy talk and if he really believes these people are better off and feels there is no help he is just a puppet for the multi nationals who exploit these people every day wal mart makes over 450 billion a year do not tell me a company making this kind of money can not pay ONE dollar more for these guys and in doing this have to lay off one of there VERY low paid workers with no benefits and has to apply to the social welfare for help which cost the US tax payer what a vicious circle we live in 
   Trade Union activists will always only want fair pay and conditions for a fair days work
   WORKERS United Will never be DEFEATED 
10. The main reason the US doesnt have sweatshops is; surely automation has made our lives easier , technology etc- but because we simply outsourced out sweatshops to other countries and to prisons. i still dont understand the transition from losing sweat shops. How do you save capital and become a wealthier person when you are paid a few bucks a day?
11. Though this argument makes sense economically (I am typing this at the 13:30 mark), I disagree because I believe that the people providing a company owner with substantial profits should take care of those who are making that possible. Paying a person a wage that the company can get away with instead of what is decent or fair is, in my opinion, an unethical way to do business. 
12. Those who oppose hiring 3rd world workers, do one of the following: 1. Start your own business in 3rd world country and pay your workers a fair wage. 2. Help them to immigrate to first world countries so they can work for a fair wage. 3. Donate money to them so they don't have to make a living in sweat shops. If you can do neither, SHUT UP and stop trying to get those people out of work, which for them, mean starvation--which means blood on your hands.
13. My only issue with increasing product cost for the products sold from a sweatshop is the moral. Personally I wouldn't mind paying more to compensate for the workers cost of living, but at the same time what prevents a company for at least giving a worker a $1.00 increase or benefits? You make BILLIONS of dollars, you approximately have what, about 250,000 to 450,000 workers in sweatshops? Why not? I get mad just thinking about this exploitation. Greed is the problem..
14. Very bad conditions indeed do NOT make it slave labor. Coercion has to be involved. Question: Assuming the non-coercive nature of these sweatshops, where would these workers be if we close all of them? Would these people be better of or not? 
15. "So mr Nike tells the group of hardworking AMERICAN employees and fires them, moves jobs over seas," So what, it's HIS company. You could also thank Mr. Nike for the time you had the job. He didn't HAVE to create it. "takes advantage of a small group of poor people..." Who were better of with Mr. Nike's job, otherwise they would have said to Mr. Nike: "F%#k you Mr. Nike and your lousy factory!". As long as the job is voluntary, nobody's being taken advantage of, and both parties benefit.
16. It's not, that's what you're trying to turn it into. This is about UNCOERCED sweatshop labor.
17. Thanks for the ad hominem. And how's this a reaction to what I said anyway? The guy didn't even listen to what Powell said and I point that out. "There is no discussion on slave labor, it's BAD." Of course it is! We ALL agree on that, Powell included. But sweatshop labor is not the same a slave labor. Powell makes that distinction very clear at the beginning of his talk. Kinda relevant, right? So instead of calling people names, maybe replying to what they say is a wiser choice of action.
18. I am sure there are lots of greta examples of unions 'acting in their own self interest' too many people act in a selfish way these days. but if you look into the work the british unions (i am sure American ones do the same) do for poor people in poor countries u'll see the light of socialism still shines bright in the organised labour movement, u'r correct Germany has a much more mature cooperative & sustainable form of capitalism in which labour and capital work together for the common good 
19. Someone working inside; someone working at 5x the price they were making; someone working on tennis shoes instead of scavenging through garbage heaps or in prostitution. "Much better labor than what they were doing before.", labor they freely chose and were glad to be able to choose. There is a huge, real difference between this and actual slave labor, which many people here have pointed out, he addresses in the video. Accuracy, not political correctness, is the issue here.
20. A couple of flaws with that answer: 1) We're talking about the perspective of those in foreign countries, such as China, India or Brazil. If we keep all jobs here it'll benefit us, but it will cause an unprecedented amount of damage to their economies, and those people will most likely starve. 2) We shouldn't build an economy based around 'protecting our jobs'. Imagine if we banned tap water to protect the jobs of those who dig water from wells. I adapt my skill set to fit the current market.