I was catching up on my blog reading this morning and bumped into this video on Practical Manifestations blog.
This video is a brief look into the life of a 21 year old Chinese woman who works in a WalMart factory in China. She works long days for less than $3.00 a day for at least six days a week. She does this by choice even though her family would like her to come back home and not work so hard. After I viewed this I had many feelings but I also had questions. What are her options? Why did she choose this life? Were there repercussions for her opinions? Is she still working there? If so, why?
I’m conflicted about these types of videos. After the initial angry feelings subside a bit, I start to logically dissect it for validity. One of the first things I learned about the internet was that a LOT of what’s on here is fiction represented as truth. After viewing this video and applying what I already knew was true about Communist China, I had no reason to doubt that this was a fairly accurate depiction of a Chinese manufacturing plant that just happens to be owned by WalMart. I don’t believe for a minute that WalMart is the only company that buys and runs their overseas manufacturing this way, but they sell the most stuff so they are usually the target of our disgust with “sweat shops” and disdain for their participation in doing business with countries that lack workers’ rights. Judge for yourself:
These types of issues always draw my eye because I sell online and continuously look for products that can be sold at a profit. So many items that are offered to me at wholesale are made overseas and are manufactured without any wage and living condition standards in place for their workers. The questions I ask myself all the time (and I don’t think I’m alone here) are:
“How do I stay competitive in the online marketplace without sacrificing what I believe?”
“If I sell this stuff am I supporting slave labor?”
“It seems like everything’s made overseas so what choices do I have?”
“Some products are still made in the US but will people pay more for them?”
While at a wedding reception yesterday I struck up a conversation with a stranger (who I found out minutes later was my husband’s niece’s fiance) who told me that he works for a local trailer manufacturer that builds all sizes of trailers for the government and the Red Cross, and for many custom orders too. It was refreshing to hear that there were still some products being built in the United States, and I told him so. He agreed but later added that the parts were mostly from China.
Where’s the line? I guess we each have to draw our own?
As I said, I’m conflicted about this issue and it comes up regularly.
How do feel about this issue? Does it impact your business? Does it effect your business decisions at all? I’d love to hear from you.
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