Buyer Beware

[NorCalPiper]

I love how westerners tend to side step the other atrocities these companies purvey. Unethical business practices include having workers work for next to nothing in sweat shop like atmosphere, as well as child labor. But I guess if you want a good deal on a cheap sporran that just doesn't matter as long as you don't have to see it or know about it....

[Chas]

I love how westerners tend to side step the other atrocities these companies purvey. Unethical business practices include having workers work for next to nothing in sweat shop like atmosphere, as well as child labor. But I guess if you want a good deal on a cheap sporran that just doesn't matter as long as you don't have to see it or know about it....

Just because it is illegal in the US, does not mean that it is illegal everywhere. I will not be made to feel as if I am committing a cardinal sin for purchasing an article that is made legally in its country of origin. If memory serves it is the large multinationals that stand accused of exploiting third-world populations not a small company in the developing world trying to break into the western market. Nike comes to mind. 'Just do it' Well they have done it, all over the third world.

Regards

Chas

[davedove]

WE have to remember as well, that sometimes what we might consider "next to nothing" is actually several times the average income in these other countries.

Just for instance, in Pakistan in 2003 the average income was about $2000. If a company were to go in and pay all its workers $4000, that would make the workers very well off, but that's poverty level wages for us in the States.

[sathor]

I once had a customer at a store I was working at refuse to buy anything made in China, because they use prisoners to make things. I wonder what she wanted them to do, sit on their butts watching TV?

In a class I had in college, there was a guest speaker talking about his trip across Cuba. (I think he was Canadian) Anyways, he said that his tour guide he hired got tipped $25, only to be told that was more then he would make in a long time. But he also said at the time, the wages of a Doctor and a factory worker were the same.

Giving a child a dollar at the mall is far different than giving him that dollar at the Dollar Store.

[NorCalPiper]

"I will not be made to feel as if I am committing a cardinal sin for purchasing an article that is made legally in its country of origin."



I should have used that statement for the typical westerner who rationalizes purchases as long as they don't have to see, or witness the conditions of which it was produced. Very nice.....

[NorCalPiper]

Daredove wrote:"Just for instance, in Pakistan in 2003 the average income was about $2000. If a company were to go in and pay all its workers $4000, that would make the workers very well off, but that's poverty level wages for us in the States"

The I.L.O. wrote this about the child labor conditions in Sialkot:
FYI-Rs 800 =17US$
the children’s average work time is nine hours a day and their monthly income ranges between Rs780 and Rs1,733 (according to age and experience). ILO project manager (Sialkot) Mian Muhammad Binyamin told journalists that a majority (56.7 per cent) of the working children preferred to go to school. Some want full-time schooling, others part-time and some others vocational training.

The alarming aspect of the situation was the physical health of the working children a majority of whom had disturbed sleep. Physical punishment by parents/elders and injuries during work besides poor height, weight and pulmonary functions were part of such children’s lives.

[Chas]

"I will not be made to feel as if I am committing a cardinal sin for purchasing an article that is made legally in its country of origin."

I should have used that statement for the typical westerner who rationalizes purchases as long as they don't have to see, or witness the conditions of which it was produced. Very nice.....

You didn't win with rational argument, so you resort to random insults. I really want to answer you in kind, but will only say this - I can see that you don't want me as a customer, so rest assured, I will never be a customer of yours.

Very nice.....

Regards

Chas

[duchessofnc]

Just because it is illegal in the US, does not mean that it is illegal everywhere. I will not be made to feel as if I am committing a cardinal sin for purchasing an article that is made legally in its country of origin. If memory serves it is the large multinationals that stand accused of exploiting third-world populations not a small company in the developing world trying to break into the western market. Nike comes to mind. 'Just do it' Well they have done it, all over the third world.

Regards

Chas

All because it is legal in the country of origin does not mean that as a consumer that you don't have a certain amount of moral obligation.

[Cavebear58]

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[macwilkin]

I didn't say that they were supplying to the forces. As you correctly say, it was private purchases by officers as they generally had to provide their own uniforms until (and including) the 1914-1918 War.

I haven't visited Pakistan, but I have been into more than one tailors' shop in India and seen photographs taken outside the same shop of officers in late Victorian times wearing uniform that was made for them there. I suspect that the perceived quality differentials were not so great in those days.

That's about the best I can provide as a source - I wasn't aware that this site was an academic one where one had to provide such things or where the word of another member had to be challenged in such a manner. My point was about two alternative choices a consumer has and was questioning whether either was more ethical than the other. It wasn't a point about the historical facts.

Regards, Graham.

Stuart Reid's Queen Victoria's Highlanders mentions regimental tailors, who were "time-served" kilt makers assigned to battalions on active service during the period. (p. 45). Whilst I have never disputed the fact that many British officers did have local tailors make uniforms for them, I have yet to see documented evidence of an Indian tailor making a kilt -- and why would there be a need, if there were "time-served" kilt-makers in their battalion? Did the photos you saw show Highland officers in particular?

I'm sorry if you are offended by asking for sources. I suppose it's part of the nature of my trade as a historian to do so. I would love to be proved wrong with a creditable source -- in fact, most historians do.

T.