Posted on 07/28/2013 7:34:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge03Sys8SdA&t=6m35s
Romney: And I remember going to—sorry just to bore you with stories—but I was, when I was back in my private equity days, we went to China to buy a factory there, employed about 20,000 people, and they were almost all young women between the ages of about 18 and 22 or 23. They were saving for potentially becoming married, and they worked in these huge factories, they made various small appliances, and as we were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they worked per day, the pittance they earned, living in dormitories with little bathrooms at the end with maybe ten rooms. And the rooms, they had 12 girls per room, three bunk beds on top of each other. You've seen them.Audience member: Oh, yeah.
Romney: And around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire, and guard towers. And we said, "Gosh, I can't believe that you, you know, you keep these girls in." They said, "No, no, no—this is to keep other people from coming in. Because people want so badly to come work in this factory that we have to keep them out, or they'll just come in here and start working and try and get compensated. So, we—this is to keep people out." And they said, "Actually, Chinese New Year, is the girls go home, sometimes they decide they've saved enough money and they don't come back to the factory." And he said, "And so on the weekend after Chinese New Year, there'll be a line of people hundreds long outside the factory, hoping that some girls haven't come back and they can come to the factory.
And so, as we were experiencing this for the first time, for me to see a factory like this in China some years ago, the Bain partner I was with turned to me and said, "You know, 95 percent of life is settled if you're born in America." This is an amazing land. And what we have is unique, and fortunately it is so special we're sharing it with the world. I'm concerned about the future, but also optimistic as I said, and I look forward to getting America back on track, and having people plan on bringing their ideas and their dreams to this country. We get big dreamers, by the way. Oh, I just, we didn't talk about immigration today. Gosh, I'd love to bring in more legal immigrants that have skill and [unintelligible]. I'd like to staple a green card to every Ph.D. in the world and say, "Come to America, we want you here." Instead, we make it hard for people who get educated here or elsewhere to make this their home. Unless, of course, you have no skill or experience, in which case you're welcome to cross the border and stay here for the rest of your life. [Audience laughs.] It's very strange. It's run by people who don't understand the words "global competition of ideas," and our idea has to win, but only if America reigns strong.
This Chamberlain critter with the funny name wants to keep the children poor in perpetuity, so that he can feel better about himself for not buying what they produce.
Their families likely enjoy the food they help put on table
David: “You’ve got all the money in the world.”
Linus(Bogart): “What’s money got to do with it? If money were all there was to it, it’d hardly be worthwhile going to the office. Money is a by-product.”
David: “What’s the main objective, power?”
Linus: “Ah, that’s become a dirty word.”
David: “Well, then, what’s the urge? You’re going into plastics now. What will that prove?”
Linus: “Prove? Nothing much. A new product has been found, something of use to the world, and so a new industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines are brought in, a harbor is dug, and you’re in business. It’s purely coincidental of course that people who never saw a dime before suddenly have a dollar and barefooted kids wear shoes and have their teeth fixed and their faces washed. What’s wrong with a kind of an urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds, and movies on a Saturday night?”
A little clarity is nice once and a while.
Halfway through the title, I was thinking about charity-based thrift shops, but then the admission got ugly...
Zero credibility X 1,000 words = zero credibility X 10,000 words = Zero credibility = written in The Guardian.
And One White Duck / 0^{10} = Nothing At All
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
I DO care about child labor and that’s why I have nice cheap clothes, because without those jobs those the kids would not have jobs at all and would starve.
Usually left wingers show up on these threads and call for more gov't control to 'protect' everyone, but the problem in India is too much government. Loony socialist state policies --not the market place, are the cause of the problem.
Hey wait! I have another solution! I don't need to die at my own hand!
I will just go buck-naked, everywhere I go.
I'm not wearing any pants.
I eat Keebler cookies made by little Elfs ....so what’s the big deal...?
I have friends who live in Honduras and when I talked to them about that, they explained that the children working in the factories were from poor villages and had no chance of going to school. So, the factories are the best alternative and higher paying than working in the sugar cane fields with machete's.......
As a side note, almost all of the imported fruits and stuff from central and south america are all planted and harvested by manual laborers, unlike the mega farms here that have millions of dollars of farming equipment that does most of the work. The do-gooders who enjoy their sugar in their mocas have no problem with that........
Do you know who screwed up India? Galbraith.
He said they’d never get developed without a central plan. How’d that work out?
At what point do bad ideas die, so that good ideas can thrive? The persistence of bad ideas is proof there’s a devil.
And that's the whole "Made in America" game, these days - still use Third World labor in sweatshops, but do it in Los Angeles so you can get away with playing patriot for public consumption and also charge a premium.
When we buy for our stores, we find "Made in Canada" usually gets us the quality that "Made in the USA" used to represent.
“it would be so much better if those people in India and China didn’t work at all and starved to death.”
I don’t care much about the political, child-labor, etc., ramifications about this. So what if children are working to help out the family? That was America for centuries, and the children grew up to be decent citizens. Adults worked for relative pittances then, too. Over time, things change — for the better, we hope.
It’s the religious aspect that bothers me. According to missionaries we’ve had in our church, Christian prisoners in Chinese hell holes are forced to manufacture products for the U.S. market. Christmas ornaments was one item I recall at the moment. For that reason, I’m more watchful for “Made in China” tags.
“Where do you find those, anyway?”
They exist, you’ve just got to pay for it. You can get a pair of 501 jeans that are made in the USA. $130, on sale (regular $198).
http://us.levi.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12903311
For the most part I agree with you. I also believe that corruption, cronyism and needless regulations are just as harmful to those who need entry level employment as are blatantly unsafe working conditions and wages that don’t allow workers to buy even the most rudimentary necessities.
I also happen to believe that increased mechanization of factory made goods is inevitable, especially here in the States where Union demands have driven up labor costs. Now in places like India (where I do acknowledge even the wages children bring to their families matters) do I (as a Catholic Christian) believe we should push for things which may end up displacing workers and end up punishing the poor in efforts to protect them from abusive working conditions?
That does not seem very fair to the person who no longer has a job. To me a gradual approach is better. Part of that approach is being willing to pay more for certain goods if I know it means an improvement in working conditions where such goods are made.
I don’t worship an economic system, I worship Christ and I remember that one of the 4 sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance is “cheating laborers of their due.” So to me it is never just dollars and cents, it is what I will answer for before God.
We who believe in the rights and dignity of man (Christians by virtue of Imago Dei) have to offer the tools to make a better world or those with a more radical and hate filled agenda will find bigger and bigger audiences for their vileness.
They'd better get on with it, and decrease the surplus population. /Dickens
Is it really a slave trade or are they sending their kids out to work because the other option is starvation?
Why would people willingly leave European slums to go to American "slums"? Why would farm kids leave the farm to live and work in the cities of America? Because it improved their lives however marginally. People like liberty, even just a little bit more. They also like money, even just a little bit more. These central planners cause more harm because they don't believe in liberty. Liberty doesn't need them, therefore they hate it.
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