Originally Posted by LJSMITH1

First off, China or India are not considered 'third world' countries anymore. They are "second world" and rapidly becoming fully developed. While the average production worker standard of living does not even compare to the equivalent here in the US, it is all relative. These folks are able to make enough money to put food on the table, own a TV and Cellphone, a scooter, and have *A* standard of living. Only 40 years ago, Most of China and India could only dream of such things - as there were many poor people living on farmland or inner cities. Its a matter of time when the standard of living is equivalent with the fully developed world. BTW, Japan is considered fully developed and have equivalent standards of living as we do.

Nike's investment in its offshore manufacturing has absolutely, most certainly, improved the standard of living of all those who work in those factories. While the cost of labor is less than in the US, the same level of quality & efficiency is expected. Aside from fully automating this process, there is no other way to keep a pair of sneakers under $100 in the USA. The 'wealth' of these companies are in fact being shared by anyone working for them in any country. Profits are of course, corporate, and taxes are paid on them. This is additional income for the country the company is based in. However, Toyota has a significant presence in the USA, and while not *all* corporate profits are US-based, some are and they are taxed accordingly.

Have you ever heard of underage workers in the USA? Try the garment industry in NYC, or your local 13 year old kid cutting lawns or painting houses. I was working fixing boats during the summers when I was 14&15. What makes assembling flip flops any different? They are not being held there as a slave. They might not get benefits outside of a paycheck, but neither did I when I was working at 14.

It truly is a global economy now and the USA needs to recapture its edge to remain competitive. Innovation, efficiency, and quality are all the current measures of success. If it means more automation to make stuff - so be it. Instead of manual production workers, they could be machine operators, maintenance, or programming. Nothing a little education couldn't solve.

Local shops are being overshadowed by American-based Internet stores or big box stores. What about E-Bay? I can easily buy things used (from Americans) that I would otherwise buy new. All these things make it extremely difficult to be in business locally - unless you have a specific product to sell. Many people like to know if they have an issue, they can run down to the Merchant and they will be taken care of.

We have allowed our economy to become primarily service based, while allowing taxes, excess environmental regulations, and continual downward price pressures to put US-based manufacturing out of business - or move offshore labor-intensive operations to remain competitive with the lower downward prices.

The bottom line, this time is like no time in the past and certainly will not be the same in the future. Change should be embraced, not avoided.

Originally Posted by brian john

I say make the little bastards earn their keep.

Originally Posted by LJSMITH1

Long post...right...sorry..

I am not sure if I understand your post. I am not against 14 year old kids working if they want a job. However, our society has democratically protected children against any type of work for fear of exploitation and harm to the child. I am not totally sure about that. I have my 12 year old son help me with yard work on the weekends, and he has his designated chores. He sees me working my but off every week and weekend. I plan to have him develop a good work ethic for school and his future career.

Our society has changed and as a whole, have put kids at a different level than in other parts of the world. However, there are pockets of our society, where kids are contributing members to the survival of the group/family - like the Amish, or on the Midwest farms.

All I know is that work kept me out of trouble when I was a kid...

Originally Posted by LJSMITH1

Long post...right...sorry..

I am not sure if I understand your post. I am not against 14 year old kids working if they want a job. However, our society has democratically protected children against any type of work for fear of exploitation and harm to the child. I am not totally sure about that. I have my 12 year old son help me with yard work on the weekends, and he has his designated chores. He sees me working my but off every week and weekend. I plan to have him develop a good work ethic for school and his future career.

Our society has changed and as a whole, have put kids at a different level than in other parts of the world. However, there are pockets of our society, where kids are contributing members to the survival of the group/family - like the Amish, or on the Midwest farms.

All I know is that work kept me out of trouble when I was a kid...

Originally Posted by drsparky

I worked since I could get a paper route, that's fine. But employing and exploiting child labor are completely different things. The sweat shops of the early 20th century were not using child labor to teach good work ethics, nor are the modern sweat shops in China and Indonesia.
As for the Third Word the term comes from the third estate, the commoners. (Those French history and literature classes were good for something.) During the cold war the US and its allies were the First World, USSR and it allies were Second World and China and India both claimed to represent the Third Word. Some would falsely class China as Second Word, but Sino-Soviet relations were very poor at that time, Chairman Mao did not consider himself subjugated by the Soviets. The term Third Word has evolved to mean almost everything but I will stick to Sauvy's original premise.

Originally Posted by Frasbee

Sounds like there's an economic evolution all societies must go through.

Originally Posted by brian john

Under the Clinton admministration Hillary tried to banned families from using their kids as unpaid labor.

The Korean store owners and what is left of the American family farms were outraged. Like her screwed up health care this was dropped.

Child labor like was done in the early 19Th century in sweat shops was wrong for many reasons. Family child labor, I say make the little bastards earn their keep.

Originally Posted by nitro71

We sold out the country for cheap imported crap.

Everyone better wake the hell up before we are living in a 3rd world country that is flat ass broke.

Originally Posted by Black4Truck

I just bought some D!CKIES work shirts.. they were made in HONDURAS

Nice shirts.. thick material, but their sleeves are about 2 inches short

Originally Posted by TOOL_5150

Maybe your arms are 2 inches too long.

~Matt

Originally Posted by drsparky

Justify that statement.

Originally Posted by TOOL_5150

Maybe your arms are 2 inches too long.

~Matt

Originally Posted by nitro71

Child labor is bad for a country. You have people breeding up kids just to work at the family business. So some farmer has 10 kids all working at his farm. Now they all grow up and need jobs because the farm doesn't make enough money to support the clan. All those kids are now unskilled labor because they were at the farm instead of in school. Now they all are on welfare because there are no manufacturing jobs to be had. On to the buy American part. We sold out the country for cheap imported crap. NAFTA was the nail in the coffin. There are no American products to be bought. Trickle down is bull****. Spending 20% of our govt budget on defense is bull****. Letting Mexicans cross the border at will to work here is bull****. Everyone better wake the hell up before we are living in a 3rd world country that is flat ass broke.