Poverty wages for garment workers in Eastern Europe and Turkey

[LelandJ]

George Bush gave a speech at the UN when he was in office warning about the perils of "listening to conspiracy theorists." Ratigan, bless his heart, probably does know the president's sponsored just like congress. The last president who gave a speech warning about "secret societies" controlling every sector of business and government was assassinated, but that was before iPads existed so we can't really be sure that was real.

We're not talking about spotting UFOs here, can't fathom why you'd mention eye-witness testimony in regards to the market and legislation. How many billions were lost (extracted, stolen is the honest word here) in pension funds and public entities over the MBS and derivates fraud alone? Still continues and we've had foreclosure fraud rampant for some years now as well.

Maybe you just want me to share some links to data and facts that show the process of legalized centralized systemic fraud and corruption?

During high school my friend and I started Amnesty International chapter because we really thought political change was possible. This was before the internet and without Amnesty providing us information there'd be no no way for us ourselves to have learned, much less educate others, about American sponsorship of genocide in Africa. In my junior year doing research for a paper I found unsettling newspaper articles during WWII at the downtown microfiche archives. I shared them with my government teacher, a West Point graduate, and my Spanish teacher, who had lived and traveled in around central America when the U.S. had begun subverting democracies by force in the 60's and 70's. They likewise both shared literature with me and informed me under no uncertain terms the supranational totalitarian nature of central banks. The matrix was finally revealed. <-- wearing my iSee.

Luckily for me at this same time my best friend's father a university world history teacher led us to begin learning religious studies. We learned the problems of fascism, genocide, ecocide are all downstream to failures of consciousness within us all inherent in our culture.

I went to a large firmly middle class high school, though my family lived below poverty line, and the school board did not want me causing a glitch in the matrix by giving the valedictorian speech. They negotiated with me to trade in the title in exchange for a $26k (non-inflation adjusted) scholarship to study abroad in Spain my senior year instead. I took the deal.

/mini-tweet-friendly-memoirs of LelandJ

[sybarite]

I find the report's policy recommendations dubious.

The average wage for garment workers in Moldova, in the absence of an acceptable minimum wage threshold, is already close to 60% of the average wage. See Tables 2 and 5.

But the NGO would go further and mandate a new wage floor to increase the wages of those at the lower end of the distribution.

Sounds like a grand idea if lunch is free. But there are trade offs. Otherwise we'd just set a high minimum wage and be done with it.

If a minimum wage hike results in higher wages for some but job losses for others (as the literature suggests), is the game worth the candle? See, e.g., Neumark et al. ("we view the available empirical evidence as indicating that minimum wages pose a tradeoff of higher wages for some against job losses for others").

I'm also not sure that advocacy reports by NGOs with policy wares to sell are compiled with anything approaching methodological rigor. This one is essentially a series of interviews (anecdotal!) with a non-random sample of participants drawn from a pool that is either self-selected, chosen by the report's authors, or both.

Hardly exacting.

Probably a different picture emerges if workers are randomly polled ("are you worse off or better off working for a foreign clothes manufacturer?").

If Owenscorp pulled out of Moldova tomorrow, would workers be better off? Likely the opposite: reduced competition for labor would depress wages. The alternative to foreign conglomerates isn't strawberries and cream -- it's grinding poverty in the countryside, joblessness, or worse conditions of employment in domestic firms less sensitive to searing NGO critiques.

When Rick employs 600 seamstresses, he is part of the solution, not the problem. Low wage manufacturers have been instrumental in alleviating poverty in emerging markets. See generally East Asia. No boycott ever lifted half a billion souls out of poverty. Sweatshops and foreign direct investment did.

[LelandJ]

When Rick employs 600 seamstresses, he is part of the solution, not the problem. Low wage manufacturers have been instrumental in alleviating poverty in emerging markets. See generally East Asia. No boycott ever lifted half a billion souls out of poverty. Sweatshops and foreign direct investment did.

Slaves should be grateful for their jobs. Doesn't the entitlement attitude of low wagers make you sick?

[sybarite]

Feelings of entitlement on their behalf (and other pieties) won't reduce poverty.

[LelandJ]

I'm agreeing with you, more sweatshops are the answer.

[sybarite]

Most economists agree. But more importantly, can't argue with results.

[apathy!]

Slaves should be grateful for their jobs. Doesn't the entitlement attitude of low wagers make you sick?

Agree.

It seems to be irrefutable that (in this case) the locals are better off having Rick's factory than not having it.

That doesn't mean we should be content with him paying them fuck all. It's just the lesser of two evils.

[Faust]

Sybarite, did you know that right wingers are not allowed on SZ?

[sybarite]

Hadn't known. Apologies.

[ambrosian]

You're missing the point, who's saying we should eliminate all factories in these countries?

[Irara]

For me the saddest thing is that sweatshop workers are in a weird and ironic catch 22: with low wages they can only afford that cheap clothing thus stimulating the companies to produce more of it and supporting the system not only by their labor but also by creating the demand.

[Faust]

That is true, but we are also talking about luxury clothing here. It's even more disingenuous for luxury clothes makers to charge very high prices while outsourcing work to factories that engage in slave labor.

Glad to see someone from my mother country!

[Irara]

I'm also curious how much more it would cost Rick, or any designer, to pay $20/hr equivalent to all the people who sew their clothes.

$300-500 pro month per person.
I know for sure as I come from an Eastern European country to which some companies* had moved but went away in a year or two as it was "too expensive" for them. So my country is not even on the 'Poverty wages' list.

(actually low minimum wage here is lower, but 300-500 is normal pay for garment industry workers. As a researcher at the Academy of Sciences I earn only 200 )

*I was told "Next" clothes used to be sewn here and don't remember any names from the more expensive spectrum

[Irara]

It's even more disingenuous for luxury clothes makers to charge very high prices while outdidsourcing work to factories that engage in slave labor.

For me it's simply incomprehensible. They have more possibilities to pay their workers than those who make clothes by poor for the poor.
Luxury companies are not only exploiting the worker but also fooling the consumer: even those who don't care about sweathshop industry like to think their stuff is made by skilled European workers who hold onto some traditions, that's a part of an 'added value' of the garment which affects the price.
It's not like I worry about consumers in this case, what I'm trying to say is that unlike cheap brands expensive ones are making the situation unfavorable for everyone but themselves.

Glad to see someone from my mother country!

=^_^=

[Landadel]

I just wrote an e-mail to Rick Owens´customer service asking them about the working conditions in Moldova. I don´t expect an answer or rather some PR crap, but let´s wait and see.

Wasn´t there Rick´s private e-mail adress floating around the internet?
It would be interesting to read what he´s got to say about it.