When consumers in America buy products that are Made in China, they are mostly unaware of the human suffering that goes into making those products. Most people go to “big box” stores like to get the cheapest prices. Much of the cheapest, low-quality stuff comes from China. However, Made in China products may also be items purchased in a high-priced, fashionable store in a fancy shopping mall. This is especially true for clothes and fashion accessories.
Outrageous Corporate Profits
Did you know that cell phones in the U.S., which retails for over $300, costs about $35 to make? Would you be surprised to find out that the average factory workers earns the equivalent of about $1 to assemble 10 of them? Would you be shocked to learn that the factory in China that makes some of the world’s most popular cell phones had to install “suicide nets” to catch the factory workers who were so despondent with the working conditions that they jumped out of the windows at work to kill themselves?
The Guardian and many others in the media reported on all of this; nevertheless, these companies continue to give even larger manufacturing orders this year to the same troublesome factory in China.
Child Labor, Prison Labor, and Slave Labor
America has laws against child labor because in the early part of the last century we learned how easily children can be abused. When the public became truly aware of the abuse of child workers happening in the USA, we abolished it. There are no such laws in China. A child of any age can be forced to work and often in extremely dangerous conditions.
America has prison labor and we have the largest prison population of any modern country in the world. Shame on us. However, we do pay the prisoners something if they work while in prison, even though it is very small. American prisoners do not have to work if they choose not to work. In China, prisoners must work without pay for long hours of up to 12 hours per day with no time off. If they refuse, they are beaten.
China has tens of thousands of political prisoners that it has enslaved. They are held in concentration camps. Many are Falun Gong practitioners who follow a peaceful spiritual practice. The atrocities committed against these people are unbelievable, including harvesting their human organs and selling them to hospitals for transplantation surgeries.
Conclusion
There is an increasing awareness that so many products Made in China are full of human suffering from how they are made. Amnesty International says the human rights abuses in China are some of the worst in the world and they are increasing.
If the baseball cap you wear says Made in China on its label, take it off. Get a Proud to Buy American® cap instead. Now that you are aware of what Made in China really means; you do not want the bad karma of what the Chinese are doing hanging over your head.
