Sunday 18 April 2010

Deconstructing the sweatshop story

Every so often, a sweatshop story makes it into the papers. Every single time, middle class tossers get their panties wedged about it until the next thing comes along to distract their gadfly attention span.

So, let's go back to first principles a bit, shall we?

Outer Cuntistan is a poor, agricultural country. Not cozy, Range Rover-driving, John Deere-tractoring agriculture though. Manual, back-breaking, eking-out-a-miserable existence, with-nothing-left-to-trade agriculture. The kind that demands you have twenty children just to provide you with a labour force to ensure your survival. Education? Who's got time for that? You work flat out from the moment the sun comes up till the moment you can't see your hand in front of your face and then you stagger back to your hovel and collapse after eating a bowl of nasty gruel made with rotting vegetables, because you don't have a fridge. Fuck the fridge, you've never even heard of electricity!

So along comes this guy, a gaijin or a gwailo or a lekgoa - and an utter cunt to boot. He sees all these meatsacks that he can exploit cheaply to make stuff for rich westerners. So he organises a factory to be built, gets the government to set up electricity for his facility, and goes around hiring the very best workers for the square root of fuck all.

But these workers are now quite respected members of the community. They work indoors, they have ready access to tap water, they work the same sort of hours, but it's not so physically demanding. And they get money. They can actually buy things, something they've never been able to do before. And in terms of their value, they probably "earn" twice as much as they used to. It's a shit life, but it's marginally less shit than it used to be.

Unfortunately for the utter cunt running this shop, you can't keep a bargain quiet and soon, other people are opening up sweatshops there. More people are getting employed and suddenly, the hardest workers are in a curious position. Rather than just taking what life has handed out to them, they can suddenly find themselves choosing to go work elsewhere ... for more money!

Over a couple of years or decades, people forget the horrors of their agrarian lives, they start to hear about Western luxuries, something called "health and safety" and start assimilating these ideas into their own lives. Kids learn to read. Gradually, Outer Cuntistan stops being a great place to do business as they lift themselves out of abject poverty into a reasonable lifestyle via the sweatshop.

The utter cunt eventually gets fucked off to the max and decides to look elsewhere, perhaps Africa this time. And the cycle repeats in country after country as the utter cunt selfishly exploits the principle of comparative advantage, looking for ruined or non-existent economies to exploit in his quest for near slave labour. Country after country is painfully and messily lifted from agrarian hell to a semblance of Western standards.

Don't speak too harshly of the sweatshop owner. After all, after another decade of statist, corporatist, social democrat catastrophe, we can expect him back in this country soon enough.

And you wouldn't want to deny your children and their children the chance to a better life, would you?

35 comments:

John Demetriou said...

You cunt.

This is clearly in reference to my recent piece, insults included.

And the double snub of not even giving credit to the fucking inspiration for the article.

You are truly a fat headed useless toss bag.

Cheers for that, you rude cunt.

RantinRab said...

As an alleged member of the cuntry club, may I applaud your fantastic post.

However, to garnish your masterpiece, I humbly suggest a paragraph referring to misguided western student types getting their knickers in a twist and calling for a boycott of firms that deal with the factory owners.

JuliaM said...

As excellent an explanation of why capitalism is the worst of all systems (except for all the others) as I'm ever likely to see...

/applause

Dark Lochnagar said...

Why much the same thing happened here in our own fair land and now we get some ugly bastard who can sing a bit getting £millions in 6 months. Sweatshop labour can work, ask Susan Boyle!

Joe Public said...

It's just like our Supermarket buyers.

They agree a contract with Fred-the-Farmer, who grows tons of produce for them. Just before delivery, they say ".....Francois-le-agriculteur can supply those at 10% less..."

Agree the reduced price, or we buy from him.

RantinRab said...

Meant to say, check out the hypocritical bastard whining about not getting a 'hat tip'.

Priceless.

formertory said...

They agree a contract with Fred the Farmer

So why doesn't Fred the Farmer produce his copy of the contract and sue their corporate arse? Isn't that what contracts are for? Or is he too busy setting fields aside and being paid for it?

Sounds like "I hate Tesco" again.....

Mitch said...

The "sweat shop" owner probably contributes more to the nations wealth than all the do gooders who ever fretted.

John Demetriou said...

Fuck off Rab you useless YouTube blogging bell end.

The Country Club mentality stands, and I don't want a fucking hat tip you retard, I simply am amazed at Obo's bad manners for not referencing the source of his article.

No link wanted, but a well mannered reference would have sufficed. He is being willfully rude and malicious. Typical of the big crying baby Clown cunt to be fair.

RantinRab said...

...Fuck off Rab you useless YouTube blogging bell end....

...a well mannered reference would have sufficed. He is being willfully rude and malicious...


Like I said. Priceless.

John Demetriou said...

Fuck off Rab. Like I care what a two bob stats whoring nobody like you thinks!

RantinRab said...

Then why keep biting, John Boy?

John Demetriou said...

Who's biting, baldy?

Chuckles said...

He's a country member? I never knew.

RantinRab said...

Chuckles, Neither did I.

I'm not a member of anything.

JuliaM said...

Wow! I didn't know it was possible to stamp your feet and pout over the Internet...

Anonymous said...

Julia - you can even throw your dummy out of your cot on the internet....

sixtypoundsaweekcleaner said...

This is better than Eastenders.

JuliaM said...

Have just been informed (if I can so abuse the word) by a commenter at B&D that it was the boycott of SA produce that brought down apartheid...

Sixtypoundsaweekcleaner is right - this is MUCH more fun than Eastenders!

Turing word: factref

YeH, I think B&D could do with one.

Oleuanna said...

Brilliant bit of writing once again ruined by that JD bloke. I long for the day the argument of the subject could become this passionate rather than the obvious weakness of an angry man.

You embarrass yourself constantly.

Anyway Obs ....I think I have an argument against but needs thought.

Chuckles said...

JuliaM,

Please accept my apologies. I actually went and checked because I doubted your description.

Not only did the intellectual titan believe that boycotting South African fruit caused the downfall of apartheid, but it used the fairtrade word as well.

Boycotting SA fruits did it?
Must be something in the water.

Antisthenes said...

I know which blog I am rooting for and it ain't Barmy and Demented.

Good stuff Obo keep it up.

The Grim Reaper said...

Can't help but feel this piece is slightly on the cuntish side, unfortunately. There's a few valid points in there, but it still doesn't sit easy with me.

Sorry Obo, not your finest hour.

Obnoxio The Clown said...

You're going to love my next one then.

The Grim Reaper said...

I agree with almost everything you write Obo, so I probably will love it all the same.

Day will continue to follow the night, cold will continue to be the opposite of hot, B&D will continue to be a pair of whiny little cunts and so on.

John Demetriou said...

Mmmmm yeah great 'next piece', Obo the Clown, fucking excellent. You excelled yourself there, right along with the plea you rent forth for impoverished children to stay rooted in lives of pitiful torment and suffering because, well, at least it's somit.

Lovely stuff. Hope you sleep easy at night old china.

Obnoxio The Clown said...

OK, you self-righteous cock: get your fucking wallet out and go sort it.

My way they get there sooner than yours, what's the bet?

John Demetriou said...

Your way would be just marvelous to the greedy, immoral slave drivers, sure. Which is what you AnCaps want after all.

You are the first person I have come across who actively engages in trolling his OWN site. Wonders never fucking cease.

How about charity, Obo, can't you even give a good word for that in your nasty, shilling little diatribe?

No?

I feel for you. Someone must have really clocked you upside your clown wig when you were a nipper.

CountingCats said...

How about charity, Obo, can't you even give a good word for that in your nasty, shilling little diatribe?

????

Why should he? Charity certainly has a place in human interaction, but that is not what the posting was about.

As a description of how industrial investment improves the lives of all involved it is excellent.

When I were a mere broth of a boy I learnt all about how dreadful the lives of the factory workers were during the early days of the industrial revolution. I were a grown adult before I learnt that they put up with these conditions because the available alternatives on the land were a bucolic paradise only in the minds of romantic morons.

As for charity? Where is the money for charity coming from? At a guess - productive workers?

Anonymous said...

JD: Fuck off Rab you useless YouTube blogging bell end.

JD: http://www.boatangdemetriou.com/2010/04/tune-of-day.html

Ahem. Jus' saying.

John Demetriou said...

Er, Al, how often do we litter out site with 1 liners and youtube clips? Compared to how often we write extensive pieces on various topics?

Obnoxio The Clown said...

So, John, what you're once again saying is that you are the only person in the world who knows how to blog, and anyone who doesn't blog in exactly the same way shouldn't bother?

Perhaps you can enlighten as to what the approved ratio of youtube clips to witterings about Anna Raccoon is? I can see there's an area of my blogging where I definitely need to increase my post count.

Face it Johnny, the moment you put any youtube clip up, you branded yourself as a hypocrite, because the only difference is one of degree / proportion.

RantinRab said...

Extensive boring fucking pieces.

Why say 2 words when we can say 22?

John Demetriou said...

Fuck. Off.

Anonymous said...

I just love the interpretation of the industrial revolution and how it benefitted those who 'chose' to work in mills and mines. Taking their kids along for the ride.that is fucking priceless. And the selective interpretations about comments on apartheid are beyond fucking belief. Its quite obvious to anyone with a brain outside of their surgically implanted wallet that individual choice in boycotting products got the message across that the system had to stop. But no these fucktards who would be wiped out in a real survival of the fittest scenario(i'd fucking just top them) spin it for their own narrow minded justification for an oxygen supply. just die and let those who see Liberty as a pluralist goal have some semblance of a chance in this fucking dystopia.

Bobsuruncle