You want to know why China is so absurdly cheap for everything? This is part of the reason why. I wonder how many prison mining camps, prison garment/textile camps, etc. Are operating with the sole goal of keeping costs as absolutely rock bottom as possible. China is making a killing by undercutting the global market on costs for just about everything.
Forced prison labour is the foundation of a number of economies, including the US’. It’s explicitly not prohibited in the Constitution.
China can’t use prison labour to undercut global markets because they have a smaller prison labour pool than their key economic competitor (the US).
I don’t believe that. Chinas prison stats are around 1.69mil (which is oddly on par with the US - per capita not taken into consideration). However, per the Global Slavery Index, there’s an estimated 5.8 million people enslaved there. And we know that there were over 1 million Uyghur Muslims, and we really don’t even know the extent to which that is happening either.
I’d be willing to bet that there’s a lot more slave/prison labor going over there than even we realize.
The GSI is not a reliable index. The Walk Free initiative that publishes the GSI doesn’t use a consistent methodology for every country and will also uncritically accepts reports of human trafficking from unreliable sources.
For example, their report on China includes unverified claims of harvesting organs from members of the Falun Gong, a right wing cult operating out of the US. The Falun Gong also operates the Epoch Times which is a far right conspiratorial newspaper that has promoted Qanon, antivax propaganda, and claims of election fraud in the 2020 US presidential election. You can not trust their testimony on faith alone and yet that’s what Walk Free did.
This post has so many controversial aspects:
- There are no real numbers from china, how many people are actually imprisoned or what even means imprisoned. For example the Uyghurs are not Prisoners in Prison but “Citizens in reeducation camps”- what is a lie. Pictures show they are indeed imprisoned . China is fudging these numbers like the economy numbers at a grand scale.
- China is able to force people to work in certain regions or cities. They have a complex system on how to channel work by prohibiting living-, healthcare- and pensions-systems to citizens based on their location and citizens need to apply for changes to these systems to be able to work in other regions.
- China - as an authoritarian regime - can force every prisoner to work if they deem it useful. The US has different rules for penal labor, but not make prisoners work like china. The US has a much different landscape.
- China undercut every good, in every sector (except some high tech sectors) based on their vast (forced) workforce but also in the strategic sense. They act like Uber (or is Uber acting like China?) in the sense, that their strategy in the last 4 decades was to undercut e.g. Steel-Production for their own advances, but also to cripple the industries in the US and the West in general to come out as the sole supplier for these products and services to then control the prices (like Uber). The US Steelworker Industry is practically gone by now. They did the same with raw-materials and lately with Solar, where they undercut the European (German) markets, to cripple it and control the production/income/spread.
They have a complex system on how to channel work by prohibiting living-, healthcare- and pensions-systems to citizens based on their location and citizens need to apply for changes to these systems to be able to work in other regions.
This is called indentured servitude, it was common in feudal societies.
BTW, you should add a new line between points to have proper formatting
Tell it to the 13th Amendment:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction
Coincidentally, those convicted parties are predominantly Black.
Person A: it’s bad that China is bad.
Person B: OMFG but USA bad too!
Like, do you actually think this is a real defense for China’s behavior? Or are you just blustering because you understand there is no defense and that hurts your world view?
The OP claimed China has a competitive edge from prison labour. I disproved that statement.
Instead, China uses their prison population to bolster their organ transplant market.
Edit: I wonder if the people who downvoted realise that China admitted they had been harvesting organs from prisoners but claimed it was voluntary and that they were stopping. Meanwhile, the exponential growth of their transplant industry continued beyond 2014.
Cool, I was just thinking the answer to this problem was either ‘both sides’ or ‘what about’.
Meanwhile, the price of products of prison labour in Germany. About the best grills you can get, anywhere, period. All 2mm stainless, well thought through design (removable rods!), excellent craftsmanship.
Don’t get me wrong though prisoners still earn a pittance, anything under 2 Euros/hour has just been declared definitely unconstitutional – that’s raw, untaxed wage though without deduction for any costs, a day of prison costs the state something like 120 Euros and those grills sell like hotcakes even at those prices so why would the state lower prices.
What you should definitely look at in this context is, two things: First, where the money is flowing: Are the prisons hiring out prisoners at a pittance allowing private companies to reap profit still burdening society with the full costs of lockup – or, worse, the profits exceeding the lockup costs and prisoners not seeing a cent of that excess. That’s called straight-up slavery, no ambiguity or grey zone to be had there. Secondly, whether the prisoners actually and truly benefit – and I don’t really mean in monetary terms (though if you go poor to prison you definitely shouldn’t go out indebted, that’s bad policy), but in terms of being able to get a proper and dignified job afterwards: Mindlessly folding cardboard boxes which a machine could do for cheaper if it wasn’t for the fact that you’re earning a cent an hour vs. to wit above, people becoming skilled metalworkers. One of those makes recidivism less likely, the other teaches inmates that labour is something no sane person would ever want to do.
Not just China!
QI show about US prisons: https://youtu.be/sHz2Hmq7soo … so many years ago, so it’s slightly out of date.
I don’t remember what it was called, but I seem to recall there being some sort of documentary or movie or something of the likes about someone here in the US who found a note from a prisoner in their brand new pack of Christmas lights (or some similar holiday product).
Edit: a word.
Prisoners prop up global powers.
Chinese prison labor bad. Western prison labor good.
Chinese prison labor bad.
WesternUS prison labor good.ftfy
I hope this is all part of some psy opp to fuck with the west. I too hope to find a prize sewn inside my clothes and really recapture that cereal box feeling.
It’s that cereal Box feeling Now exclusively with dead ugyhers woop de doo!!!
Despite feeling uneasy, the woman disposed of the card and “thought nothing more of it”.
Who here would actually throw away the ID?
I was talking to a relative about Temu the other day, “How can they sell shit so cheap? Like, there’s got to be slavery involved somewhere.”
Temu and Shein have some of the most absurdly optimized supply chains in the world
Chinese workers are also just more efficient than American ones LOL
Lemmy.ml calling slave labor efficient because it’s Chinese slave labor.
Got to love your patriotism, but maybe dial it back a bit on the justifying slavery.
Temu, at least, is just a dropshipper. Temu itself doesn’t have any supply chain. The vendors that sell through Temu do.
Well, not doing anything is pretty efficient.
Why wouldn’t they be more efficient? If I mess up at my job, they don’t execute me for it.
Definitely Primark 2.0.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The card was found inside a plastic holder embossed with the words: “Produced by the Ministry of Justice prisons bureau.”
The prison identified on the ID card found in the Regatta coat says on its website that it specialises in clothing production and the processing of electronics components.
Last month, the French broadcaster Arte aired a documentary about a handwritten Chinese letter that was found inside a pregnancy test bought in Paris.
The finding in the Regatta coat is unusual in that it identifies a specific individual, which risks repercussions for that person, and did not come with a note.
Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for China, said: “Companies have a responsibility to do much more to guarantee their supply chains are free of human rights abuses – wherever they operate in the world.
The mere existence of allegations of forced or compulsory labour must at a minimum alert companies to the risk of having links to these abuses.”
The original article contains 1,008 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Yeah let’s focus on Chinese prison labour, ignoring the US’s much higher incarceration rate, and the literal genocide they’re funding right now.
Yeah let’s focus on Chinese prison labour
Since that’s what we’re talking about right now, yes, let’s.
criticising other countries is banned if you were born in the wrong country
Two things can be bad and you can discuss both of them. Let’s not lose our sights on something because something else is worse.
I can boycott regatta and American prison made licence plates at the same time. I have many other talents besides.
Can you do anything about the genocide on natives that your tax dollars are funding right now?
what?
The US sends $3.3bil to Israel every year, and has sent a bonus $14.5bil 2 months ago.
Not what we’re talking about, but you should be writing to your reps about this. Most people just feel bad and move on. Actually writing a letter will get attention
I’m not a USian (un?)fortunately but I appreciate the sentiment.
Me either, but my government is an ally to the US and also contributes their own aid to Israel, so it applies to me. Assuming you’re in a democracy, it’s very likely you have some stake (even small) in the genocide.
Even boycotting goods produced on occupied land is a small step anyone can take.
Are US prisoners risking their lives to tell the world what’s happening to them?
