economy - Chinese slave labor and American squirrels – the WTO-column

(tomorrow at Chinabiz)

Ann Arbor, MI – The student looked a bit worried at the pile of shirts with the logo of the University of Michigan, a firm ‘M’, on it. “Do you think they are being made by Chinese slave labor,” he asked. The guy is part of a student group who wants to investigate whether their university is not exploiting Asian workers.
“Would you be prepared to pay more tuition to avoid such an exploitation of workers?” I asked him. That might be a problem, he said. “We think the tuition is already too high.” They were already having a hard time to find out where the sweaters were being made, China or Vietnam, I did not want to start about the sporting shoes he was wearing. Nike and Adidas have to deal with thousands of suppliers to get their shoes together. But they do earn a decent margin.

You might see the dilemma. While the American consumers dump their cars at Wal-Mart and load them up with mountains of affordable Chinese goodies, their politicians feel the electoral pressure and prepare themselves for some decent China-bashing. The Washington Post last weekend spelled out the troublesome life in Guangdong of the local workers and companies that are squeezed out by American corporate greed. It is all part of a political agenda in the months ahead of the presidential elections.
The problem is of course that pinpointing a culprit in this complex process of exploitation is not that easy. European and American companies “squeeze” Asian companies to improve their balance sheets. Asian companies “squeeze” their Chinese (and other Asian) workers. Asian workers earn more in those sweatshops than in their hometowns, so do not really feel the urge to rebel unless things really get bad. Governments would rather see the economy blossom than haggle about the working conditions of their citizens, let alone for migrants, especially when their living standards are rising.
On top of that, most parties have double standards when they beat the drum on this issue. Trade unions have of course humanitarian concerns about their comrades in Asia, but also fear the competition by those same Asian workers whose search for a better life means fierce competition for back home.

So aren’t we all a little bit guilty?. At least John Snow, the US treasury secretary has been found guilty; after vigorously criticizing China on its performance, he was caught by American journalists buying Chinese toys for his grandchildren. He would have had a damned hard time finding any decent US-produced toys anyway.
I’m from a Roman Catholic background, so in case of misdemeanors we could always confess our wrongdoings and go on with life. Quite different from the Calvinists in the US and northern parts of Europe who feel the world is bad and keep on feeling guilty about that.
For that reason I have been watching squirrels here in the US with admiration. They behave like rats. They scavenge for food in dustbins, spread diseases and occasionally bite the hand that feeds them. But unlike rats, people love them. They look cute, eat with two hands and have a rather good-looking tail. I wonder what PR-firm they use.

Fons Tuinstra