jamesallgrove on fashion’s friend: the free market

I cannot stand it when I hear somebody banging on about how workers in developing countries are being ‘exploited’ by multinational corporations, and how everyone should refuse to buy Nike trainers ‘out of principle’.  Before I begin my rant, I want to make it clear that I’m not talking about child labour, or forced labour, or anything of the sort.  I’m talking about people who live in developing countries and work in the factories that make the clothes you find in Primark, Gap and the like.

Maybe those self-righteous whiners should stop and think that the people who work in these so called ‘sweatshops’ are not slaves.  You wouldn’t go to work if you felt you were being exploited or felt it wasn’t worth your while, would you?  No.  So what makes you think that people in developing countries would?  They may be poor but that doesn’t mean they are stupid.

Many of the ‘anti-exploitation crew’ seem to think that working in a textile factory is hard, backbreaking labour.  Well, yes you would find it hard labour if you attempted to switch from sitting in front of a computer all day to stitching trainers for a living.  But for the people who do these jobs the only alternative is usually agriculture, which really IS hard, backbreaking work… and even worse, unreliable.  So they choose to do these jobs because they are less intensive and provide a stable income.

The other fallacy that the ‘socially conscious’ seem to enjoy trumpeting is that poor factory workers are paid about the equivalent to the change in your pocket right now.  Now that may not be a lot of money in the UK but, believe it or not, it is a good wage in a developing country, and buys quite a lot, too.  Multinational companies often pay more than the market wage to attract the best workers - so how exactly are they exploiting them?  In countries like Cambodia, the demand for factory jobs is so high that aspirants actually bribe managers.

 Another thing -  when somebody is paid five pence to make a scarf that sells for £10: people think that’s exploitation.  You’re an idiot if you believe that H&M are making £9.95 profit on every £10 scarf they sell.  Of course they aren’t - there are lots of other costs associated with getting that scarf here and putting it in a shop and getting you to buy it, including paying workers a fair wage.
So please can we stop objecting to people in need of work getting jobs in factories just because we feel we are being ripped off.  If you really want to help people in developing countries you should buy more goods made by them, not boycott them because you think you are doing them a favour.