Taiwan does have labor laws. I'm not sure about Malaysia. Are you only concerned with the quality of the goods, and you have no concern for the people who are producing them at all?

I do have a problem with goods that are produced by slave labor, or child labor, and people who are exploited. Things in many of these third world countries are very similar to how things were in the United States 100 years ago. In some of these countries you have child laborers working 18-hour days for 5 cents. And if they get hurt on the job, there is no workmans comp or any sort of liability. The injured employee will simply lose their job if they cannot work, and they will not be entitled to any kind of assistance or help from the government.

So with that kind of cheap labor (no minimum wage, no restrictions on child labor, no safety standards, no fire safety standards, etc.), of course companies are going to produce their goods in these countries. The result is fewer jobs for Americans as these factories move overseas.

In Burma, they have legal slavery like we had prior to the civil war. Most goods that do come from Burma are made by slave labor. Do you have a problem buying goods produced by slave labor? I certainly do have a problem with that, and I think such goods have no place in the American market.

The solution is to have at least some soft of standards in whom we do "free trade" with. We can debate exactly what those standards should be. But to have no standards is simply condoning things like slavery and the exploitation of children.

Having certain standards written into our free trade agreements will force countries like China to conform. Don't complain about China's behavior. Complain about those in Washington who have the power to influence China's behavior, but instead do nothing.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...