Clearly written by someone who hasn't spent time with any chinese factory workers. Cheap labour means the hourly rate in dollar terms is less than elsewhere. It does not mean the people have a bad quality of life. I ran a plant in China and although the people were paid less than when I was in UK or USA, they experienced the following feel good factors:
Their personal economic situation was increasing noticeably year on year and immesuarably on a generation by generation basis.
They were able to pay for housing, feeding their family etc and still save a significant proportion of each month's salary for the future.
Their children were able to go to school.
Over a period of time we saw less and less of them riding bicycles and more and more of them buying motorbikes (which meant I had to keep getting the bike shed extended).
They enjoyed their lives, and enjoyed their work.
Meanwhile our business grew rapidly and is now the largest exporter of a certain key engine part from China as well as a strong and increasing player within the domestic market.
On the human rights side the people didn't feel particularly oppressed and had a lot of confidence in their government, something I came to share over the years. I did see on a couple of occasions trucks of prisoners on their way to be executed, but on the other hand it was quite incredible to see people with incomes ranging from sub 1000USD per year to 100k per year and more living amongst each other and with what appeared to be a much lower crime rate than in the west.
Social responsibility? How much CO2 is your V8 putting out?
