Made in China — This is an interesting piece that seems to harp on Chinese prison labor specifically citing this research site and this unique listing of prisons in China and what they each do.

From R0ckwell:

In fact making something abroad often results in better products for a given price. Paying overpriced US wages, complying with environmental and safety regulations and all the crippling US FMLA regulations that let workers walk off the job with full pay for three months just because they’re stressed (just have your doctor use the exact legal phrase “a serious medical condition, ” not “stress”) does nothing to make me a better camera. Thankfully other countries with more progressive corrections programs are stepping up to the plate to have skilled prison labor in places like Liaoning Province, China assemble the products we want. The money not spent paying people to stay home is money that camera makers put right back into the camera for you and I. In the USA the government subsidizes dissidents to teach history in universities; in other countries they’re sent to prison to make shoes, clothing, cameras and machine tools for the rest of the world.

He manages to get the last jab in about the Liaoning Province. Unfortunately when you look into it the Internation labor organization cited a lot more countries than China than Rockwell has. The list is as follows: Australia, Austria, China, Cote d’Ivoire, France, Germany, New Zealand, Madagascar, Malaysia, United States

You’ll note the USA on the list. The Chinese really detest having the finger pointed at them when the pointer is a hypocrite, not that they can defend the practice of forced labor. But how can we defend it ourselves? And when you consider that the USA has the world’s highest-per-capita number of people in prison it makes you wonder.

Some Links:
Hightower on Froced Labor Prisons ins USA

Jim Hightower writes, “don’t run ads or go to the unemployment agency for workers — got to your state prison! Cheap? We’re talking as little as 20-cents an hour, with no health care, pensions or any of that other nonsense that workers on the outside want. And these guys always show-up on time, they can’t talk back and they won’t be joining any of those pesky unions. Plus, you can even put a ‘Made in the USA’ label on the products they make for you.”

The Prison Industry in the USA

The prison industry now employs more than half a million people–more than any Fortune 500 corporation, other than General Motors. Mushrooming construction has turned the prison industry into the main employer in scores of economically depressed rural communities. And there are a host of firms profiting from private prisons, prison labor, and services like health care and transportation.

Today, there are over 1.7 million people incarcerated in the United States, more than in any other industrialized country. They are disproportionately African-American and Latino (almost 70% of US prisoners are people of color), and two thirds are serving sentences for non-violent crimes. One in three African-American men between the ages of 20 and 29 is either in jail, on probation or on parole. 1.4 million black men–or 13% of African-American men– have lost the right to vote because they have committed felonies.

There are a lot more links than this. The situation is a disgrace. On the other hand maybe prisoners should be made or allowed to work. That said why isn’t this also true in China? The debate would work better if it was someone in Sweden making the argument, not us.