Is Walmart's "Made in China" the modern version of slavery?

Is Walmart's "Made in China" the modern version of slavery?

Have the American retail industry's "Made in China" labels replaced slavery as the profit making modus operandi of tyrants?

Since slavery was outlawed in America a century and a half ago, business owners who were tyrants have sought methods 'other than slavery' to reduce their labor costs to zero or near zero.

Actually, if you think about it, even the slave owners in America provided "room and board" for their slaves and those things really did have value. So slaves in America weren't actually paid NOTHING, they were paid whatever their room and board were worth. Maybe $5 per month is a reasonable value to put on those items. Oh sure, many of them had to put up with rape, torture, and murder, but that's another story...

I'm sure the plantation owners thought they were being good Christians by "giving" their slaves free room and board. They probably spent many many hours sitting in the shade on their verandas being fanned by one slave, while another served them iced lemonade and whisky, and while the others worked their bodies raw and to early deaths in the brutally hot sun for hours and hours at a time.

I wonder if the plantation owners thought proudly of themselves for having "created so many jobs"?

Eventually, sanity won out in America and slavery was outlawed. One century after that, America began extending human rights to the descendants of those slaves.

About that same time, Walmart was born.

Like the slave owners before them, Walmart wanted to "reduce labor costs". Since slavery had already been outlawed, Walmart needed another method to reduce their labor costs to near zero. They knew that Americans wouldn't work for twenty cents per hour, and they knew that even the poorest Mexicans would demand at least twice that.

Walmart found relief in China. Land of 2 billion impoverished people, oppressed by their government, and denied simple human rights. Yup, Walmart had found their perfect match.

It was a match made in heaven. Walmart wanted workers who would work for meager wages, and who basically had never experienced human rights in their entire lives. It's hard to be "uppity" when you're in bondage, isn't it? Ask the Chinese dissidents who are hounded and jailed perpetually in that country.

A wave of relief swept across the Walmart boardroom when they realized they had found the solution to "wages". With millions of twelve year old Chinese girls eager to work in Walmart's factories in order to earn dowries to give to the families of their future grooms, Walmart now had an unlimited supply of slave wage workers.

Think about it. What do the young Chinese girls who work in Walmart's Chinese factories earn? Twenty cents per hour? Since Walmart doesn't have to worry about hourly wage laws in China, they don't have to pay any overtime wages. No pensions or health care to fund either! Workers comp insurance? Nope. All Walmart has to pay their Chinese workers is the 20 cents per hour. Multilply that times the 75 hours per week those poor girls work and Walmart probably gets one worker for the equilvalent of nearly two U.S. work weeks for about $15.

How does that $60 per month compare to the $5 in room & board that American plantation owners paid to their slaves? Adjusting for inflation, Walmart's Chinese factory workers probably earn exactly what American slaves earned in the 1850's.

Wage problem solved.

Oh sure, the Chinese girls don't have to put up with rape, torture, or murder at the Walmart factories, but on the other hand, they do have to put up with a government that will tell them when and how many children they can have. Imagine, a government telling their citizens whether or not they can have children... It's a virtual right-wing utopia over there. People working for pennies per hour, afraid to speak out because they've been broken of the human spirit, and the government gets to tell them what to do with their bodies.

Congratulations Walmart. You've managed to build a business empire only with the help of virtual slavery. You do realize that if you tried to work twelve year old girls in THIS country, for those wages, and under those conditions, you'd be tossed in jail forever right?
Or is the fact that you've broken America's sacred covenant with it's workers of no concern to you? I suppose it's also of no concern to you that you've destroyed this country's economy and manufacturing base either right?

When will the people in America who DO care start making the rules?

But Walmart started it. It was about 20 years ago that Chinese products started to become common. All the retailer followed Walmart's suit and began carrying Chinese products too. At first the products were cheaper. You could buy a 12" TV set for $25. A pair of Chinese made work boots cost $35. Today, those same boots cost $90 or $100. About the same price as boots made in America.

i don't understand why that isn't stressed more in the corporate media, either...oh wait...nevermind.

they'd have to buy the slaves and train them, pay for food, shelter, clothing, medical care, security

and in today's world, it would cost more than what a chinese peasant might earn in some factories, doing the work that the slaves would otherwise be doing.