Thursday, May 14, 2009

Dude! What are you wearing!?!

Check your clothing labels. Go on... do it! Where were your clothes made? Chances are that the clothes we are wearing were produced by someone in a "less developed country" (LDSs) for a fraction of what it would cost to produce in Germany or in the USA. What are the cost and benefits of this? How do we "trade" with people who might only earn a few Euros/Dollars a week? Is such a system beneficial? For whom?

8 comments:

  1. I think it is a very difficult statement. Nearly every company produces in a LDSs country...
    Even if we look at the more expensive brands we can find " made in taiwan" for example.
    The biggest problem is, that it is regular to us, we don't think about the production, although little children made our clothes for a few cent's and they have to work while children in america or germany play in the backyard!
    The worst thing is, what can we do against it? Nobody will buy a normal T-shirt for ~30 euro if he can have the same T-shirt for ~5 euro...

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  2. In my opinion, it's on beneficial to the country who is getting the goods, not the ones producing them. The LDC's are basically "being used" by the bigger more stable countries simply because we can get goods cheaper from them.

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  3. Niko, I beg to differ with you about the whole someone will buy a shirt if its cheaper than another one. A really good example is Holister. People here in america will pay like $45 for a shirt that has a silouette of a bird and the word holister written on it. And they'll do this rather than being able to get like 5 shirts maybe more from a store we have here called walmart. and I don't know for sure what country those shirts from holister are made in but I will put money on the fact that its not America.
    The shirt I'm wearing right now was partially made in Taiwan and finished in china. I can bet that it was made in a sweat shop by children working for barely any money. But its hard to get clothes that aren't made by children in another country. I do not by any means support those labor shops but there is nothing we can really do because we're just kids and the people who work in those shops, though they are paid little, it would most likely cause them to starve to death faster if we took all those jobs away from their country.

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  4. I agree with Cyndi that "it would most likely cause them to starve to death faster if we took all those jobs away from their country".
    I don't think that the important thing is to discuss where all our T-shirts are made or how they are produced. It's clear that they are often produced by children and they don't earn (enough) money.
    The most important thing in my opinion is the question how Niko said: What can we do?
    I don't have any idea what we can change and how...
    What about you?

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  5. You can always look before you buy a t-shirt where it´s from. But nowadays almost everything we wear is from LDS countries.
    But I found an interesting web-page for the german pupils:
    http://www.ja-zu-deutschland.de/
    That´s a portal where companies who produce in Germany are listed.

    And here is a webpage to an organisation like fair trade but for clothing:
    http://en.fairwear.nl/
    So you can buy products produced in your own country but I looked up the prices on these webpages and they are higher than "normal".

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  6. I agree with everybody. LDS may be "being used" but they are also getting help from people that buy the clothing that they make. We providing them with a job and money not much but its something i'm with Cyndi on not supporting sweat shops and waht not but we are helping in a way not a good or big way but it is helping.

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  7. My sweater was made in china by the way

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  8. I agree with Cyndi too. I think it is because we can't really compare the two different developed country and less developed country. Like Cyndi said here in America we would spend money on those brands for a lot more. While those who live in LDC buy 5 shirts in the same amount of money.

    And i also agree with Marisa as well. We provide them with a job and we are somehow helping them, at least they have a place to stay and a job to earn money and to keep them alive.

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