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The typical bike-related purchase is based on 3 factors:
Price
Color
Weight.
What about the social cost of your purchase? What is life
like for the people who made your bike part? Does the worker
that made your bike part have insurance, an opportunity to
get promoted at work or a way to save for his family or future?
Does he work in a factory that is safe and dignified towards
its employees? Do they get reasonable breaks and work a decent
number of hours a week?
What is the environmental cost of your purchase? Is the country
where it is made regulating manufacturing waste and emissions?
Does the factory where your bike part was made take pollution
control seriously or are they contributing to the enormous
problems of pollution in Asia?
The enlightened list has 5 factors:
Price
Color
Weight
Working environment and social conditions where the part was
made
Environmental responsibility of the manufacturer of the part
The bike part you bought last week for $60, that was made
in the USA
Was made by a skilled worker, earning between $12-20 or more/hr.
Who works a 40 hour week (with nationalized overtime laws),
with health insurance and retirement benefits.
Works in a safe environment that is heavily regulated and
monitored by local, state and federal agencies.
They are trained. They are likely on a track that promotes
growth, increases in pay, and increases in responsibilities.
The US has highest literacy (above 99.9% of the population),
highest education level (95%) and GDP ($34,142 per capita)
in the world.3
That same bike part that you almost bought last week at
such a great low price of $40, that was manufactured and/or
assembled in an Asian NIE (newly industrialized economy)
Was likely to have been made by an untrained worker, earning
less than one fourth of his US counterpart ($2-5 per hour).4
He is unlikely to have health insurance or retirement benefits.
Complex, under-funded and erratic reforms have so far failed
to increase the number of people genuinely insured.
His workplace environment and its safety regulations are inconsistent
and not well enforced. He’ll work a 60-70hr work week
and is not allowed to join or create a trade union.5
He is likely to "retire” by the age of 27, due to
injury, burnout or fatigue.6
He is working in an environment where rapid industrial development
is leading to increased pollution and degradation of natural
resources, without adequate governmental regulation or oversight.7
Only 84% of China’s people are literate, 73% have some
form of education, GDP $8976 per capita.3
"One of the most serious negative consequences of China’s
rapid industrial development has been increased pollution
and degradation of natural resources. A 1998 World Health
Organization report on air quality in 272 cities worldwide
found that seven of the world’s 10 most polluted cities
were in China. According to China’s own evaluation, two-thirds
of the 338 cities for which air-quality data are available
are considered polluted."9
3. Source: U.N. - The Human Development Report, 2002.
4. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
September 2001.
5. Source: www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/2002/0202chinalabor_body.html
6. Source: web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/ASA170222002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\CHINA
7. Source: www.state.gov
8. Source: U.N. - The Human Development Report, 2002.
9. Source: www.state.gov
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