Wednesday

Sweatshop Labor Profiteering: One of the Four Sins which Cry to Heaven for Vengeance

The pertinence as to why this article is here at the Marian site is because Defraud-
ment of Laborers of their Wages is one of the four sins which cry to Heaven for
Vengeance.

As a quick reminder, Marian devotion does NOT consist in kissy-poo ribbons
& bows w/ flowers on altars.  It's a matter of killing the pain of other while keep-
ing yourself from killing others in the many ways in which you can destroy a per-
son's life.  Such pain-killing is known as works of charity/mercy.  After all, faith
without good works is dead faith, and he who sees that a certain good act is need-
ed to be done and neglects to do it sins.

The point ot Marian devotion is to keep out of mortal sin.  This includes not
being an accessory to such sin ... including defraudment of laborers of their
justly due wages.  If you are against the livable wage, then go to Hell, being
that you're going there anyway, if you die with that sweatshop, slave-wage
mindset.

It's point is: 1} to soar with the angels, 2} to prevent oneself from being ornery,
hardened, & callous, 3} to be in control of one's senses, while conquering one's
cravings, 4} to be sensitive enough to feel the pain of others, 5} to stay out of
Hell.

Observing economic justice is a part of Marian devotion.  In fact, the quest to
live according to a valid conscience is a requirement in Marian devotion.

Preliminary Notes: As of January 2015, the
Chinese yuan (the renminbi yuan) was worth
approximately 16 American cents.  Russia's
ruble and India's rupee were worth 1.6 cents,
American. A Polish zloty was worth 27 cents,
American.  The Euro was worth $1.19 US.
In 1986, when the Reagan administration and Congress opened trade with China,
the average Chinese wage was 24 cents an hour.   By 2010, it was 75 cents an hour,
for a Cantonese worker.  Today, the wage continues to depend on the region, and
ranges from $1.23 in Guangxi to $2.58 in Beijing, according to the 2013 law that
mandated the Chinese minimum wage to equal to 40% of the average urban wage.
Yet, there are reports, such as one from Business Insider, which mark the average
Chinese salary at 80 cents an hour.  Thus, we again have inconsistent reporting.

What is known is that there have been worker suicides, threats of collective sui-
cides, rioting, protests, and physically demanding living conditions.  In addition,
Vietnam, with its low wage rate, has become the new China/Bangladesh.  This is
because the Chinese nation is beginning to be a "service economy," as opposed
to a "manufacturing economy."  None the less, it's important to note that the the
Russian minimum wage is approximately $1.04.  Thus, it is projected to become
lower than the Chinese wage, should the 2013 Chinese law be observed.

The minimum wages of other low-waged nations go as follows:

Sierra Leone: 3 cents an hour.   Mali where the French intervened: 27 cents.
Mexico: 61 cents.  Vietnam: $90 to $128 per month depending upon region.
The Philippines: 61 cents.   Pakistan: 51 cents.   Afghanistan: 57 cents.
Armenia: 65 cents.  Nepal: 45 cents.  Nicaragua:  52 cents.  Bangladesh:
Monthly wage went from $38 to $66 recently.  The Ukraine: 91 cents

Other minimum wages go as follows:

Australia: $16.88.  Luxembourg: $14.24  France: $12.22   Ireland: $11.09
The UK: $10.02.  New Zealand: $11.18  The Netherlands:  $10.99
Spain: $5.57   Portugal: $4.19  Taiwan:  $3.88.   Poland: $2.97 

End of preliminary notes.
___________________________________________________________________
Americans wear clothing made by overseas sweatshop employees.  Americans buy
appliances made in sweatshop nations.  In almost every American home, you will
found the phrase, Made in China, more often than Made in USA, no matter what
be the category of not-very-durable durable good.

Sweatshop people don't have lives.  Nor were they given any appreciable identity.  
As a result, sweatshop employees would be found with slit wrists, time and time
again.  Eventually came the implementation of the suicide net.  Americans hold 
sweatshop workers in a living death, be these the workers in Bangladesh, China,
Vietnam, Guatemala, El Salvador, etc.  Now, some Americans keep these workers
lodged in this state of slavery out of cowardice, while others do so out of selfish 
negligence.  Yet, others do so out of greed.

Why would anyone want to rule over a humanity that had its humanity stripped
away from itself?  Who wants to rule over a society of humans-made-robot or 
humans-made-animal ... or even humanity-turned-zombie?  The state of those
ruled is a reflection on  the rulers.  The makers of ghettos are ghettos within
themselves, no matter how plush be their domiciles and how high be their
bank accounts.  Concerning the greed part ...

The United States does NOT make money from importing merchandise made by low-
waged foreign sweatshop workers.  It has been constantly losing through this type of
importation.  While Communist Chinese merchandise ships come to America, Ameri-
can dollars goes to Maoist China.  So too is this the case with all other foreign nations 
whose workforce can't afford to buy American products and/or services, in any type of 
two-way, fair trade, economic traffic.  No foreign nation pays the United States to take 
its merchandise.  In fact, the Chinese Communist dictators do not even give Americans 
a commission for selling their merchandise.  

America is not making out like a bandit in a business practice which constitutes a crime 
against humanity.  There is only a small percentage of Americans make out like bandits, 
often sending their spoils to overseas tax havens.  Meanwhile the rest of America finds 
itself on the losing end of the steadily diminishing currency flow, in increments.  This 
chronic loss has been in the trillions of dollars.  This is the trickle-away effect.

A flow of American dollars goes into Communist Dictatorial China, as well to each of 
the NAFTA nations, never to return to the States, without America finding itself in an
increasing state of treasury bond debt to foreign entities.  The money lost in Republican  
Party Economics is called the U.S. Trade Balance DEFICIT.   The total deficit for the  
past 10 years has been $5.929 trillion (2003 to 2012).  The accumulative deficit for the 
past 20 years (for goods & services) has been $7.988 trillion (1993 to 2012).  For goods 
only, the 20 yr U.S. International Trade Balance Deficit has been $9.236 trillion.

That's MINUS $9,839,000,000,000.
          MINUS $7,988,000,000,000.
          MINUS $5,929,000,000,000.

All gone.  Bye bye.  No more.  Au revoir.  Not even a post card.  In addition, sweatshop 
workers threatened suicide, on account of the harsh conditions in the compounds that 
manufacture the products which go to the United States.  This means that Americans  
have become unconscionable slave drivers by proxy, all the while destroying their own 
economy.  
1 yi jiao
Now, foreign trade is fine, if and only if the foreign workers can afford American pro-
ducts.  That is to say, buying foreign is fine, if foreign occasionally buys American, in
return.  Thus, fair trade is a necessity, in order for foreign trade not to result in disast-
er for one of the two trading nations.  Fair trade requires a reasonably balanced two-
way street of import and export traffic.  

Concerning America, Chinese workers would not have been able to have afforded 
American products anyway, beyond wheat products, in Equitable Foreign Trade, ev-
en if America had not ceased being a manufacturer of household consumer products 
in significant quantities.

Imagine the trade balance deficit money as dollars flowing through a tube into a pro-
tectionist dictatorship or two ... or three.  This costs American jobs.  In fact, this en-
tirely prevents the creation of many American mid-size business start-ups.






The Economic Downside Effect of
Foreign Slave Labor Profiteering

Foreign slave labor profiteering achieves the following results:

- Increases an offending nation's international trade deficit.
- Reduces the same nation's gross domestic product.
- Deceases the offending nation's per capita income.

At this point, view the United States trade balance deficit through
the years, in its trade of goods (not services) with China, alone:

                  U.S. IMPORTS                        U.S. EXPORTS
              from sweatshop China                to protectionist China
        (This is money paid to China)   (This is money paid to the U.S.A.)

2012            $425 billion                               $111 billion
2011            $399 billion                              $104 billion
2010            $365 billion                                $92 billion
2009            $296 billion                                $69 billion
2008            $337 billion                                $69 billion
2007            $321 billion                                $62 billion
2006            $287 billion                                $53 billion
2005            $243 billion                                $41 billion
2004            $196 billion                                $34 billion
2003            $152 billion                                $28 billion

10yr total: $3.12 Trillion                             $663 Billion       
 paid to Slave Labor China               paid to an acquiescent U.S.A.

The NET equals: MINUS $2,457,000,000,000 - That's only trade with China.
This is goods only.

The Total Deficit, as is charted below, is MINUS $5,929,000,000,000. 
This comprises trade with all nations.  This comprises goods and services.

The hypocrisy is that trillions of American dollars stayed in the permanent posses-
sion of the Chinese Communist Dictatorship, in the name of Democracy and
Capitalism, as well as Republican Party Values.


Now, view the total 10 yr U.S. trade balance acct, concerning trade with all nations,
in approximate numbers:

          Concerning GOODS only        GOODS and SERVICES

2012       minus $735 billion                     minus $540 billion
2011       minus $737 billion                     minus $588 billion
2010       minus $645 billion                     minus $500 billion
2009       minus $505 billion                     minus $381 billion           
2008       minus $830 billion                     minus $698 billion
2007       minus $818 billion                     minus $696 billion
2006       minus $835 billion                     minus $753 billion
2005       minus $780 billion                     minus $708 billion
2004       minus $663 billion                     minus $605 billion
2003       minus $540 billion                     minus $490 billion

Total:   minus $7.088 261 trillion         minus $5.929 trillion 
                                                          
Refer to the following link: 

In addition, the total/aggregate U.S. Trade Balance Deficit for only the month
of November 2012 rose $6.6 billion, to $48.7 billion (for that one month only.)
This means that the Trade Gap Rate rose by 15.9%.  As I have previously stat-
ed, if this Trade Balance Deficit behavior continues, America will be a political
entity in the history books, compared to the Argentina which, at one time, was
regarded a world power.




Thus ends the mystery as to why millions of Americans had the hardest time
finding employment; especially those of a livable wage.

At this point, repeat after me:  "That's a lot of sweatshops."

A Crime Committed upon the Parent
is a Crime Committed upon the Child
and Visa Versa

An injustice thrust upon adults is one that is equally forced upon the children of those 
adults.  Poverty in the home of the parent is poverty in the home of the child.  Sweat-
shop labor imposed upon adults is an evil that also assails children.



'Forced to stand for 24 hours, suicide nets, toxin exposure and 
 explosions':  Inside the Chinese factories making iPads for Apple


And it came to pass, as the first decade of the 21st Century progressed, that right
wing conservative business entities saw to it that religious objects and Christmas 
ornaments would be made in sweatshops.  The people tagged as the hard work-
ing moral majority negated the purpose for the coming of Christ, doing so in the 
name of sacred rites.  All the while,  they made money on interest-bearing instru-
ments and extremely cheap labor, doing absolutely nothing in the process.

And it also came to pass that no Christmas gift was being made at the North Pole 
by elves.  Rather, they were being made in Chinese and Bangladesh sweatshops by 
severely underpaid workers, some of whom applied razor blades to their wrists, in 
order to kill the pain that the Reaganite Moral Majority were collectively inflicting 
upon them.  

And it furthermore came to pass, as the 21st Century progressed, that millions held 
Christianity in contempt, being that millions were deceived into thinking that Ameri-
can Corporate Predatory Greed was the religion of the Nazarene rabbi who was put 
to a Roman death shortly after he drove Money Changers from the Jerusalem Temple.
When the Nazarene entered Jerusalem, the Jews placed palm branches before him.
Within a week, the Romans ended up driving nails into him.  Today, the right wing
masters of hypocrisy and greed crucify the Nazarene anew.

Humanity then became enlightened as to what the Protestant Work Ethic really is.  
It's the incessant practice of using African slaves, Irish Catholic immigrants, East-
ern European immigrants, Chinese sweatshop workers, and similar victims to do 
the Protestants' work for them.  

In the words of an adviser, "Now, that labor's cheap, human life has become cheap.
(in the eyes of right wing moral majority conservatives.)  In the Nineteenth Century, 
the States that comprised the Confederate South used local chattel slavery to achieve 
their hallowed Protestant work ethic.  In the 21st Century, the same States and other 
ones used Slavery by Proxy, as in foreign sweatshop labor profiteering.  It's the same 
Jefferson Davis hypocrisy, done in the name of "States' Rights" and a "Moral Majority" 
which is neither moral nor a majority.



___________________________________________________________________

Update:  In the month of August 2011, the Trade Balance Deficit with China, alone,
increased  by 7.42%, to $29 billion.  This is the statistic for one month of trading, in
terms of goods and services.  This was a new record at the time.   In as much, China
came out on top for the 304th consecutive month, in its trading with the United States.
Furthermore, the United States has not had a trade balance surplus in trading with the
Chinese Communist Dictatorship since April of 1986.  This amounts to 24 years and
16 consecutive months of money leaking into a dictatorship, by the billions per month.
America is a leaking ship soon to capsize.  It is now the of 2013.  The United States
has gone 327 consecutive months accumulating a deficit, in commerce with China.

Here is the irony:  In August 2011, corporate greed breaks a new record, to the detri-
ment of the 90% of the rest of America.  The following month began the showdown
with corporate greed, in the form of the worldwide OWS movement.  FoxNews, in a
predictable fashion, defamed the surprisingly peaceful people who elected to assert
their First Amendment Rights.  All the while,  official statistics prove that the First
Amendment people of Zuccotti Park were generally correct.  Greed has been destroy-
ing America all along, and sweatshop importation has been the vehicle doing so.


Now, the most current news (at the time of this writing) is that the monthly Trade
Balance Deficit,, in trading with China, has decreased (narrowed) in February and
March 2013.  In fact, the total U.S. Trade Balance Deficit  decreased.  Yet, it was
still woefully significant ... detrimental to the U.S. money supply.   In January, the
trade deficit in trade with China was $27.8 billion.  In February, it was $23.4 billion
lost to the quintessential sweatshop profiteer nation.    In March, the amount lost to
a China notorious for its civil rights abuses was $17.8 billion.  Money lost to China,
in unfair trade practices, for the first the months of the Year 2013, was $69 billion.



__________________________________________________________________
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The Laws Against this Type of Profiteering Were
Already on the Books, in United States Federal Law.

It wouldn't have required any courage for any public figure to have stepped forth
and initiate movements designed to end America's complicity with slave labor pro-
fiteering.  This is because laws against it are already on United States law books.  
There's Section 307 of the 1930 Tariff Act, along with the May 2000 amendment 
to that act.   Both are found in 19 USC 1307.   How much does NAFTA conflict 
with this? 

Despite the Law, Sweatshop Labor
Importation Has Been Rampant

There is a loophole in the 1930 Tariff Act.  The law doesn't prohibit the importation 
of indentured/slave/convict/forced labor products "which are not mined, produced, 
or manufactured in such quantities in the United States as to meet the consumptive 
demands of the United States."  In addition, there are recent trade agreements that 
don't require the enforcement of morally needed international labor laws.  This means 
that foreign workers stand in direct jeopardy of being brutally abused, due to no pres-
ent legal recourse, short of the Nuremberg case law authority.  Plus, there is the alle-
gation that the 1930 Tariff Act is not being enforced.  

The evidence is publicly evident.  Sweatshop labor, forced labor, and plantation la-
bor is rampant throughout the modern world in general.  So, is the used of minors
as combat soldiers.  Many products made by laborers defrauded of their wages
have been entering American docks and airports for years.  It's equivalent to re-
ceiving stolen property on a grand scale.  It has robbed America of its money 
supply.

The names of the corporations who have capitalized on sweatshop labor have long 
since been posted throughout the Internet.  Some have faced federal lawsuits.  In 
fact, the offending corporations were often household names.  The amount of avail-
able information on this topic is so vast that it would require at least an entire web
page, in order to post the links to it. 

A 2007 National Labor Committee Report on Sweatshop Crucifixes 

A 2007 New York Sun Report on Sweatshop Christmas Ornaments 

A 2007 News Report Issued by Reuters India on the Christmas Ornaments

Additional Reading Material of Related Topics Includes:

A 2010 MWC News Article Reporting on the
Findings of the National Labor Committee

A 2011 News Article Reporting Disney Factory Sweatshop Suicides 

A 2011 News Article Reporting 8 Cent Per Unit Pay for NFL Shirts
Sold at $25 per Shirt:  This Translates into 72 to 92 Cents an Hour

A 2012 News Article Reporting on Apple Iphones Being Made by
the Under-aged, in 16 Hour Daily Shifts, at 70 Cents an Hour 

A Sweatshop Table of Contents of multiple reports

When You Liberate Others, You Liberate Yourself

A properly paid foreign worker has a way of increasing product demand for Amer-
can products, even from a third party nation.  For example, properly paid Chinese 
workers might only buy from Europe.  However, the increased European revenue 
might result in Europe importing more from America, thereby bringing income to
America.  Such a thing puts American workers back to work, assuming that the
level of manufacturing will increase in the United States, so that workers will be in
demand.  Such a thing can also enable mid-sized entrepreneurs to either compete 
in smaller scaled markets or more easily enter the ranks of subcontractor, simply by
virtue of increased demand.

Slave Labor Profiteering is Even an Injustice
to the Citizenry of the Nation that Engages in it 

Foreign slave labor profiteering results in unfair advantages over the citizens of the 
nation that practices it.   This is because those who profit from foreign slave labor 
steal economic power from the multitudes, and in the process, they steal multiple 
advantages from their fellow countrymen.   That is to say, they cheat in order to 
get their standing in life, and that is unfair to everyone else.   After all, the average
entrepreneur cannot compete with the low wage advantage that these corporations
use for their selfish gain, at the expense of the US Trade Balance Account and the 
Gross Domestic Product, as well as the per capita income.  Foreign slave labor 
profiteering, therefore, is even an act of violence committed against an offending 
nation's own citizenry. 

A Coast to Coast Crime 

If you deny that you are part of this practice, simply go into your closet and read 
the labels on your clothing.  Then go into your kitchen and read the labels on your 
appliances.  Go next throughout your house, your place of work, and elsewhere, 
reading the labels on the newer merchandise.  If you have any merchandise from 
a sweatshop, then the practice of slave labor profiteering has reached your life.

In addition, if you work for a sweatshop profiteering corporation, you're involved.
You are an accessory to the fact.  This includes what you find under your Christ-
mas tree.