Should we stop importing goods from countries that dont have a minimum wage

Should we as a country(and all other countries with a minimum wage) only import goods from countries who's workers that produced the goods are on an equivalent minimum wage?

Could a mod change the title to "should we stop importing goods from countries that dont have a minimum wage" please?

not really. sad fact of child labour is, if you take that away they'll have even less. not sure how we change all that.

i feel sorry for the minimum wagers of china who put in 18 hour days, and sleep in factory digs. 7 days a week. they are like robots.

The world is the way it is. 'Minimum wage' is a farcical concept to apply to some countries.

It's good for them to get a job at $20 a month, and good for us to get cheap goods. Winners all round.

not really. sad fact of child labour is, if you take that away they'll have even less. not sure how we change all that.

 

i feel sorry for the minimum wagers of china who put in 18 hour days, and sleep in factory digs. 7 days a week. they are like robots.

Its the only feasible way I can think of of getting our manufacturing going again; there's no way the minimum wage will be abolished here, so if we stop importing goods from countries that use cheep labour, it should force companies in these countries to pay people a minimum wage equivelant to ours; so in theory, company's decisions on where in the world to set up business will be based on where the skills are rather than who's the cheapest.

you want to get manufacturing going, increase the duty tariff on all non-essential imports.

you'd kill a lot of discounters off (poundworld etc) but i agree with you.. they've cheapened everything to such an extent (to get it in for a price and retail at a £1) that all it is is worthless tat that breaks in 2 minutes... and then it takes 10,000 years to get rid of it.

The world is the way it is. 'Minimum wage' is a farcical concept to apply to some countries.

 

It's good for them to get a job at $20 a month, and good for us to get cheap goods. Winners all round.

I suppose we could adopt the same kind of thinking to slavery. Hey, at least they get some food and somewhere to sleep, and we get the job done dirt cheap.

What a world we live in where the idea of being a winner is getting goods we don't really need at cheap prices

I'd say it would do more harm than good to immediately stop, people do rely on those jobs, but we should be fighting as a country to raise the welfare standard of workers in these countries, be that at a governmental level or at a consumer level.

I suppose we could adopt the same kind of thinking to slavery. Hey, at least they get some food and somewhere to sleep, and we get the job done dirt cheap.

 

What a world we live in where the idea of being a winner is getting goods we don't really need at cheap prices

The thirdd world is poor, no need to over-pay a small proportion of them or you just bring imbalance to their economies. Leave them as they are and let them set their own wage levels.

Theres no point feeling sorry for them and wanting to put things 'right' overnight - their societies will evolve over a few more hundred years.

I didn't suggest goods we don't need, you added that from nowhere, but I'm happy to pay a low price for goods we do need.

 

The thirdd world is poor, no need to over-pay a small proportion of them or you just bring imbalance to their economies. Leave them as they are and let them set their own wage levels.

Theres no point feeling sorry for them and wanting to put things 'right' overnight - their societies will evolve over a few more hundred years.

You're right, another poster mentioned goods we don't need, but the same point applies either way when it comes to exploiting producers (whether they are here or abroad). As I'm sure you know, there are plenty of British farmers being screwed into the ground by the likes of Tesco, just so you and I can have a cheap pint of milk, or a cheap chicken on Sunday.

Whatever happen to the concept of a fair days pay. It's just dog eat dog, pile it high, flog it cheap, I'm aright Jack.

You're right, another poster mentioned goods we don't need, but the same point applies either way when it comes to exploiting producers (whether they are here or abroad). As I'm sure you know, there are plenty of British farmers being screwed into the ground by the likes of Tesco, just so you and I can have a cheap pint of milk, or a cheap chicken on Sunday.

 

Whatever happen to the concept of a fair days pay. It's just dog eat dog, pile it high, flog it cheap, I'm aright Jack.

yeah it's true. We need some kind of ethical investment fund. If I won euromillions or something, I'd look to invest in a product or something. Produce abroad but pay a fair wage, look to invest in local infastructure and education programs. I wouldn't over pay as that would upset the local economy.

Seeing as I don't need to make a profit I can hopefully undercut the competition whilst still retaining the marketing budgets that the big boys have. Fair wages could be paid to staff at this end and their wouldn't be any shareholders to appease. Also it is still essentially a capitalist model, so it wouldn't stagnate, we would still have to inovate and compete, but excess profit wouldn't be our prime motivation.

We just need some super rich nice guys who won't get corrupted by power!

What a world we live in where the idea of being a winner is getting goods we don't really need at cheap prices

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Whatever happen to the concept of a fair days pay. It's just dog eat dog, pile it high, flog it cheap, I'm aright Jack.

Its the only feasible way I can think of of getting our manufacturing going again

People won't do this voluntarily and so the only way it could be enforced is via tariffs and sanctions, and that's a very slippy slope.

Jim Rogers: Trade Wars Always Lead to Real War

 

Successful investor and author, Jim Rogers, warns that a trade war could lead to a repeat of the Great Depression along with a war between the U.S. and China. He's also bullish on the US dollar.

 

“This could be terribly, terribly dangerous if we turn into a trade war. We had a trade war in the 1930s, it led to the Great Depression. We already have small signs of trade wars breaking out: Brazil, France, other places, now America. This could be very dangerous in the end.”

 

“If it turns into a trade war it is the most momentous thing of 2011. Trade wars always lead to wars.”

 

“If America does put on tariffs onto the Chinese, the Chinese have various weapons at their disposal. They could stop buying American government bonds. They could sell American government bonds. If they did that, interest rates in America would go through the roof. The value of the US Dollar would go down a lot (perhaps a lot or, at least, a little). This would not be good for anybody, including for China.

LINK

Trade wars have escalated since the financial crisis, warns ICC

Trade war looming, warns Brazil

US-China trade war: Congress beware what you wish for