What is Digg?116 Comments
- MisterPink, on 10/30/2007, -1/+59sounds like gap has revived their controversial For Kids By Kids clothing campaign
- AriaStar, on 10/30/2007, -8/+51The HORRIBLE catch-22 is that these countries need the work to bring in money to eat. But I'm going to fault the parents far more than anyone else for having kids they can't afford and then selling them. If you can't afford yourself, don't have a kid.
It's good news that GAP has fired 23 factories, though it's not possible to know right away of every serious violation. If I believe a company is using child labor without a care, they can go to hell, but if steps are taken to rectify, then my business may return.
A sad twist is that Americans often complain that a shirt is too expensive at $10 without realizing that embroidery and beadwork is often hand-done as it's cheaper than investing in an industrial embroidery machine that takes a lot of maintenance. When I sew for others, there's NOTHING I'll do for just $10, yet so often people complain about store prices without realizing the PEOPLE who slave away and the kids being robbed of their childhoods.
While it's true that, in some places, children are adults much younger (here, adults are still children until 30), NO ONE deserves this kind of abuse, being hit with pipes, oils rags stuffed into mouths, no meals, etc.. - sockpuppets, on 10/30/2007, -0/+17You're right, my engrish speaking friend. Quick, everybody to the Diggmobile!
- starla8383, on 11/04/2007, -2/+19It sucks that Gap holds its subcontractors responsible for child labour. If they're serious about producing clothes without exploiting children, the head company should be directly engaged at the manufacturing level. Someone from Gap should have noticed this and fixed it long before this journalist did.
- felidaeus, on 10/30/2007, -0/+13Nike has been doing this forever and you people are SURPRISED?
- Ocelot13, on 10/30/2007, -0/+11made for kids...by kids.
- pilot3033, on 10/30/2007, -0/+9http://www.theonion.com/content/video/gap_unveils_ ...
- iEnigma, on 10/31/2007, -0/+8But, wait, isn't this the free-market capitalism that Digg libertarians love so much?
I'm honestly asking; How does this conflict with your economic beliefs? - SmallZee, on 10/30/2007, -0/+8How is this a surprise 2 anyone? What do u think outsourcing means?
- MacSuxWindozSux, on 10/31/2007, -1/+8Absolutely. And there's many cases where we, or other foreigners intentionally destroyed their existing markets just to setup our businesses. Such as, The East India Trading Company having the British military invade and pillage towns in India, before they could even compete in India. They did this because the Indian cotton industry was cheaper and higher quality then British wares.
- aiken, on 10/31/2007, -1/+7Argh, this is a great example of why Consumerist sucks. It's an important story. And Gap certainly *at least* shares blame, and could possibly be 100% at fault. But Consumerist can't resist the triumphant hyperbole of "Gap caught", which assumes that the act is intentional on the part of the company (you can't very well get "caught" if it's not intentional). And you know what? It's possible that Gap knew this was going on and deserves some serious pain.
But the facts don't support the headline at all. The sole evidence is one person's videotape of children working on clothing with "Gap" labels. Hello? Is this the same Consumerist the routinely demonizes China for shoddy products and knockoffs? How do we know this product is actually produced for Gap? If it is, how do we know that they should have known about child labor?
It's an important story, and assuming it's true, it deserves outrage. But Consumerist, as usual, bypasses that little stuff like fact checking and thorough reporting and jumps right to yet another "Big company CAUGHT being evil" headline. Consumerist could really do some good in the world, if they didn't come across like hyperventilating blowhards all the time. - starla8383, on 10/30/2007, -0/+6... because of the structural adjustment policies the World Bank and the IMF impose on countries who default on their loans. The value of currency in these countries gets driven down, and the people are turned into slaves, forced to churn out cheap products for export to rich countries in order to pay off loans incurred by corrupt governments. People can't feed themselves when their entire country has been turned into a pineapple farm for Dole.
- tomboy501, on 10/30/2007, -0/+6Agreed, randf. The Guardian did the investigative reporting: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2200 ...
Consumerist is so lame they don't even mention the source that broke the story. They just do their usual - add fluff and pics to someone else's work. - patience, on 10/30/2007, -1/+7GAP employees in the US are also slave labor, in a sense. Not as bad as these kids but working at a GAP or Old Navy isn't exactly better. I never understood why shops at these stores. Hollister, Limited, Abercrombie: I would rather flush my money down a toilet.
- aznhomig, on 10/31/2007, -1/+7They've JUST gotten caught doing this? I'm surprised this didn't happen a LONG Time ago. I've watched documentaries ten years back that expressed concerns of Gap's outsourcing of labor to countries without established workers' protection.
Greedy bastards. - SlipstreamLucas, on 10/31/2007, -0/+6I'll agree with most of what your saying, however, I've spent quite a few years living and working in China, India, Vietnam and Nepal specifically in the poorer regions so i'd like to offer an opinion based on my experiences.
Its not entirely the parents fault about being able to "afford" their kids or not. It most cases its a simple matter of survival. They need children to look after then when they get old and have no money and can't work anymore. With the limited social benifits (if any) most of these places have your more as likely to die then not if you dont have offspring to take care of you in your twilight years.
That being said the "selling" of children to factories is disgusting and i can't imagine any parent doing that without being forced into a position where they have next to no choice. If the executives of these companies had to live with some of the poor peasant farmer family's i have lived with they might have a very different view on their policies, then again, those heartless bastards, probably not. - pilot3033, on 10/30/2007, -0/+5http://www.theonion.com/content/video/gap_unveils_ ...
- ajb2015, on 10/30/2007, -2/+7they didn't need the work or the money until we created a market in their countries. they were fine farming and living sustainable lifestyles, then large corporations moved in and everyone had to go to work in the factories in order to eat.
- CrimsonBlur, on 10/31/2007, -0/+5The proper amount of blame needs to be placed on the subcontractors and the parents of these children as well, but the fact remains that corporations need to keep tabs on the activities of their partners and ensure things like this are not happening. It's sad that they are so eager to take the "don't ask, don't tell" approach when it comes to these subcontractors, many times in third-world countries.
It's a very complicated situation for them, though. The people in these regions are desperate for work and lack any formal education, and without it they would be in even worse off than they are working in these poor conditions. It's a serious issue, but it would be naive to simply blame Gap or other corporations entirely for the problem. There are a lot of other factors at work, and the subcontractors themselves, as well as many of the people, actively try to hide what's really going on.
If you want to boycott them on principal, that's fine, but even if everyone did that, it really would not do anything to fix the problem. In fact, it would probably mean even less food on the table for the people affected by this, at least for now. - capiCrimm, on 10/30/2007, -2/+7This is sick! I've boycotted the gap, and from now on will only shop at Banana Republic or Old Navy.
- mithrasinvictus, on 10/31/2007, -0/+4Where would you draw the line? How about prostitution?
- DeFex, on 10/31/2007, -1/+5ron paul would allow it. its the "free market"
- tipiyano, on 10/31/2007, -1/+5As much as I want to be happy to hear that gap will not hire this contractor anymore, I am not. I grew up in one of the poorer cities in India and I know without such jobs these kids will be on street either begging or, worse yet, forced into prostitution. It is easy to apply western standards and think how horrible these kids' lives are but given the alternative I would say they were not so bad. Once they lose their jobs, don't expect them to live a normal childhood playing around. Parents can't sustain them and due to immense population human rights groups cannot accommodate all these children. Its a sad situation but taking away the jobs away from these children is certainly not going to help the situation.
- thearchitect, on 10/31/2007, -1/+4It is saddening to see the number of digg users condoning the actions of the Gap. There is no execuse for them using contractors who use sub-contractors to distantance themselves from their atrocities. They are fully capabale of building factories in India and paying adults a livable wage. BUT THEY REFUSE TO DO SO!
- Br0wn, on 10/30/2007, -6/+9Took the FUBU route eh?
- dash1185, on 10/31/2007, -1/+4Well, you indeed bring a good point about responsability. You blame the parents, but you should also blame the governments, who know that these factories are essential for any occidental company and who, most of the time, simply won't make laws against that kind of behaviour, or won't make them respected.
Still, It's not the first time GAP is caught in using children for the making of their products. Oh and also, it is revolting to see the gap (!) between what these huge companies do and their advertisements. Have you seen the last ad campaign from them ? The "change the world crap" ? I remember when I saw it, my first thought was : "I wonder if they still use children in cloth manufacturing". I've got my answer... - kimb00, on 10/31/2007, -0/+2American Apparel, for all it's grandstanding, is some of the cheapest/lowest quality clothing that I've seen outside of walmart.
- juventusc, on 10/31/2007, -1/+3digg users need to stop sucking Nick Denton's dick, STOP LINKING TO HIS BLOGS. WHY NOT LINK TO THE ORIGINAL STORY?.
- floejoe, on 10/31/2007, -2/+4Historically, people have always had children so that they would be taken care of in an old age. More males meant they would stay at home and there would be more wives to attend to them, while females were a loss. Hence you have societies such as India and China where boys are favored.
Not singling them out though, boys are favored almost everywhere.
Also, the reason poor people have more children is because their kids are more likely to die of curable diseases early on, so by having 10 children you are gambling that 5 will survive and most will be boys that will then take care of you when you grow old and frail because nobody else will. - Qoogirl, on 10/31/2007, -0/+2I agree that the cost of service must be calculated into the price of creating an item. There are also other factors at play, though, in pricing. One does want to be reimbursed for the cost of the materials, the cost of getting the materials shipped to your shop of manufacture so that workers may create it in the first place. Sort of like the cost of gas causes food prices to rise because of the transportation cost increase. However, I do not find it particularly horrendous to complain that a shirt is $10.00 when, for some people in the USA, one hour and a half of work is equivalent to that t-shirt. But this will lead me onto a rant about cost of living on a dollar that means nothing and blahblahblah.
But good point, AriaStar. :) - beautification, on 10/31/2007, -0/+2If you provide the parents of these children with livable wages the children would be free to go to school and do what children do.
- rajun50, on 10/31/2007, -1/+3Who knows kid's clothing better than kids?
- h4mx0r, on 10/30/2007, -2/+4Do those kids get to wear the GAP kids line of clothing?
- InfiniteNothing, on 10/30/2007, -0/+2It's sad that you're being buried.
- plizard, on 10/31/2007, -0/+2i didn't know kathy lee was in charge of gap kids clothing production
- mithrasinvictus, on 10/30/2007, -0/+2Worse than birth control
- vidorian, on 10/30/2007, -0/+2That may explain why so many people ***** in their dressing rooms. Probably the employees doing it.
Husband has a restoration company and they do carpet cleaning on the side so they call us. We've had at least 3 calls from the gap and a few from hollister and limited. - inactive, on 10/31/2007, -1/+3That's right!!! Save the fishes!!!
- eatbeefjerky, on 10/31/2007, -1/+3It doesn't. I do not shop at any store owned by GAP, preferring Land's End for my jeans and various clothing companies for my tshirts. I vote with my dollars by not shopping at their stores and encourage others to do the same.
That said, this is one of those cases where government intervention is necessary to protect the liberties of others (ie the children involved). Too bad too many Americans are so engulfed by their desire to conform to the latest fashions that they ignore where their ***** clothing comes from. - ZenMojo, on 10/31/2007, -1/+3You're talking about poor, uneducated people in a traditionalist society where selling children into slave labor isn't a choice so much as it's a necessity. You're further talking about people who live in hovels, make mere cents a day, and live under an economic system of massive exploitation and class immobility.
- ahhell, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1OH my GOD!! I am shocked!! Shocked I tell you!!
Oh wait, I'm not surprised in the slightest. - Speed, on 10/31/2007, -1/+2I know I'll sound like an ***** for saying this, but how the ***** is this news? We needed the Consumerist to tell us that clothes made in third world countries are produced in sweat shop conditions?
- ortucis, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1You are a retard.
- Pangloss84, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1Hooray Capitalism!!!!
(whatever the market can bear, right?) - kimb00, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1So the solution is obviously is for GAP to cancel their contract with this sweatshop so that all the kids can go work in the brothels instead. :P
Instead of forcing the GAP to cancel, we should be forcing the GAP to work with their contractors to hire the parents and pay for the kids to go to school... only marginally more expensive than what they're doing now. - inactive, on 10/31/2007, -1/+2I work for Gap Inc. as a sale ass(ociate) and and I used to work in the stock room and jokingly "blame it on the kids" when I opened up packages of clothing and some would be folded wrong, unzipped, or unbuttoned, etc. But to think this is real, is just sad.
- shortkookyllama, on 10/31/2007, -1/+2Corporations and governments should be held liable for their contractors, subcontrators, etc. IT IS NO ***** EXCUSE FOR NEGLIGENCE OR ABUSE. I'm sick of them saying "oh no it wasn't us". It ***** is your fault, now change it.
- stoavio, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1Nice way to add some authenticity to the line.
- kurtwinter, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1And if Gap didn't do send this work overseas no one would be able to afford it - not because it would be really overpriced, but relatively overpriced.
- WolverineBlue, on 10/30/2007, -0/+1It's unnerving how often those reports are almost correct.
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