Made in China
Having commenced my life in the middle of the 20th century, I am old enough to actually remember a time when Western consumer goods did not come from halfway around the world. Nowadays, of course, nearly all the varied items for sale within Western nations come from somewhere else, most particularly from the People's Republic of China. Our current goods do not result from the activities of free citizens who belong to unions, making reliable products to be sold in their own country. Instead, most goods that we buy today are sent to us from distant sources, and generally result from working conditions that are brazenly unfair.
The many goods of all kinds (including American flags) that China continually sends to America are made by millions of slavish toilers who have no rights. Workers in China suffer from a twofold curse: they are constantly oppressed by the ruthless policies of the Communist Party, a harsh dictatorship that rules China with an iron will, while also being subject to ill-use at the greedy hands of foreign capitalists who see them only as a cheap, convenient means to an extremely lucrative end. How many American shoppers would readily submit themselves to being abused and exploited in the same manner?
When the Chinese government carried out a murderous assault against its own citizens on June 3 and June 4, 1989, killing hundreds (perhaps thousands) of unarmed protesters who had peacefully assembled in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, to express their yearning for democracy in China, it appalled observers around the world, but it did not prevent outside interests from later seeking to do business with the murderers. Western corporations, driven by a shameless desire to enrich themselves, happily excused the mass killings in Tiananmen Square, thereby giving unpardonable support to a gang of bloodstained oppressors.
American consumers in the 21st century are not especially inclined to give any thought to the origin of what they buy. They utterly abandoned their own standards of quality long ago, and seem quite willing to accept the ceaseless flood of inferior, throwaway merchandise that pours out of Chinese sweatshops and onto the shelves of Walmart, Target, Costco, Best Buy, and other corporate retailers. The undeniable truth, of course, is that American consumers no longer are given much choice when making a purchase. What chance would they have of finding anything that is not "made in China"?
The many goods of all kinds (including American flags) that China continually sends to America are made by millions of slavish toilers who have no rights. Workers in China suffer from a twofold curse: they are constantly oppressed by the ruthless policies of the Communist Party, a harsh dictatorship that rules China with an iron will, while also being subject to ill-use at the greedy hands of foreign capitalists who see them only as a cheap, convenient means to an extremely lucrative end. How many American shoppers would readily submit themselves to being abused and exploited in the same manner?
When the Chinese government carried out a murderous assault against its own citizens on June 3 and June 4, 1989, killing hundreds (perhaps thousands) of unarmed protesters who had peacefully assembled in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, to express their yearning for democracy in China, it appalled observers around the world, but it did not prevent outside interests from later seeking to do business with the murderers. Western corporations, driven by a shameless desire to enrich themselves, happily excused the mass killings in Tiananmen Square, thereby giving unpardonable support to a gang of bloodstained oppressors.
American consumers in the 21st century are not especially inclined to give any thought to the origin of what they buy. They utterly abandoned their own standards of quality long ago, and seem quite willing to accept the ceaseless flood of inferior, throwaway merchandise that pours out of Chinese sweatshops and onto the shelves of Walmart, Target, Costco, Best Buy, and other corporate retailers. The undeniable truth, of course, is that American consumers no longer are given much choice when making a purchase. What chance would they have of finding anything that is not "made in China"?