[Jewelry making - Article 00316] - Re: [Orchid] India among lowest cost producers of jewelry

[Ian W. Wright]

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Daniel,

>     I strongly doubt that any of the workers he quoted wages for, have
>     one tenth the number of items anyone on this list living in the US
>     takes for granted (things we consider necessities, not our
>     excessive toys).

    What makes you think that people in India would want the objects you
    consider so necessary to live? Their society works on an entirely
    different basis to ours - this is not necessarily 'backward' but it
    is their choice and, to a large extent, just like the people who
    choose to live in the 'backwoods' of the US, they would have it no
    other way. Fortunately for the people of the Indies and the East, our
    society is preoccupied with obtaining gadgets and baubles which are
    not really necessary to life and of which we quickly tire - this
    gives the workers in these areas employment which might not otherwise
    be available and improves their percieved standard of living. At the
    same time, however, such preoccupation is also jeapordising the
    future of the planet for our grandchildren and their grandchildren by
    making ever more demands on industrial processes which generate
    unacceptable waste products. I grant that the working conditions in
    parts of India are not up to our sanitized standards but they provide
    very necessary services for the rest of the world. For instance, if
    it were not for the workers in India, there would be virtually no
    brass produced in the world. In the 'developed world' the Zinc
    regulations have now made it virtually impossible to make brass and,
    if the western world were to equip a factory to make it 'safely',
    then it would probably be priced in the 'precious metals' category! 

    I'm not saying that we should condone exploitation of any worker but
    you must realise and accept that other socities have different
    standards and aspirations to ours and that our opinion of the lax
    standards and lower working conditions in their factories may be
    reflected by an opinion amongst their employers and politicians that
    our factories are ridiculously over regulated and that our workers
    are mardy wimps. In the 1960's the UK and probably other parts of
    the world experienced an influx of people from Pakistan - an area
    which is despised by most of Indian society and whose workers were
    usually given the most dangerous and detested jobs. Even though those
    who emigrated here got very lucrative jobs in the steel works etc.
    and there was, at that time, no bar to the number of people who could
    come here, the number who did so was relatively small and the vast
    majority of the population chose to stay at home in the conditions
    they were happier with. 

    I think that, rather than condemning the abaility of other countries
    to produce goods at a fraction of the price of our home society, we
    should rather examine why we can't do the same here - after all, if
    there is another big war at some time in the future, where will our
    'necessities' come from then? 

Best Wishes
Ian

Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK

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