Would you buy cheap, child-sweatshop-made clothes?

Former_MSE_Debs

Poll started 30 Jul 2012

There are often questions about the use of child labour to make cheap fashion clothes. If proved, would this affect the way you balance your pocket versus the way goods are manufactured?

If it was CONFIRMED a (hypothetical) fashion store sold cheap, child-sweatshop-made clothes, which of these best reflects your attitude?

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Why did you pick that option? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below.

Lucifa42

I'd never shop there again 30 votes (48 %)
These people appear to be confused by the question, it's "what would you actually do?" not "what do you feel is the morally correct answer?"

brizesaver

We cannot judge other cultures. Who knows, it may be a family's only source of income...would you deprive them of it ?

MarkXA

What people say and do are two entirely different things.

Currently in the poll 40% of people claim they'd never shop there again, and 30% say they'd look for alternatives. But the recent kick-up about the conditions in Foxconn factories hasn't had any effect at all on the sales figures of iPhones etc, never mind a 70% drop, and there's no reason to feel that clothing would be any different.

If 70% of people really did stop buying things that are suspiciously cheap then it would almost certainly make the world a fairer place, but it's just not going to happen in practice, and the manufacturers and retailers know it.

bassu

actually, if I was made aware of it, I probably would not buy from a shop with child/cheap labour clothes. But saying that, that would deprive a poor child a life line. What we need to do as a society is, demand that the companies exploiting them, look after these children and make sure theu get an education, proper working hours, decent pay and protection from abuse from employers and adults working there.

lkate

To be honest, even some expensive clothes are made through child labour and the companies make immense profits so what are we supposed to do? For all who read this it does not mean I condone or say its right. If I had a choice I would buy everything ethically but you just can't trust what these marketing geniuses say!!

ajlennon

What would the effect be on the children and their families if I and others didn't buy goods made by them?

Presumably they'd lose their jobs and their family would lose that income?

This would strongly influence my decision on whether to buy, and yet appears not to be an option in the poll.

Alex

PipneyJane

My conscience would not let me buy clothes made from cheap, sweatshop labour, particularly when children are being exploited so that their employers make substantial profits out of their hard labour. I can not help to sustain a business that does that (although, I have no qualms buying those self-same clothes second hand from a charity shop - it's not my Pounds that have contributed to child-exploitation).

However, there is a flip side to this story. Often the child's income is helping to eek out a minute family budget and people would starve without it. Am I depriving that family of an income, by refusing to purchase clothes from company X ? Is there a better way to give them an income? Is there any support available to them? Do they live in a country where the government is corrupt and failing to pass the benefits of its economic wealth on to its population? (Nigeria's corrupt regional governments spring to mind.) Are local laws regarding school attendance, child labour, etc, being enforced or, for a fee, will officials turn a blind eye? Are charities allowed to operate freely or are they being leant on for bribes by those same corrupt officials?

These are the questions I wrestle with. I do not have an answer. Each question seems to beget more questions than answers.

moggylover

The simple fact is that is is almost impossible to buy clothes that have NOT been made in sweatshops these days and that includes the majority of the "expensive" brands who merely rip off both their work force and us totally.

There is no "better quality" in the "expensive" brands, they are often made in the same factories as the "cheap" clothes/shoes in the very same countries that have poor human rights records and poverty wages.

Only when we start to refuse to import from the places where these human rights issues are not addressed will we have any hope of knowing that our clothes are at least partially ethically produced mainstream clothes, instead of the slightly "off-the-wall" fashions that are currently available (at truly horrendous and unnecessary prices) from more ethical producers.

Since absolutely NONE of the companies that produce clothing would be willing to take a little less profit in return for the good publicity (and even the good feeling) of selling things that have not involved abuse/exploitation in their production then by God they will rip us a new one for the pleasure of buying them at that stage

torbrex

If the clothes are made to a quality that I like and at a price I am willing to pay, I do not really have any interest in where or who made them.


Anyone that objects strongly to the child-sweatshops that make clothes should be making their own but then where would they get the raw materials from without that being subject to cheap/child-cotton field farm labour etc.

rickbonar

How do you good people think a clothes shop chain owner becomes a multi billionaire?