Okay, this happened a while ago, but i still see people wearing converse, perhaps because they don't share the same beliefs as me, but whatever. Anywho, apparently Nike bought Converse, meaning now all converse all-stars shoes are made in sweatshops by children working for like 0.6 cents a day. That sucks, so help me boycott converse. I mean, if you already have some all-stars, feel free to wear them. Just don't go buy new ones. Yeah. Im done now, so i'm gonna get off the soapbox now...

VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!

Sure, I'll help. Easy, as I find them ungodly ugly. I once had a pair of red high-tops when I was 5, but they were hand-me-downs.

I prefer slide-on shoes and boots, not much of a tennis-shoe person.

Well i would help but see i have basically water skies for feet.There flat and long and basically get in the way.The allstar brand are the only shoes that will fit me.So i will continue too wear the all star brand until such time as i find a shoe that fits me better.

I like them, but I'm old & shite, so what do I know? Don't worry, the only crap I'll be buying is back to school clothes for my young uns. My boy will need shoes, but he prefers boots or sandals, & Snap needs new britches.

There are so many companies out there doing bad stuff & deserving of some kind of protest. When I was younger I used to care alot about that sort of thing, but age has apparently made me jaded to the point where I just don't care anymore. Plus, as we move closer & closer to becoming a world economy, it will become increasingly difficult to exercise such selective choices. It's cheaper to make stuff over seas, so more & more businesses are doing just that, including my former employer, who has outsourced to India. Sucks for me, but absolutely groovy for the Indians.

I like them too. And I kinda don't buy into the whole sweat shop thing. If it is true then at leaste the kids are getting paid something. And I still like my converse.

Yes I know I'm heartless.

vicious_blood wrote:I like them too. And I kinda don't buy into the whole sweat shop thing. If it is true then at leaste the kids are getting paid something. And I still like my converse.

Yes I know I'm heartless.

Kids sew better. and stuff is cheaper in third world countries. .06 could buy food for you entire family, so dont get all worked up. Besides, I thin kif you researched, A LOT of the major companies do that. Levi's, a local factory, shut every plant and moved to mexico, where they can pay mexicans nothing, and import the jeans cheap.......free trade agreement baby!

Mistress Eve(L) wrote:Kids sew better. and stuff is cheaper in third world countries. .06 could buy food for you entire family, so dont get all worked up. Besides, I thin kif you researched, A LOT of the major companies do that. Levi's, a local factory, shut every plant and moved to mexico, where they can pay mexicans nothing, and import the jeans cheap.......free trade agreement baby!

Gotta love NAFTA
Once again our goverment screwed the working class and didn't even give us a reach around. Hell companies are even outsourcing call in help centers to India now. Next thing you know the guy working the drive through at McDonalds will be taking your order from a call center in Nigeria and sending the order back to the kitchen....

Mistress Eve(L) wrote:Kids sew better.

Its cause they are short and closer to their work.

Boots or barefoot, the only way...

If you live in a capitalist society, which we do, you are somehow taking advantage of poorer people somewhere else...so unless you move to your own island and live off the land and make your own clothes out of flax or something, its not gona do much good to boycott one shoe company.

We live richly at the expense of those countries, its sad, but the way it is and I guess we should feel lucky to live here, but I'd pick a world where this didn't happen anyday.

So, yeah, I have been wearing Chucks for the majority of my life and unless I move to said island, I don't think not wearing them is gonna make a damn bit of difference.

At least they aren't leather.

I don't care if my shoes or clothing are made from leather cut from the backs of little pot-bellied children from Ethiopia.

Christ! People, they're from a fucking third-world country.

Think-about-it.

That means, in a nutshell, that they're not Earthlings. That simple fact makes it my right as a human to exploit the little fucks until their fingers bleed and they develop lung cancer from the fumes of the ill-ventilated shops they work in.

Buttercup wrote:At least they aren't leather.

to that end I am a devote carnivore and therefore any leather I wear I consider to be recycling the container. Aside from that do you know how many Nagas it takes to make a pair of nagahide shoes.

Save the Nagas, only wear genuine leather!

Bone wrote:

Buttercup wrote:At least they aren't leather.

to that end I am a devote carnivore

Amen.

Vegetables are best used to lure cute, furry beasties closer to my dinner plate.

iblis wrote:

Bone wrote:

Buttercup wrote:At least they aren't leather.

to that end I am a devote carnivore

Amen.

Vegetables are best used to lure cute, furry beasties closer to my dinner plate.

ive been using other animals to feed the animals i wanna eat.. damn i coulda ate more animals and got rid of the veggies....

vicious_blood wrote:I like them too. And I kinda don't buy into the whole sweat shop thing. If it is true then at leaste the kids are getting paid something. And I still like my converse.

Yes I know I'm heartless.

Why is it that when everyone bitches about sweatshops, they fail to realize the poverty of the area. For example:

If you get paid $1 a day for 8-10 hours work, in America, Enjoy your box! But let's say that you live in a third word country that has a very, very low living expense. Now what? Well, that $1, is like $25 all of a sudden, now isn't it. Now if Federal minimum wage here is $5.15, multiplied by 8 hours, is $41.20. Minus about 30% for taxes $28.84.

Well, I'll be damned. they are basically making minimum wage, by compaison. This wasn't meant to offend anyone, I just get sick of everyone compairing everyone to America. </rant>

I must agree with above...

Although it is sad that small children are being hurt and even sometimes killed in these factories...it is the only way they could make the money to survive (money = food, clothing, etc)

If someone would give these kiddies and their families enough money to survive WITHOUT sending their kids to work...then they wouldn't have to. Otherwise they are simply doing all they can to live.

If you're going to go ahead and boycott converse, will you boycott every other company (which makes up practically all clothing, and shoe companies around) as well?


Plain and simple: this isn't our fight. I don't think anyone here, or even the group of us collectively could make a difference to a few kids working under these conditions. That doesn't mean I don't sympathize, but I leave the troubles of another country, up to that country. Let's worry about our own problems, and not try to control everyone elses.

Regardless of you wearing a shoe, article of clothing, or not...they are still in poverty. Still in poverty, and there are so many large corporations looking for a way to get it all for less. Even if we could save all of the poor little children right now, and make their lives all flowers and kittens...it's still out there. Somebody's gotta do it. You're ultimately talking about changing the way the world works, and I don't see that happening. Not in our lifetime.

Exploitation of the disadvantaged is an American tradition.

Forget bitching about the companies setting up shop in Timbukthree. Address the issues of why these countries in most cases do not have a functional economy.

No education, no modern skills, no money.

Something has to be put in place for the gov't of said locations to make some cash to offer services, currently about the only options there are foreign aid (which the US supplies billions of dollars).

These areas frequently can't even generate revenue by farming (which almost anyone can do) since due to farm subsidies in developed nations (like America and most of Europe) the prices of most farm goods has been depressed to where you actually make a loss on the product because the goods you need to grow crops costs too much more.

It says something when there's plenty of land to raise crops and they have to import food because they don't have anyone trying to farm due to the inability to compete with developed nations farming which is only still around due to the farm subsidies (supposedly intended to keep the farming way of life around and benefit the small farmer, approx. 80% of American farm subsidies go to large corporations). Additionally, most major food crops have a massive worldwide surplus, and most of it just molders away in warehouses.

Instead of boycotting stores, harass your elected officials to end subsidies on various industries.

Plus, in most situations, these kids are the families only source of income. While the father & older children are maintaining the farms & food supply ( mainly so they can eat, not for income), the mother is taking care of the smaller children, & the home (i.e.: cooking, feeding, ect...). So it is up to these kids to make the money for their families. So to completely cut your topic off at the knees...If you want to end world poverty, don't boycott the companies that run these sweatshops. It's usless, & all it will do is force the companies to shut down production. Hence, sending these kids back home without even a penny in their pocket!