I lost a very good job in an industrial lab partially because the company I worked for was worried the competition would build similar factory/labs in China. They decided to build in China and shut down Canadian operations. The jobs of 1000 canadians were tranfered to countries such as China, Mexico and Singapore. Greed, cheap labor and less restricted pollution regulations are the death of the North American manufacturing industries.

I heard a news story on CBC Radio 1 recently. Apparently, chinese labourers are getting paid pennies for the high priced crappy imports we pay for. These labourers are aware of how they are beinbg used and they are very upset about their situation. The corporations, on the other hand, are the ones reaping the true benefits of cheaper labour. Look at Nike, for example...a good pair of finished running shoes in Canada costs from $100 - $150 CAD. The people who assemble the shoes are earning nickles per pair of shoe. Nike probably spends less than $10 CAD to put together the materials for cheap labour to assemble. They pay out a few $$$'s to ship and sell the shoes here. Who wins? Nike corporate office. Who has lost? The people here who worked in the factories to build the shoes...factories long since shut down in North America and rebuilt in Somewhere, Not North America.

I have opted not to purchase anything made with cheap labour. As long as corporations continue to take advantage of cheap labour in countries with lax environmental controls, I'll do the work necessary to find locally produced goods. I am happy to buy well-made goods produced anywhere in the world but this greed-fuelled corporate thinking has me seething, especially when I read news stories about the millions corporate leaders pay themselves in annual bonuses on the backs of third or second world labour.

Thankfully, I am a builder.

Robert N Pruden