And preventing people in other countries from working all those hours isn't going to make them better off, unless we've got reason to believe they are all making bad choices. We didn't run their economies into the ground and eliminate the better opportunities that they should have had. (Maybe you're starting from the assumption that we did. That's a whole nother discussion. Suffice it to say that we as a society are implicitly okay with other people in other countries generally doing whatever they think best unless they pose a threat to us or try to forcibly stop still other people in other countries from selling us things we really want. This attitude has good points and bad points.)

This is off-topic but I admit I did write it to see if it would get a response. As to running other country's economy's into the ground, check out the book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins if you want a real eyeopener.

I'll give a quick response here and if you want to continue it elsewhere, let me know.

I am not talking about preventing others from working. I am talking about consciously choosing to buy things made by people that are paid a living wage. Of course this is MY choice (and I am certainly not 100% good at it by ANY means) but it does bring up the point of where that line is for different people. Some people truly don't care how others have to live or work as long as they get what they WANT. What if there really is slavery in some of these countries? Would that be a line you would draw for cheap clothing, etc. or not? I am not talking about government decisions here; I am talking about all of our personal ethics.

I have always preferred to try to hire people directly - carpenters, painters, plasterers, etc. because I prefer to pay the person doing the work $15-25 per hour to do the work rather than pay the contractor the same amount of money and have someone paid minimum wage to do the work. Just MY personal quirk. To be clear I don't expect others to feel this way.



But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? ~Albert Camus