Thread: Good Kiwi buggers making stuff.

Originally Posted by res

This out of date idea of Chinese factory workers has to die.

Most workers in factories earn more after tax buying power per hour than someone doing the same job in NZ would, and the govt limits them to working 60 hours a week max-this is considered a short in China but even so most of the factory's I visit limit workers to 50 hours a week. There is a issue around workers using another if to work as two workers on different shifts but that's completely by choice.
China is no longer the cheep place to get things made, and things are made to the quality that the brand wants and enforces.

Personally I go out of my way to buy NZ stuff whenever possible

Culture is a funny thing in that nobody understands anyone else's culture. A good example of this is a western reporter going to the Foxconn \ Apple factory, seeing workers asleep at the production line and concluding that they are being worked so hard that they fell asleep at their desks. The actual truth of the matter is that it's fairly normal in China to go out for a massive two hour lunch and then have a wee nana nap at your desk afterwards. You keep a pillow under your desk for this purpose.

Whereas here in the western world falling asleep at work is considered a sign of weakness so we make junior doctors work 50 hours straight making life or death decisions without a nap. We make white collar workers fuel themselves on caffeine to push past their mid afternoon sleepy time despite the impact on productivity. Somehow that's better because it's our culture and we understand it.