Mirror of our soul, You are what you buy

I'm reading an article by one of my favorite writers, James Fallows. In this article, entitled "China Makes, the World Takes" written for The Atlantic, Fallows is making the case that what is happening in China is a good thing for all of us.

I have not read the entire article so I want to hold my opinion, but like another one of my favorite writers Thomas "The World is Flat" Friedman, he seems to be guilty of the idea that the market will eventually cure all evils.

The laissez-faire logic goes something like, sure the workers are exploited if you compare their working conditions to US or European standards, but then you have to remember how the industrial revolution affected our society when it first thrust it's considerable influence on our life styles and economic institutions.

What 'these let us not try and influence the invisible hand of the market" people seem to conveniently forget is that the great prosperity of the American and European middle class came only after the labor movement did intervene with the invisible hand of the market.
It is in the name of getting cheaper goods for Wal Mart that has sent manufacture to the lowest cost labor market's of the world. One of the reasons given for this export is the cost and difficulty of dealing with a mature labor market. Read that mature as meaning expensive and demanding work force

The advantages for industry are obvious when the working conditions described are all in the favor of the employer. While the Chinese workers get paid overtime (based on a 40 hour week) the real work week is twelve hours a day six or seven days per week. And while they get free or subsidised meals twice per day, the clock or the quality control police are looking over their shoulder constantly. A quote from and American Manager in a Chinese manufacturing plant spelled it out quite nicely.

"The people here work hard..." "They're young. They're quick. There is none of this ' I have to go pick up the kids nonsense you get in the United States'"

Whatever Fallows writes after this about this subject, the refrain of that American Manager's disregard for his employees' is going to resonate in my mind. Has anybody thought that this manager is in fact the face of American to these Chinese workers? If that is what we are going to represent in the mind of the Chinese worker, than we might as well anticipate the worst. The Ugly American just grew another zit