James Chapter 5

[Richard OFfill]

The book of James continues to be one of my favorites as far as the practical Christian life is  concerned.

In James 5:1-5 re: the rich  oppressing the poor. Checking on Google on wages in a computer factory:

 In China the workers in Microsoft assembly plants are paid a base wage of 64 cents an hour, which does not even come close to meeting subsistence level needs. After deductions for primitive room and board, the workers’ take-home wage drops to just 41 cents an hour. A worker toiling 75 hours a week will earn a take-home wage of $57.19, or 76 cents an hour including overtime and bonuses. The workers are routinely cheated of 14 to 19 per cent of the wages legally due them

How sad. These are like the sweat shops of the earlier industrial age.

[Raven]

How do they avoid the minimum wage laws?  Or is this in another country?  The words of James become more and more relevant as time goes on and we see how some of the rich really are "filthy" rich, while many of their employees can't afford health insurance, or are being laid off due to decreased business.

[Richard OFfill]

Thank you. I corrected it above - China. Have you seen anything made anywhere else? I was one a plane next to a buyer for dollar stores. He told me that the vendor gets 60% of the dollar. Then there is the broker's share. The material has its cost. The local owner of the  factor will get his share. How much does the laborer get?

[Raven]

This is similar to what is going on in the dairy industry.  While the price of milk continues to go up (at least that's what I'm told--I haven't bought any in years), the price per hundred weight to the farmer is nearly the same as it was 30 years ago when I worked on a dairy farm.  How many businesses could stay afloat by charging the same for their product as they did in 1980?!  And yet, someone is making money from it.  Sadly, it's not the farmer, since he has to be subsidized by the government to stay in business.   

There are still a few things that are not made in China, although they are getting harder to find.  There is more and more interest in buying locally produced products, but most of these are agricultural in nature.  It would be nice to see the trend extend to other kinds of products.

[newbie]

China seems to be the worst for treating their employees poorly ...India might be next or maybe n. Korea if we could ever find out anything