threesixright said:
[member=64030]TinyShop[/member]
Couldn't agree more (in principle).
Forgive my ignorance, how you know Scangrip uses sweatshops? Moreover, isn't it a bit shortsighted measure only production costs? Since development, packaging, certification, website, etc. also cost a ton of money. And to add to that, not all products make it to the market and/or are successful.
The main reason that companies do business in countries that lack meaningful protections for labor and the environment is to exploit a desperate workforce and externalize corporate costs onto local ecologies and communities in the furtherance of boosting their bottom lines. Not unlike, mind you, how Festool has pursued the production of a small number of its products in a former Eastern-bloc country like the Czech Republic. The difference, of course, is that Czechia is a member of the E.U. and so is held to similar standards as Germany when it comes to labor laws and laws that protect the environment, etc. But, that being said, Festool definitely saves on labor costs by doing business there given the historic lower standard of living (and corresponding lower pay rates). So, although not ideal, a light manufactured in an E.U. country even one still recovering from government induced impoverishment is a vast improvement over one produced in a country where workers are not allowed to unionize, where pollution is rampant (though this is apparently improving in certain parts of China) and where there is no press freedom, etc.
