Finally, to the guy who wrote above me: I find your comments regarding John’s post to be very one sided and not encompassing the fullness of the issue. You are looking only at China and tea, which seems to be a position that holds honor in such a place like China, where tea is a central manner in their culture. What about the 8-year-old child who works 14 hours a day to make the shoes you are wearing on your feet (which you paid 140.00) for while he made a whole .50 a pair of shoes? And, if he made a mistake, he would get beat with a rod? As I said I don’t know much about this issue but I have seen pictures of kids with scars on their arms and faces for sowing shoes together wrong. So, though it seems that China does not have a problem producing tea in that manner, other countries and circumstances are in a bad way. Do a little research as I have done, look at the pictures, and then tell me that this isn’t an issue.

As someone who’s been to China, I can say that corporations don’t necessarily create the conditions that “force” people into sweatshop labor jobs. China has over 265 million surplus laborers, most of them in Southwest China. China also has scores of illiterate, unskilled laborers, heavily subsidized housing for low-income workers and cheap transportation, and food is dirt cheap. Consider that most couples work and usually have at most 1 child, you’re not looking at huge expenditures. Chinese companies wouldn’t pay them any more, nor would the Chinese government.

But, factories do take advantage of the surplus labor situation by offering unsafe working conditions and long hours. That’s where it’s truly aggravating.

With gas prices and general inflation making life for us in the US less liveable, do you really want to pay “fair market value” for all of your clothes? Can the poor of the United States afford to pay $12-$14 per pair of American Apparel underwear? Assuming they can even afford the internet in order to get to the website to purchase?

Maybe in the middle and upper classes, we have a choice. But many do not. Going commando is one thing, but considering the price point of non-sweatshop clothes and the limited incomes of the poor, that’s asking the lower class to go naked. And while I’m all for public nudity, think of the public health costs as they get skin cancer from sunburns in California and freeze in New England!

Yep it was the same for me as well of reading more in high school which came to a near standstill during most of Ursinus through seminary. Thanks for the top books lists that you are basing your reading upon. I was actually somewhat thinking of you and your renewed reading interest while writing it and was wondering if I should email you about it and Duke’s book book list but your comment saved me the trouble of needing to do so

I think you point out a valid idea that road rage can be a psychological condition. I think some people are more predisposed to it than others. I still think it should be enforced though, because just as alcoholism is a psychological disorder, you can’t just brush off the damage that a drunk driver does. The same should go for someone who causes a wreck due to road rage. Actually I’d like to see it classified as a hate crime even, because it’s the same caliber of attack.

John Grebe

Thanks!