China has massively boosted the living conditions of workers since the 1980s-1990s. The accusations of sweatshops 40 years ago made sense, but in 2025 they’re absurd, especially seeing the vast improvement in life quality in China compared to other countries which 100 years ago were in an identical condition, such as India or Bangladesh.
Ma [the one ordered to pay] said the police seized his phone, laptop and several computer hard drives upon learning that he worked for an overseas company, holding them for a month. He was later asked to provide details about his work, his bank details, his employment contract and other information, before being issued with the penalty in August
This person was not “using a VPN”, he was lying to the government about his working status and working for an overseas firm illegally.
You are being absolutely ridiculous. VPNs may be de jure forbidden in China (idk about this even), but de-facto they’re absolutely allowed, nobody is prosecuted for using them, and every young Chinese person can tell you this. You haven’t talked with a Chinese living in China in your entire life.
This aint the US where you don’t pay for the social safety net
Fuck that. In my European country, 25% of young people endure unemployment and nobody can fucking afford housing, where are our safety nets in Spain? Our purchase power is worse than it was 25 years ago, and keeps worsening. Wages in Spain are extremely affordable, we get paid like utter shit, minimum wage is 1300€ a month.
Go and spend 170€ in a bag 150€ of which go to the capitalist owner of the company.
Give me numerical data for that. I can buy fucking 10 cent microcontrollers and program them at home because 200 years of industrial development have made it that there’s so little labor involved in their production, it’s a matter of economy of scale. Manufacture loads of cheap, resistant fabrics such as viscosa, manufacture loads of cheap, long-lasting messenger bags. But no, it has to be 100 different small-production models because we need 100 different varieties of messenger bags instead of reliable, affordable, mass-produced Eco-friendly options
No, no and no. Artificial tough fabrics and sewing methods are extremely affordable industrially in 2025. I will not pay 170€ for something that should cost, extremely generously, 50€.
What we have is exactly capitalism. A “winner-takes-it-all” system breeds oligopoly, and oligopoly breeds corruption.
the big players pocket the regulators
That’s the entire point of capitalism, it’s how it’s always been, and it’s how it will always be. It’s class analysis: the capital owners have the media, the political power, and the repressive force of the state apparatus behind them.
Huh? Do you think workers are not exploited at physical stores? Do you think most of the stuff isn’t made identically and then rebranded differently for Amazon or for other stores?
Lmfao 170€ for a bag. Are you people rich? If Europe can’t produce a good quality 50€ bag ethically, it doesn’t deserve my money either. It’s a fucking BAG
I see you’ve already been corrected by someone who explained you who Stepan Bandera was. I don’t blame you for not digging deeper than the wikipedia article of the song, but I encourage you not to antagonize people with concerns about Nazism and strong opinions about it on the internet.
As for why the Wikipedia article of a song to Stepan Bandera doesn’t start with a warning about him being Nazi (or have a “Criticism” section at the very least), I hope that also makes you reflect on the bias in Wikipedia when discussing topics with geopolitical implications.
Stepan Bandera is a well known figure that has been discussed heavily since the beginning of the war, and his rehabilitation as a “Ukrainian patriot” completely whitewashing Nazism is extremely concerning to socialists like me, and even to non-socialists in neighboring countries like Poland.
Why wouldn’t you enter a Chinese car?