[Agamemnon]

Ag, drawing a comparason between a sweatshop and a rapist is a long shot... at best. Even in a sweatshop, the conditions could be horrendous, long hours, etc, but at the end of the day, the worker has helped both themselves and their family. A rapist helps noone but themselves.

The comparison was not meant to portray exploited labourers as rape victims, it was to explain the mindset of why people boycott certain businesses for certain practises. You certainly may not feel that exploitation of foreign labour for _bottom_ dollar isn't a bad thing... so don't boycott the business. If you can't relate, you can't, no harm done.

Large businesses hire less fortunate/handicapped people all the time. They probably pay them minimum wage, or maybe less. The government would probably chip in a bit as well to bring up the total wage. But the business is in fact, getting cheap labor. Are you going to boycott those establishments as well, becuase they are exploiting the handicapped? Not paying them what they should be getting paid? They are giving the opportunity for them make a living.

At a place i used to work at, they would hire high school students to come in and gain "work experiance". They would be paid less than minimum wage, for doing sh*t work. That could be considered exploitation as well.

I'm probably not thrilled that businesses pay the handicapped minimum wage, but that case is a little different, as the abilities of the individual are physically hampered. Also, they are still entitled to the fantastic benefits of any North American worker, so they are not 'exploited' to nearly the same degree. Same goes for underpaid highschool kids. I find it hard to compare those degrees of 'exploitation', as the highschool kid isn't supporting a family on the wage... they're buying video games and doritos. I don't find the situations that comparable.