Shenzhen Fast - Safety Conditions (Patreon)

Now, here is a matter that is near and dear to my heart. Safety conditions for workers. 

And it's another issue where I think it's very clear that you can't say "China is this way or that way." China is huge. The factories are huge, and every one we visited was very different. As a Canadian it's easy to have a knee-jerk reaction when someone is on the shop floor in shorts and sandals... but on the other hand... it's very often above 30°C in Shenzhen. It's really hard to understand someone's decisions until you're standing right there beside them. And even then there's a huge difference between visiting them and walking a mile in their flip-flops.

That said, there was often a huge and obvious difference between high-safety shops: 

... and low-safety shops.

This one even had stray dogs wandering around the shop floor :(

I'm usually the person walking around saying "Jesus son, where's your fall-arrest???" so I think the major takeaway I want to leave you with is this: all of this is driven by price. Even if something is "made in China", the higher-price goods are the ones where factories invest in robust QC, good training, worker PPE and safety equipment, and factory cleanliness. Cost cutting measures always come from somewhere.