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Cheap Labor — Description
China’s biggest product without a doubt is its people. There are so many people here that work is not always easy to come by. So many people competing for top spots in companies and with few really great jobs out there you fall to the middle and lower end of the scale. The majority of people in China are from the highly undeveloped county side, migrant workers coming to the cities looking for wages a few dollars a day more then they earned growing vegetables and tending livestock have turned some large cities such as Shanghai and Chongqing into parodies of the modern world. Migrant workers often bring their habits with them, many of which are totally unacceptable in a city, for instance having a poo in the middle of the street at the city center, a common sight.

Despite some very…questionable tendencies, migrant workers in China make up a huge portion of the economy and is one of the reason city life here can seem so laid back. Many people, some who would consider rather ignorantly and incorrectly, migrant workers are a major wart on Chinese modern society. Others see that if it was not for these people so many of the luxuries they take for granted would easily spill out in the fragile balance that exists here between waste and environment. Labor and dirty jobs make up most of what they do, and as salaries are always very poor, in the area of 700 Yuan a month (not even 100 dollars) it may be more then they made in the country side and many families are willing to sacrifice a “cleaner” life for more money.

At this anonymous workshop stuck in the side of an old building these ladies are making metal joints by the hundreds. Machines in the room screech as the drill bits hit metal, the creative wiring that runs along the walls is quite typical in a scene like this. I quite like the fact that to save room for a corner workstation one person must sit on top of the concrete workbench. Such quirky details are to be expected where efficiency and productivity is key to keeping your job in a country where replacing you is not difficult.

Voigtlander Bessa R2A, Leitz 50mm f3.5 Elmar, Fuji Superia 400