• Question: why are most things made in china and not in england?

    Asked by leahyates to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      In the UK we have a lot of health and safety standards so that workplaces have to adhere to a lot of rules. Also we have minimum wages, which means that the companies have to pay people a minimum amount. In China they have less of these regulations, and the wages are much lower – so they can have people working for very long hours for a lot less money than you could pay someone in the UK.

      This means that they can make a very large number of products for a lot less money than companies in the UK can, but the working conditions for the workers are not always very good – sometimes they work 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 hours a week, for only enough money to feed themselves. This is not always the case, but it is difficult to know when you are buying something.

      We do still make some things in the UK though – so keep a look out for them!

    • Photo: Sandra Phinbow

      Sandra Phinbow answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      The simple answer is that it is a lot cheaper to use labour in China than in England. We have strict rules and regulations here about protecting staff from adverse incidents, and other countries are more relaxed and lazy on this. It is easier to exploit workers in other countries than here, and also to pay them a pittance.

      It makes the companies a huge amount of profit too, stuff is made cheaply and sometimes poorly in China and other countries and sold for a lot of money here.

      Corporate greed really.

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