The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A Social Experiment

The people running this experiment set up a vending machine offering T-shirts for 2€ the catch was you had to watch a video showing how and the people that made the product some making as little as 13 cents a hour 16 hours a day everyday. At the end of the video your asked if you wish to purchase the shirt or to donate to help these people around the world.

We placed a bright turquoise vending machine, offering t-shirts for 2 Euros, at Alexanderplatz in Berlin, to test whether people would still buy it when they are confronted with the conditions in which it was produced. Eight out of ten shoppers decided against it!

24 April was Fashion Revolution Day which is held in memory of the 1,133 workers killed in 2013 when the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed. We need greater transparency in the fashion supply chain because we can't improve conditions or protect the environment without knowing where our clothes are made. We need to challenge brands and retailers to take responsibility for the people and communities on which their business depends. Ask the brands whose clothes you love #whomademyclothes and help start a Fashion Revolution.

8 out of 10 choose to donate, what would you do?

a reply to: LDragonFire

I'd take the shirt. Know why? I don't fall for the guilt trip thingy.

No matter what those people did, wholesalers are still going to buy product from the manufacturer as cheaply as possible. Nothing the consumer does is going to make a difference there.

You should see the volume of textiles in warehouses overseas. It'd blow most people's minds.

I can tell you this (because my brother-in-law is a wholesaler) ... it doesn't matter what the clothing product is (shirt or pants) ... it costs three dollars. Remember that the next time you see something 'on sale'.

a reply to: LDragonFire

It says 8 out of 10 chose against buying the t-shirts...
Its a pretty good way to get their point across; I'd like to see where this goes

I am not for the exploitation of people in the undeveloped world, but this type of accusational "you are the problem" experiment does nothing for me.

If the 2 euro t-shirt provided employment and the company was a responsible employer, then that's good. There are some companies who actually make a real difference.

There is of course exploitation and abuse.

The trick is to buy your cheap clothes from retailers who at least try to do the right thing. Buying a t-shirt from a vending machine would be a no-no as there would be no tractability.

Anyway, exploitative labour practices include Apple, BTW. Anyone on ATS who is happy with that?

What they don't tell you is the alternative for the textile workers. If they weren't working at the t-shirt shop, would they be bent over in the fields all day scraping by at bare subsistence? Is that a better or worse standard of living than what they get at the t-shirt factory? Why are they at the t-shirt factory?

And what exactly is the donation money going to do? Provide handouts or actually help people improve their lives with measurable skills?

Really, this isn't any different than the fake gun shop that would guilt trip customers with stories about how all the guns had killed people once they got people through the doors. I wouldn't spend any money on it one way or the other because the concept is fundamentally dishonest. Either sell me a shirt or ask for a donation, but don't try to trick me out of money by bait and switching me.

And people complain about lying advertising.

What we need is Zoolander!!!!

Keep track of the following responses:

They aren't exploited because they chose to work there.

Its the free market, don't regulate.

In their country 13 cents is a good wage.

If they don't like it they can get a new job somewhere else.

Nothing u can do. Someone's gonna buy it.

The companies have to do it to stay competitive.

All of the above are excuses. They say the same thing about the poor in our own country. Thing is, its either right or wrong. If u think its wrong, and can afford it, and there's an alternative, get ur stuff from responsible companies. (I say afford it cause a company will market and charge a lot for your conscientious choice, just like with organic food)

If you don't think its wrong, just say so. Just say the poor are to be used and abused just as u would any tool. After all, they are only poor cause they choose to be.

Just remember, if a corp will do this in other countries, what's to stop them from doing it here? They already write the laws and get politicians to pass it without reading. They also are actively stripping workers of their rights. So what's to stop them?

a reply to: stormson

I'd like to point something out that gets lost in the discussion too frequently. Notice the primary Americans involved in the minimum wage increase fiasco in the US are almost universally in the food services industry. 50 years ago they were the product manufacturers in America who were unionizing and demanding higher wages and benefits. What happened? Nothing is produced here anymore. All of those jobs fled America to foreign countries.

YOU CANNOT HAVE PIE IN THE SKY SOCIALIST MINDED LABOR REGULATIONS ABSENT NATIONAL PROTECTIONIST IMPORT TARIFFS AND RESTRICTIONS.

Instead of fighting for higher minimum wages at non-career jobs like burger flipper at Mickey D's, Americans should be demanding an end to international free trade and a resumption of significant import taxes and regulations that actually force companies to produce goods inside the USA again. We're the world's largest consumer, unless we're also making what we're consuming, all that money is going straight in the toilet and finding its way overseas, where it does America NO good at all.

Buying that shirt means that a higher priced one, made by people with better pay and conditions, won't get sold.
So it's an act of self harm. Eventually there will be an equalisation down to the lowest pay rate available and that will affect you.
It used to be heavy manufacturing which got out sourced, then it was call centres, then tech support and IT stuff.

The way it's going, there won't be any job worth your time in the 1st world, just a series of temp contracts if you are lucky enough to have saleable skills that can't be served from some cheap labour market overseas.

Buy less, pay more, support your own economy.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Why do you say food service is a no career job? The managers have to come from somewhere.

What about stock guy at Walmart? Is Walmart a no career job?

What happened to the idea of starting at the bottom and working up? Burger flipper is the bottom of the 5 billion dollar MCD corp.

Pure brainwashing. They fail to mention than more expensive stuff is not made by better payed employees. So not only they are avoiding the real issue, but they are brainwashing you into buying more expensive crap (Yes, nowadays more expensive things are still crap anyway. Not to mention there are many cases of more expensive things being less reliable, when it comes to electronics at least).

originally posted by: stormson
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Why do you say food service is a no career job? The managers have to come from somewhere.

Traditionally the managers came from the pool of kids who had worked their the previous summer and knew the register. I say it isn't a career job because it ISN'T. ...or at least it was never intended to be.

a reply to: stormson

You can call those things excuses all you want, but they are also realities. The life you live in Europe is much different than the reality of life on the ground in those countries. The systems are also far different at every level.

People have to make a living.



Are these men being exploited? No one forces them to have to do this. They can work at different, safer, healthier jobs, but for their local economy, they are paid quite handsomely. Lots of people are willing to do all those other jobs. Not everyone can or will mine sulfur off the side of an active volcano and carry it long distance to sell.

They make the calculation that the risk is worth the reward and do the work.

In his village, he is one of the top earners much like a Masaai with many cattle is the Donald Trump of the Mara. Just because his wealth is not recognizable by your cultural standards doesn't mean that he feels poor or exploited, either one. Maybe he does; maybe he doesn't. But you shouldn't make assumptions based on your own standards.

originally posted by: stormson
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Why do you say food service is a no career job? The managers have to come from somewhere.

What about stock guy at Walmart? Is Walmart a no career job?

What happened to the idea of starting at the bottom and working up? Burger flipper is the bottom of the 5 billion dollar MCD corp.

Having spent time at Target, Wal-Mart's slightly better off cousin, I will say that Big Box is not intended as career in most positions. You need to get into the executive level before it starts to be career. There are typically only a handful of exec level jobs at every store.