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biccat wrote:I shop ethically.

I give GW (well, my FLGS actually, but indirectly it finds its way into GW's hands) money. In exchange, they give me a product that I feel is worth more than the money I have exchanged for the product.

This is a very ethical relationship and I'm happy to participate.

The best extrapolation you can bring for how products are made for Western markets is by understanding that most Western or International companies enter a contract with the best bidders in making their product. Most executives or employees of that company (if any) actually step foot inside a factory of the company they hire to make their products.

Now sometimes it's a lot less competition for making a product, as the company seeking to make products will shop around for potential suitors. If more than one arise, they either pick who they think is the best/cheapest or try and haggle prices by seeing who will provide their services for cheap.

To understand what you find in other nations, simply Google using the right search terms to get hits on the conditions of factories everywhere.

For instance, typing in "conditions chinese factory" nets me this article:

http://boingboing.net/2009/02/09/ghastly-working-cond.html

"Mexican factory conditions" nets me this:

http://www.iww.org/en/node/4002

For special terms that are harder to spot, a bit of education into the matter works wonders.

For instance, I learned about Maquiladoras in Women's Studies and have found a wealth of information concerning the plight of women in factories outside the U.S.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquiladora

Howard A Treesong wrote:
People do buy fairtrade products, and there's no indication it is healthier at all, it's purely because it's supposed to give the workers at the bottom of the production process a 'fair wage'.

Short paper on the differences between Fair and Free Trade for comparison:

http://www.deliberating.org/Lessons_Globalization_Fair_Trade.pdf