This & That, Ceci et Cela

“Former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese has a way to slow the exodus of jobs overseas: Put prisoners to work. Behind the barbed-wire fence surrounding the Federal Correctional Institution at Elkton, Ohio, inmates sit at a long table stripping down old computers, salvaging valuable bits of gold and platinum. In another room prisoners clad in protective suits hammer away at monitor screens and cathode tubes, the smashed glass destined for sale to reprocessors. Computer recycling is difficult, labor-intensive work—exactly the type now being exported to China and other bastions of cheap labor. But Elkton gets business from government agencies and schools precisely because it can compete with Third World wages. In fact, other state and federal prisons have also gone into business, making products for companies such as Home Depot and Lowe’s”…

I guess charity begins at home; why look abroad for sweatshops right?