Chinese Factory Gives Workers 34 Tons Of Bricks Instead of Just Paying Them

Every time there’s a debate about the budget and the national debt in the United States, we hear some pundit on the news talk about how the sky is falling because “China basically owns us, what are we going to do if they call in their debt?” Well, now we have an answer to this hypothetical question that isn’t actually based on reality to begin with: we can give them some bricks.

Yes, according to the BBC, migrant workers in China who have been forced to live without electricity or heat because they weren’t being paid will be given around 10,000 bricks each as back pay. That is roughly enough bricks to build a house with, so that’s something, but I don’t know how they expect these workers to move a pile of bricks that literally weighs 34 tons.

After their local labour department intervened with the help of the courts, the employees agreed to receive bricks from the factory in exchange for their unpaid earnings.

Xinhua says that their employer, who has not been named by local media, is still trying to figure out a way to repay staff the remaining 10,000 yuan that they are owed.

10,000 yuan is is about $1500 US. That doesn’t seem like a lot of money, and as far as I can tell, that is the total owed to 30 people, not what is owed per-person. So $50 a person, and they don’t know how to come up with it. This is the country people are desperately afraid will replace us as the world’s #1 superpower.

Here’s a look at China’s economy: workers paid with bricks, a man pretends to be mute for over a decade because he killed a family member over $75 and discount shrimp for ladies with big titties. So why am I supposed to be crapping my pants that they’re going to take over the world if we repair a few crumbling bridges again?

[Image: Harald Groven]