Sweatshops Essay
In a world mired in economic inequality, the questionable morality of sweatshops has become a highly contested ethical issue. Some argue that sweatshops offer more opportunities for poor workers, and are thus good. Others view inhumane working conditions and exploitation in these factories as prohibitive of good moral practice. In this paper, I will show that sweatshops cannot be immoral using the theory of prices in competitive markets and workers' decisions to work in sweatshops. By the end of the paper, I will conclude that sweatshops are moral institutions because, in order to exist, the wage they offer to employees must exceedingly compensate for the costs of their labor, thus creating more good than bad for the workers and for their...show more content...
For this reason, then, sweatshops are immoral because they distribute gains inequitably. My argument for themorality of sweatshops uses the idea of prices as an assessment of value to demonstrate that sweatshops must create a net benefit for their workers, and thus cannot be immoral. The argument revolves around the idea that the benefits of the wage earned by the laborers must exceed or equal the costs associated with working that job, otherwise the workers would universally choose other employment. According to Hayek,i prices summarize the value of goods in competitive markets. Given competition among suppliers and consumers, the market determines prices by factoring the personal preferences of each actor to assign a value – or price. Given these prices, individuals decide to buy or sell after an assessment between the monetary value of the exchange and the value of the good. Only if the monetary value offered equals or exceeds the costs associated with sacrificing a good will an actor agree to the exchange. Therefore, we can assume that workers who accept jobs in competitive labor markets believe the value of the wage they receive either equals or exceeds the costs of their labor and creates a net benefit for them. In the labor market time often limits workers to one job, so we may also assume that a worker's choice reflects her belief that she has chosen the best job,
1. In the essay "Sweatshirts to Sweatshops," many of the universal intellectual standards are violated. To begin with, the speaker talks about the "little girl...working hour after hour...trying not to collapse from the heat..." and that violates the fairness of the argument. He is trying to manipulate the audience by appealing to their emotional side. This argument is not based in factual evidence, and therefore, could be dismissed by the audience. There may not be a little girl in this exact situation described, and therefore, this statement is irrelevant. This could be corrected by leaving the entire story of the "little girl" out, or an interview of a child that works in the factory could be conducted giving a first–hand look into the...show more content...
These workers may not have anywhere better to work and desperately need the money. This violation could be resolved by interviewing workers about their jobs and doing research to find out the conditions of other job opportunities in their area. Another point of view is definitely needed in this argument.
2. At the end of theessay, the speaker gives only a choice between one or the other solution, leaving out any other options, which is known as a false dilemma. The speaker states, "[t]here are two things we can do to put an end to this exploitation. We can demand that Cromwell obtain its logo merchandise only from garment companies with socially responsible labor practices, and we an refuse to wear or purchase any Cromwell clothing until the college switches to an acceptable apparel supplier." This is a false dilemma because the speaker does not include any other possibilities. This hurts the essay because the speaker only gives the audience a limited number of options. The speaker wants the audience to feel that they only have a limited amount of choices, when in reality, they could just ignore the problem. Emotive language is another fallacy that the speaker uses. Emotive language is when the speaker tries to appeal to the audience using peer pressure, flattery, pity, and/or fear. The speaker states, "We have a choice: to do what we can in support of global economic justice, or to become the oppressor." No one wants to be responsible for the
Sweatshops in the United States
Americans love to shop. With malls everywhere you go, shopping just might be America's favorite past time! When you are out shopping though, do you ever stop to think where all of those clothes and shoes come from? When I was younger, well, actually until recently, I always thought they were all made by machines. Shirt machines, pants machines…you get the picture. I have learned, however, that for the most part, clothes are still made on sewing machines, by people, and often under circumstances that we can only imagine.
Sweatshops have always been a problem in the Unites States, especially during the past century. Unfair working conditions and pay prompted the formation of the Garment Worker...show more content...
In some cases, I've learned, with brute force. On August 2, 1995, the Department of Labor raided a factory in El Monte, California. There they found 72 garment workers, mostly Thai and Mexican immigrants, being forced to work 17 hours a day at wages between $.60 and $1.60 and hour. They were literally held captive at the factory by barbwire and armed guards. Employees were threatened with rape and violence if they attempted escape. The El Monte sweatshop was finally discovered when an employee escaped through a ventilation shaft. In many sweatshops, however, the workers are there voluntarily. Even the meager wages earned are more than the undocumented immigrants workers would earn in their home countries. As long as there is a supply of willing workers, sweatshops will flourish. So what can be done? How can the sweatshop problem in the United States be resolved? Is there even a plausible solution? Through my research for this speech I have discovered that everyone seems to have a solution, yet putting the solutions into action is another thing altogether. Of the many solutions to the problem, the main, and most obvious solution, is government regulation. The Department of Labor monitors the garment industry, but with 800 inspectors for 22,000 garment contractors, in addition to 6 million American Get
"Free Exchange for Mutual Benefit: Sweatshops and Maitland 's "Classical Liberal Standard" " Thomas Carson 's article criticize Ian Maitland 's arguments in defense of sweatshops, based on Ian 's view of "the Classical Liberal Standard" published in 1997, in the Brithish Academy of Managment Annual Conference Proceedings. Ian 's central thesis, is a defence of the sweatshops in the poor countries in thethird world, statinig that "A wage or labor practice is ethically acceptable if it is freely chosen by informed workers" (Carson,1). The global intercontinental coorporation 's sweatshops capture the requirements of the CLS and this way they are providing better options and opportunities to the workers in the third world...show more content...
First, I would like to begin with a description of sweatshops. The name sweatshop gives us a pretty clear description of how hard is the labor in these pleaces. More over multinational companies ' sweatshop are instituted in and only in third world countries such as the ones described in the article – Indonesia, China. These countries are poor and overpopulated, suffering form unemployement, and the limitations of employement and poverty among the people are something common and chronicle, as described in the text. This is a perfect opportunitiy for a big manufacture corporation to build a sweatshop and "provide" some of the poor people with "sweat labor", pretending to give them "freedom" and options for it, while at the same time they are limiting, their human rights by providing them with sufficient amount of work for more than 12 hours, a day for example.Yes, Maitland ' give us argumentation, that a begginng worker , earns 5 times more than local wage. Yes, that might be true, but with what cost, this person earn his wage? 20 hours of labor a day, no personal life, limit of freedom? Maitland based on his CLS, states that if corporations are based on this liberal standartization and "if it is freely chosen by informed workers" there is mutual transactions between both parties, and this way both parties are satisfied. I support the idea of Carsons, that in the Ian 's argument, does not bring the etichal issue, or aren 't Get
It is close to 100 degrees; it has been at least ten hours since the last break. The woman working next to you severed her finger on the machine today, and the wage for one day of working will not be enough to buy a decent meal. How thrilling does it sound to work in a sweatshop? This is the only option for most women and children working in the third world, to support their family's needs. There is very little, if anything being done to resolve this shocking situation. No person should be exposed to this type of work atmosphere. Sweatshops are inhumane working environments.
Women and children are most often the ones affected by the cruelty of sweatshops. Childlaborers in most countries serve to support their families to maintain the...show more content... The time children spend working in sweatshops should be time spent in school allowing them to grow as people. There should also be regulations set to minimize the amount of time women spend working in the sweatshop industry.Wagesfor females are lower than wages for males. Plant managers believe women should be paid less because they are more passive than males. Plant managers believe that women do not play as key a role in providing for their families' income as men do (Moran 12). Plant managers are confident the women working in these sweatshops will not put up any sort of fight with the wages they are given. Managers also believe that men are the main providers in a family, so women should not be paid nearly as much as men. Women and children endure the worst of the conditions seen in the world of sweatshops.
There are innumerable propositions projected to improve the conditions that children have to tolerate while working in sweatshops. Ethically it can be said that society is thoughtless, because it tolerates child labor (Enderle 274). Child labor is not wrong from every direction; child labor is understandable in moderation. Hartman states, "The recommendation is not to ban all workers under the age of 18 from the workplace, but instead to investigate ways in which child workers can meet their family's needs, while also endeavoring to better themselves through a complete education" (Hartman). The proposal is to balance the schedule for a child under the
Sweatshops over the world can be improved through simple and big changes on both the foreign as well as American fronts. Sweatshops have always been viewed as a negative thing but no one has really tried to change or improve upon them, it is more of an out of sight out of mind mentality. In the book Where am I Wearing, the author Kelsey Timmerman said " ... is that we should try to be engaged consumers..." ( Timmerman 9 ). Society knows it is happening so why not find ways to improve these sweatshops instead of just ignoring the issues at hand. " We live in a turbulent, imbalanced world. It can be depressing to think about" ( Timmerman 41) By having Labor Unions that are there for the people are beginning to be a simple way to start a...show more content...
Labor Unions could help to enforce labor laws to improve the factories and the conditions within ( Arnold ). These unions could make up for lack of government enforcement within the areas of that the labor unions ( Arnold ). Also it does not cost a thing to make sure that people are following the rules to the best of their ability ( Arnold ). Labor unions are beginning to be created to help with these issues of the factory workers such as their rights and how to educate people of these rights.
As stated before labor unions are a way to improve working conditions but there are others as well. Sweatshops can make simple improvements by using scraps around the factory to make simple improvements ( Arnold ). Making improvements can be done in a very simple and low cost ways especially depending on the size of the company ( Arnold ). In a NIKE sweatshop a worker wanted to use the rubber waste as a cushion for iron molds so they would not slam against the furnace to hopefully eliminate noise in the work area, they would not allow the worker to do this (Arnold). Making conditions better will cause a reduction in the amount of deaths, injuries, and illnesses that occur from the poor regulation of working conditions in these factories. Still explaining different ways to improve upon sweatshops as well as the workers lives, improving wages is a way to achieve this. This is simple as it is a moral obligation for the employer to provide decent wages for
Many companies and schools in the United States buy their products from factories that have their workers working in horrible conditions. "That is employing over 50,000 workers to work in these conditions" (Jensen, Davidson 279). They have the workers work from 5 A.M. until nighttime inhaling dangerous chemicals and working in temperatures that get as high as 130 degrees. These high temperatures cause heat stress, burns, and injuries to workers. Many of the factories that the United States buys from are in another countries. In these countries they have horrible working conditions. Working in these places called sweatshops should be banned. Sweatshops are "a shop or factory in which employees work long hours at low wages...show more content...
These children should be in school rather than in these workplaces. Child labor costs less, but it causes problems for the children later on in life. These circumstances are very unhealthy for these children. "It causes permanent physical, psychological, intellectual, social, and moral damage leading towards death" (Greene, 9–10). There was a child who was forced to work fifteen–hour days. If a young child working that many hours were able to make up the sleep lost during the time they were working, it would take nearly a lifetime to make it all up (Bartoletti 12). Children should be able to get the right amount of sleep so they do not become ill. By working that many hours children do not get the right amount of sleep that they need.
The factories want as much work done as possible so they hire many workers. Most of these workers are underage, since they are cheap labor. Since the children are smaller, they can fit between and under machines, which is very dangerous for a young child. The children are not capable of doing the jobs that the factories require. "There was a twelve–year–old boy that fell into a spinning machine and the machine tore two of his fingers off" (Freedman 36). If children were not working on these machines, this child would not have fallen. Although hiring children saves the owner of the factory three billion
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Written over 50 years ago, was a declaration made, promising equality and fair treatment for the working, which unfortunately turned out to be a false promise for some. The people I speak of, are our fellow human beings working in slave–like conditions called sweatshops. Sweatshops have always been prevalent in society, this can be shown by looking at the history of sweatshops. Presently organizations are failing in there strive to end sweatshops, companies are failing to abide by the moral code (apparel industry code), there is an ever growing gap between rich and poor, and consumers are continuing to buy the companies products and remain unaware.
Sweatshop is a term for makeshift factories where...show more content...
Feminists against sweatshops focus more on women in sweatshops, than child labor. UNITE is helping workers form unions to get the fair labor conditions they deserve. Making their own union, UNITE already has over 500 members who are fighting for better wages, decent conditions and other rights. They have rallied for things like "The New York City Council passes anti–sweatshop legislation for City uniforms."(Ref 1). They have training programs and give many good ideas towards making a statement, and things we as people can do to help. The United Students Against Sweatshops (or USAS), is an international student movement that involves individual students from campuses all over America and Canada fighting for sweatshop free labor conditions and workers' rights. The University of Toronto has it's own version of this, and offers ideas on how you can start your own group (refer to appendix A). NO Sweat offers the most out of all these organizations. They have reports on garment enforcement going back to 1995. Although it mainly focuses on sweatshop conditions for American workers, it's making the most difference, probably because they are so close to home. Although there have been many successes for these groups, all these efforts and many more, have still not put a stop to the issue of sweatshops.
In sweatshops, workers work seven days a
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