ipl-logo

Why Sweatshops Should Be Abolished

686 Words3 Pages

A widening gap that emerges between the wealthy and the poor has always been a topic of issue within the western world; a constant social battle between the lower and middle class against the top one percent. Parallels can be drawn between the social issue present in our world and the issue of how developed countries take advantage for resources in developing countries. We complain that it is unfair how the wealthy continue to accumulate all the wealth in the world and how the likely exploit the working class for their own personal greed, but is that almost the same as how we treat the workers in the sweatshops? We essentially contribute directly to the problem of sweatshop labour and we create demand for sweatshops because we are overcome …show more content…

My response to this is that the reason why cost of living would significantly increase is due to the greed and obsession of maximizing profits between shareholders and the large corporations. It is insane to think that something that a company sells for $200 would only cost less than fifty cents to produce, and the person that made that product would probably be paid less than ten cents to make it. Improving working conditions for sweatshops and increasing the wages to even a tenth of what our minimum wage is would realistically be a negligible price for the companies to sacrifice. Sweatshops are characterized by having two or more labour laws and this already presents itself as a problem. We cannot treat sweatshops as simply employment for it 's workers because it is not, if sweatshops did not violate labour laws they would just be called a workplace or factory. Large corporation and companies owe a duty to treat the workers who produce their product with the same rights as they deserve themselves. Eradication of sweatshops should be treated just as if it were modern slavery. Consumers who live in ignorance and denial of working conditions of the sweatshop labourers need to be made aware of this issue and we cannot remain passive advocators of this cause. Sweatshops worsen and expand the disparity between the wealthy nations and the poor and hinder those nations from developing their own sustaining economy. It is not impossible for sweatshop labour to be regulated and still benefit both parties which emphasizes why sweatshops can no longer be a matter that can be

Show More
Related
1266 Words | 6 Pages

Cumulatively, these horrific incidents --- which could have been prevented with legally-required health and safety measures – resulted in the deaths of 1,500 garment workers in less than a year. We are currently seeing more media, government, and public attention on the garment industry since sweatshop issues hit the front pages in the 1990s. These catastrophes are the latest evidence of two decades of failures of global corporations’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs in protecting

Read More
246 Words | 1 Pages

Ravisankar begins his essay by talking about how consumers are constantly emphasizing finding lower prices and that means using sweatshop labor. The problem he identifies is as consumers in Western countries try to find lower prices, we are not helping sweatshop laborers escape their low standard of living. Ravisankar assumes his readers are unaware consumers in Western countries. His purpose in this essay is to educate his readers about the problem of brands’ exploiting their workers. In order to accomplish this purpose, Ravisankar appeals mainly to consumers to pay a higher price to help “improve the lives of sweatshop workers.”

Read More
809 Words | 4 Pages

Up until the early 20th century, American labor laws did not protect employees and work environments were not monitored for unsafe conditions. Factories were allowed to run without proper fire exits, ventilation, pay, breaks and even children were forced into labor. These unsafe conditions came crashing down just before the end of the workday on March 25th, 1911 in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. In just under 30 minutes, 146 lives perished (Benin). Today, we call these factories “sweatshops” and they are primarily found in countries that lack laws enforcing proper working conditions.

Read More
1871 Words | 8 Pages

Through the lens of intersectionality, we are allowed to see that sweatshop workers experienced double oppressions from structural racism and structural sexism that limited their choices of occupations and class inequality that exaggerated imbalanced power between laborers

Read More
873 Words | 4 Pages

Labor Practice Paper Angelia Henry PHL/320 May 2, 2016 Bridget Peaco Labor Practice Paper Merriam-Webster online defines a sweatshop as a shop or factory where employees work long at a low wage that is under poor and unhealthy conditions (Merriam-Webster On-line Dictionary, 2016). Sweatshops are factories that violate two or more labor laws to include wages, benefits, child labor or even working hours (Ember, 2014-2015). Companies will attempt to use sweatshop labor to lessen the cost to meet the demands of customers. When we think of sweatshop, we always want to look at third world countries and never in our own backyard. In 2012, the company Forever 21 was sued by the US Department of Labor for ignoring a subpoena requesting the information on how much it pays its workers just to make clothes (Lo,

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

The article “Life on the Global Assembly Line” by Barbara Ehrenreich and Annette Fuentes talks about how women’s are being exploited in the Third World countries. It discusses that an American worker earns a large sum of money as compared to a Third World worker, doing to the same job. Women mostly occupy the boring and painstaking jobs in the factory. Ehrenreich explains that the working conditions for the factories are very poor; therefore twenty girls live together in one room at the some places. Work places are not just congested, but are also littered with hazards.

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

The main goal of businesses, in the growing manufacturing economy, was to produce the most product at the cheapest price. With a large influx of desperate immigrants looking for jobs, companies were able to quickly capitalize on the rights of vain workers. Viewing as them as easily replaceable, owners were easily able to take advantage of the rights of workers and utilize them to their advantage. The desperation prevalent in those willing to take the jobs that nobody else wanted supplied labor to factories, often for a high price. Worker’s rights were often manipulated in the industries exemplified throughout The Jungle.

Read More
152 Words | 1 Pages

After viewing the horrors of sweatshop abuse, Clara Lemlich was simply enraged. Her rights and the rights of other working women in sweatshops were being denied, whether it was being overworked, not receiving pay, or suffering from excruciating injuries. It was not right, but what could a small russian girl do? On page 179, it says “ There is no reason for them to work us so hard, to strip our dignity from us. In this country where all are free to speak their minds, it is becoming difficult to say nothing.”

Read More
1264 Words | 6 Pages

This purpose is to argue that sweatshops are a necessary way to boost the economies of poverty-stricken third world countries, which she does using the previously mentioned formatting and rhetorical appeals. This is most on display in Hunter’s introduction, where she states, “For those of us living in prosperous countries, it is easy to lament the existence of sweatshops in the developing world. So, when we get a glimpse of working conditions in places like Bangladesh, we are understandably appalled. However, the fact of the matter is that what we call “sweatshops are actually helping to lift developing countries out of poverty and into the global economy” (Hunter, 2018, p.1). This immediately introduces audiences to what the article will explore, which Hunter delivers on with a well-crafted argument.

Read More
1207 Words | 5 Pages

Sweatshops are a major a major epidemic in today’s society. Sweatshops can be found in almost any part of the world, especially overseas. In this article I will tell you everything that I studied about sweatshops, and let you decide if you want to help solve this devastating problem. A Sweatshop is a factory in which poverty stricken people, mainly women and children, work long hours for extremely low wages.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

When money and profits are the most significant in the capitalist society, the employers treated their workers poorly, such as excessive working hours and received lower wages. The exploitation of

Read More
858 Words | 4 Pages

It is an obvious truth that in order to have a functioning society, there must be workers. In modern, first world countries, labors are paid well and are reasonably treated. However, some third world nations use an economic model harkening back to older times—slavery and serfdom. Between 1450 and 1750, European countries in the Caribbean and in the Old World utilized two forms of cheap labor—slavery and serfdom—to line their coffers and feed their populace. In the Caribbean, slavery was preferred; but in Russia, serfdom ruled.

Read More
1139 Words | 5 Pages

Since the rise of globalization and the introduction of offshoring/outsourcing, sweatshops have been an ethical issue in question. In these “sweatshops”, workers slave away for long hours in unsafe work conditions and are paid little in the end. Yet these same sweatshops also employ millions of men, women, and yes—children, drastically improving the economies in the countries they exist in. Sweatshops are a bittersweet necessity for the developing countries of the world, however, it is unethical for corporations to take advantage of the cheap and convenient labor in sweatshops to produce their products on the basis of economic need. As sweatshops are necessary yet unethical, it is imperative that they are rehabilitated over time rather than

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

They can make sure that they do not buy products from a company where sweatshops are used. They may opt for Fair Trade certified products which would benefit workers and farmers. They may educate others about fair practices and also check websites of companies. They may use social networking sites to spread awareness. “No one wants to buy products made with sweatshop labor, but it is hard to know what to avoid, and where to find green and Fair Trade products.

Read More
1269 Words | 6 Pages

It will further elaborate on the ongoing debate about what role laws and regulations should take on the growing issue of sweatshops and child labor, and how they can be improved on without disabling the poverty-stricken foreign workers, who may rely on this type of work to support their families. The proceeding essay will take on the cause and effects as well as a few pros and cons of sweatshops in the United States regarding the beginning of sweatshops and the effects on people involved. A few of the main ideas will include contributors that began sweatshops and how it has evolved, why laws and regulations were implemented and if they’re making a difference or not, as well as the pros and cons that come along with the

Read More

More about Why Sweatshops Should Be Abolished

Open Document