Fair Trade Influence : The High End Essay

Fair trade is a market reactive system that wants to abolish global inhumane acts from child labor, poor working environments, low wages, and healthy working conditions. Fair Trade does not control the prices at a local level the producers

A majority of the clothing worn and purchased today in the United States has been manufactured overseas in sweatshops. Since the beginning of factories and businesses, owners have always looked for a way to cut production costs while still managing to produce large quantities of their product. It was found that the best way to cut costs was to utilize cheap labor in factories known as sweatshops. According to the US General Account Office, sweatshops are defined as a “business that regularly violates both wage or child labor and safety or health laws”. These sweatshops exploit their workers in various ways: making them work long hours in dangerous working conditions for little to no pay. Personally, I believe that the come up and employment of these sweatshops is unethical, but through my research I plan to find out if these shops produce more positive than negatives by giving these people in need a job despite the rough conditions.

The Max Havelaar Fairtrade Mark is the only standard that the 'Triple P' of sustainable development - People, Planet and Profit - completely covers. Through a guaranteed fair price creates the label space for both economic development and environmental improvement and social progress. Fairtrade system that makes it a unique model with the highest standard for sustainable development.

It is impossible to beat a cheap price. In today’s world, finding a sought after item at a dirt cheap price is one the main motivation American’s get in the car and battle the craziness in the mall. And as the basic American human beings that we are, it is never possible for us to be complacent with the amount of stuff we currently have. Eventually, we will come across a friend that has the next must have item that will cause us to run to our local mall and purchase a similar item at the lowest price possible. With all that said, it is no wonder why the industry of fast fashion has taken off over the past decade. Felipe Caro and Victor Martínez-de-Albéniz, researchers for UCLA’s school of supply chain coordination, define fast fashion as “a business model that combines four elements: (i) fashionable clothes mostly for consumers under 40; (ii) affordable prices in the mid-to-low range; (iii) quick response; and (iv) frequent assortment changes”. Retailers like H&M, Forever 21, Target, and Wal-Mart have been able to take this business model and make a fortune. But while all these quick trends and cheap prices are great for the consumer, its cost on the foreign worker and the environment does not go uncovered. In the book Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline, she presents many arguments supporting the claim that fast fashion is unethical based on

Fair-trade is a trading partnership that focuses on sustainable development for poorer producers. they do this by providing better trading conditions and raising awareness of their situation.

Trading fairly is a movement which strives for fair treatment for farmers. In a fair trade agreement, farmers will

Ravisankar begins his essay with the statement, “being the ‘poor’ college students that we all are” trying to relate to his audience as common consumers who strive to pay the least amount for the greatest outcome (Ravisankar 107). The problem he identifies is that most people are blind to or don’t care to see the underlying issue of low-cost consumerism, being that extensive sweatshop labor is used to achieve these lower prices. The key words here being sweatshop labor, meaning the low prices are being achieved by poor factory workers being forced to work hours upon hours in dangerous conditions with insulting wages in return. Ravisankar assumes his readers are as sympathetic to the dilemma as he is. His purpose in this essay is to educate consumers on the escalating problem of businesses using sweatshops to increase their profits.

We often question how our food and clothes can be sold so cheap, this all comes down to where it is made or grown. Our clothes are made overseas in factories by women and in some cases even children in unsuitable conditions. They work long hours and don’t get paid much in return, it is said to be less than what they can afford to live on and made to work extra hours. This is why large stores like Primark and Asda can sell their clothes at such little cost. Some of the workers are said to be working 60 to 90 hours every week for as little as £17 per month. (Making social lives pg.88) The workers in the factories are grateful for their small wage and would struggle if the factories were to close and business was took elsewhere.

In the modern world we live in, globalization creates inequality despite its significant role in our economy. Globalization is the integration among nations of political views, products, ideas, and cultures. Utilizing modern technologies, international trade are made possible among large corporations and individuals around the world. With these advanced technologies, these corporations are able to build factories around the world, expand their production, and supply the world populous with more consumer goods. Unfortunately, these pros come with a cost. Despite the amazing contributions that globalization has brought, these corporations have resorted into using cheap labor and regulate unequal rights for workers in the global scale.

Being an entirely fair trade company means Just Us pays its suppliers from so-called “third world” countries a fair price, including a premium for social welfare, gets into long-term contracts (equal or more then a harvest cycle) with them skipping middlemen who often absorb most of the margin and offers them additional benefits e.g. pre-payment and loans. “The

People these days are very concerned with having the newest, most expensive items, whether it is clothes, electronics, toys or even food items; but if they stopped to take a second look at where these items came from, they might be concerned in a different way. One doesn’t generally think about the products that they buy, they see an iPod or a pair of Nikes and think “that’s pretty cool, I’d like to have that” but if they were to consider who made the item or what conditions they were under when making it they might have second thoughts about giving their money to that corporation. The fact is, a number of the products one comes across in his or her everyday life are produced using sweatshop labor. 218 million people around the world work as sweatshop labor (Reform Stalls in Chinese Factories.), they work long hours for abusive mangers and are paid only pennies, the owners of the factories often violate numerous health code and safety laws and have little regard for the lives they ruin; it’s no surprise that people will cut corners and do things on the cheap, but

Fair Trade’s consumer recognition has tripled in the last five years, proving the company’s sustainability in a global market. As of today, this organization works with more than 800 companies to verify more than 6,000 products as Fair Trade. In 2009, Fair Trade Certified products generated $1.2 billion in retail sales, indicating their large-scale business practices.

Free Trade is the concept we use when referring to selling of products between countries without tariffs, fees, or trade barriers. Free Trade simply is the absence of government interference or numerous restrictions, which has been labeled as laissez fair economics. Free Trade grants easier access to goods and services, promote faster growth for the economy, and also allows for the outsourcing of production of goods, which hurts the economy. Many believe that the free trade hurts developed countries and nations, due to the loss of jobs by international competition and can reduce the country’s GDP. Overall, free trade agreement with other countries can save time and money and increase participating countries economy.

2009). This in itself shows the high standards of sustainability can be made from free trade (Gidney, M. 2009). Fair trade provides two key benefits that can help with the current world economic crisis. First it provides sustained benefits for producers that can help maintain their business through fluctuations of the world market (Gidney, M. 2009). Second, fair trade helps to maintain fair prices, additional social premium, and long-term partnerships that help provide better living standards for millions of people in over 60 countries (Gidney, M. 2009).

The fair trade concept, based on the idea of both economic activity and social development, is replete with ethical and sustainable echoes. Ransom (2002 p 20) asks, 'can the