Timmerman And Globalization

Together with the low family income and the price of public education, which is about $150 dollars a month, without meals, schooling is out of the question for a large majority of people. (How much do schools cost in China?) Families are not in the financial situation to set school as a priority. Therefore, many children are recruited to assist the family in paying for needs. Americans see child labor as a barbaric act because we have been spoiled with a great system designed with public education being paid for by our taxes. While Chinese citizens do not get that privilege. Many sweatshops allow, against Chinese law, children to work as if they were an adult. Which means children can work very long shifts and often over time. If schooling is not a financially feasible option for a family. What is a child to do? While their family struggles to provide basic needs. The only reasonable option presented to them at the time is to work. While Americans, who do not realize their options are limited, and protest these children working to

Kelsey Timmerman believes that the people impacted by globalization encounter more problems and struggles than someone in a non globalized country. Throughout Kelsey Timmerman’s adventure to understand the struggles of peoples lives in globalization he ran into the same this every time. This was that people were being put through harsh times in their

Sweatshops a big issue in today’s society, even though their existence can sometimes stay hidden from the public’s eye. A famous author named Berry states, “ most of us get all the things we need by buying them and most of us know only vaguely, if at all, where those things came from; and most of us know not at all what damage is involved in their production. We are almost entirely dependent on an economy of which we are almost entirely ignorant.” The majority of people in the US have no idea where the clothes they are purchasing are actually coming from. Most people would not support the exploitation of their own race of people. If they were able to see and come to realization about what is actually happening they would have a much different change of heart.

Together with the low family income and the price of public education, which is about 150 dollars a month without meals, schooling is out of the question for a majority of people. (How much do schools cost in China?) Families are not in the financial situation to set school as a priority. Therefore, many children are recruited to assist the family in paying for needs. Americans see child labor as a barbaric act because we have been spoiled with a great system designed with public education being paid for by our taxes. Many sweatshops allow, against Chinese law, children to work as if they were an adult. Meaning children can work long shifts and often over time. If schooling is not a financially feasible option for a family, what is a child to do? Since their family is struggling to provide basic needs the only reasonable option presented to them is to work. While Americans, who do not realize their options are limited, protest these children working to support their families.

College. School. A Good Education. We all probably take all of these things for granted. But there are some people in this country who don’t have these. You may not witness it, but students everywhere are qualifying for financial aid and help. And their parents more likely than not had the same childhood. These kids don’t see any way out of the cycle of poverty, they only know the way of getting financial aid and using government welfare. So then why are we so concerned with aiding children in other countries when we have many children in our own country that need our aid.

Timmerman sets up visits to factories in countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, and the United States. As an american consumer, Timmerman is on a mission. He chooses his favorite articles of clothing and goes to see who and under what conditions they were made. Along with inspecting the factories, he goes to hang out with the individuals and the families who work in the factories. He is not just interested in the factories

To elaborate, the farmworkers have been laboring day and night, even when their bodies are in pain. As stated by a young girl, named Carmen, “‘She (mom) doesn’t want to see me work there (in the fields), … she says because it’s a lot of work, … She doesn’t want me to go through what she goes through (in the fields). She says it’s really painful, hard work. Every night I massage her back so that she can feel better in the morning.’” As migrant worker, children who work and go to school, never have the chance to have a full education or experiences with friends. We know this because NBC’s Child Labor: Young Hands Picking Our Food states, “Critics of current U.S. labor law say these childhood dreams are jeopardized by a relentless cycle where young workers drop out of school to follow their families and the crops for work and then remain stuck in the fields because the children never finish their high school education.” Also, the Braceros during WWII worked hard, however, their paychecks seem to always show signs of deduction. We know this from the article, The Realities of Life and Labor, in which a man stated, “‘Sometimes the check stubs indicate the deduction and sometimes they

To see their child grow up into an adult, to watch as they go out into the world that they had faced and still do face, to see them no longer as followers, but as the next generation of leader. With that kind of feeling some parents get there are those who come close to seeing it come true only to have it taken away by someone undeserving. When an illegal immigrant gets those scholarships, money, and supplies for free, it hurts the ones who sacrificed most if not all, in the right and legal way, it brings a pain that words could not even begin to describe. When there are hundreds upon thousands of illegal Mexican immigrant teens who get to go to college for free it is money wasted that could be spent elsewhere. The millions of dollars used for illegals education could be used to strengthen the border to prevent more illegal immigrants coming into The United States. With the stopping of illegal Mexican immigrants, it will not only stop them from taking the education that legal immigrants and American citizens, but it will also stop the flow of illegal drugs coming into The United

First of all, my family is Chinese. My parents immigrated into the United States 15 years ago from Hong Kong and so I am the first generation to go to college in the US. It is important to note that my parents did not come to the US so that they can attain a higher status but more so because they wanted to give me a chance to attain a higher status. When we first arrived my mother did not work, and my father’s first job was at a Asian supermarket. The pay was low and there was no coverage of any kind. We lived at my Aunt’s house until we managed to find public housing in Charlestown. Somewhere around that time my father managed to find a job at Boston Scientific as a Material Handler, and basically what he does it drive a forklift truck around a warehouse to find and move stock. The job change did not alleviate my father’s nor the family’s status. The pay was better and there is health insurance and retirement plans. However, even with my father working overtime, there is still simply a shortage in money especially when my twin brothers came along. That was when my mother decided that she needs to work too and she found herself working as a waitress at two Chinese restaurants. In terms of jobs, I think my parents did the best they could considering they speak little to no English and only have a high school education. There is simply not a wide range of options for

I went to order a sweater online today, but with all the rage about clothing companies and sweatshops I re-examined the situation. The sweater I wanted was made in Indonesia, I already have 6 sweaters so do I need another? I doubt I’d use that sweater frequently because I already have plenty. Nobody I know has this sweater so I couldn’t borrow it. That sweater wouldn’t have any useful impact on my life anyways. If I did order it somebody who is being mistreated would have more work and would only increase production. If I chose to buy this I’m only part of the problem and not the solution only worsening what clothing companies do.

Activists say that global clothing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and the Gap and those sold by Walmart need to take responsibility for the working conditions in Bangladeshi factories that produce their clothes."

Cheap clothing is something that almost everyone has in their wardrobe right now. Stores like Forever 21, H&M, and Uniqlo are all examples of companies that use extremely cheap labor in return of cheap, low quality clothing. Considering, capitalism being a large attribute to the low wages given to workers in sweatshops, people simply do not care to think “Since this item is such a low price, how much did it even cost to make this?” For a pair of $17.99 jeans sold at Kmart, the labor in the United States would cost $2.08, but in Nicaragua it would cost $0.14. Big companies tend to not care how their workers are treated or how much they make at the end of the day. The lowest price they can end up getting for an item, the more money the company makes. “A manufacturer will tell me he has 2,000 twelve piece bonuses he needs swen. I tell him I need at least $10 per blouse to do a decent job on a garment that complicated. So then he tells me to get lost-he offers me $2. If I don't take that, he tells me he can have it sent to Taiwan or South America somewhere, and have it done for 50 cents. So we haggle-sometimes I might bring him up to $4 per blouse.” (Ross 134) In the end, cheap labor equals low wages making it hard to pay for the expenses of

In these sweatshops, workers are generally offered low wages with little nonwage benefits. In certain factories, workers have been denied of a “living wage” as their take-home pay have been insufficient to satisfy basic standards of living. Typically, in these countries, the minimum wage laws were violated and workers were weakly unionised to bargain for higher wages. For example, a typical Chinese worker earns a wage of Rmb$250-$350 while the minimum wage was supposed to be Rmb$350.

Imagine only seeing your family for one day once a year. Having to compete for a ticket home with millions of other workers in order to see your family that you haven’t seen in a year. This is the life of 130 million migrant workers in china. These workers make most of the things we own. Most of us don’t think about the people who make our clothes, our phones, our computers; items that we use everyday. Our way of life revolves on mass consumerism, where we value the article more than the person or persons who made it. Mass media and multi million dollar industries keep the conditions on how these people work as a total mystery. Some brands have been exposed for sweatshop and

Many historians and sociologists have identified a transformation in the economic processes of the world and society in recent times. There has been an extensive increase in developments in technology and the economy as a whole in the twentieth century. Globalization has been recognized as a new age in which the world has developed into what Giddens identifies to be a “single social system” (Anthony Giddens: 1993 ‘Sociology’ pg 528), due to the rise of interdependence of various countries on one another, therefore affecting practically everyone within society.