Two Cheers For Sweatshops Summary

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.

Main protectionist policies include tariffs, quotas, embargos and voluntary export restraints, and Adam Smith’s idea of absolute advantage has been developed further to explain international trade. In recent years, protectionism has become closely related to globalization during which the influences of trades spread almost everywhere, so people insist upon the study of social deformities generated by improper policies on international trade and the task of pointing them out with a view to remedy. There are certainly both economic and political purposes of trade

In his opinion essay, “Sweatshop Oppression,” published in the student newspaper, The Lantern, at Ohio State University, writer Rajeev Ravisankar uses his article as a platform to raise awareness about the deplorable conditions in sweatshops. Ravisankar awakens his readers from their slumber and brings to light the fact that they are partly responsible for the problem. His first goal in the essay is to designate college students as conscious consumers who look to purchase goods at the lowest prices. Then he makes the connection between this type of low-cost consumerism and the high human cost that workers are forced to pay in sweatshops. His second goal is to place the real burden of responsibility directly with the companies that perpetuate this system of exploitation. Finally, he proposes what can be done about it. By establishing a relationship that includes himself in the audience, working to assign responsibility to the reader, and keeping them emotionally invested, Ravisankar makes a powerful argument that eventually prompts his student reader to take responsibility for their actions and make a change.

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.

Time and time again, there have been opposing views on just about every single possible topic one could fathom. From the most politically controversial topics of gun control and stem cell research to the more mundane transparent ones of brown or white rice and hat or no hat—it continues. Sweatshops and the controversy surrounding them is one that is unable to be put into simplistic terms, for sweatshops themselves are complex. The grand debate of opposing views in regards to sweatshops continues between two writers who both make convincing arguments as to why and how sweatshops should or should not be dealt with. In Sweat, Fire and Ethics, by Bob Jeffcott, he argues that more people ought to worry less about the outer layers of sweatshops and delve deeper into the real reason they exist and the unnecessariness of them. In contrast, Jeffrey D. Sachs writes of the urgent requirement of sweatshops needed during the industrialization time in a developing country, in his article of Bangladesh: On the Ladder of Development. The question is then asked: How do sweatshops positively and negatively affect people here in the United States of America and in other countries around the world?

     As companies grow larger and more competitive, they are looking for cheaper ways to produce their wares and increase their profit. That is, after all, how companies are able to succeed, by giving their customers a comparable product for a cheaper price. This increases sales and the overall bottom line. Which seems to be a beneficial plan for both the companies and the consumers. That is, as long as the consumers don’t know how the product is being produced. The places that produce these products for an extremely cheap cost are called “Sweatshops”. A sweatshop is a small manufacturing establishment in which employees work long hours under substandard conditions for low wages. Sweatshops came about

There is a very big epidemic of consumerism within the United Sates and it is a result of the contribution of many factors within our society. It is evident that this is not necessary when one views other communities throughout the world but America has yet to make the changes it needs to solve this problem. A big problem with retailers and producers of products is their use of sweatshops, which are located in and out of the U.S. Sweatshops are a huge problem because they are known for having very low safety standards for their employees and mistreat their employees consistently. The reason they are used is because they can give the company better profits off of their goods.

Thesis statement: Sweatshops, when left to operate without government intervention, are the most efficient way of out poverty.

Thesis statement: Sweatshops, when left to operate without government intervention, are the most efficient way of out poverty.

D. Meyers said in his article, “Moral Duty, Individual Responsibility, and Sweatshop Exploitation”, “Whatever extra we would have to pay for a new pair of sneakers is not comparable to the suffering that could be prevented by giving sweatshop workers a living wage”(Meyers, 2). His statement perfectly sums up the sentiment of this paper. We live in a world where a small percentage of the global population lives in excess, while a larger portion lives in harsh poverty. If those of us who are privileged enough to have been born into a white, First World, industrialized country learned how to get by with less, the poverty-stricken factory workers of the world could be emancipated and free to develop in their own economies. Toni Morison wrote in The Bluest Eye, it is easier to address the “how” than to examine the “why”. I say that it is also easier to address the “what” but not the “how”. If Americans become self aware in our excess and splendor, and consider the oppressed working masses who have allowed us to thrive and live in comfort, how do we create change? We need to fight for American jobs, not because we value American lives more, but because we value them equally. We need to protest companies who exploit cheap labor, and we need to vote for legislation that makes this type of exploitation impossible. Corporations will create American jobs if they have no other choice, and other countries will thrive if they are not being choked by the hand of American consumerism.

"Public Disclosure of the Sweatshop Practices of American Multinational Garment/Shoe Makers/Retailers: Impacts on Their Stock Prices." Competition & Change, vol. 7, no. 1, Mar. 2003, p. 23. EBSCOhost, cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s8419239&db=bsh&AN=10077067&site=ehost-live. The article gives details about the anti-sweatshop movement such as the time it started in the 1990’to where the movements affected. The article contains a list of the specific occurrences of what happened at a retail store whether negative or positive to demonstrate the change caused by movements and legal action. There were many political involvements when discussing sweatshops such as the Clinton administration creating apparel partnerships to combat the conditions of sweatshops. There are also stockholders introducing no sweat labor codes that ultimately help not only the workers in sweatshops but the stockholders as well. There is the introduction of specific store names such as Walmart as well as the countries affected by the stores being named to target the emotional view of the public. The article discusses and mentions all the positive effects that movements and social action have created as well as the cause of laws that help prevent abuse at such a large scale to continue to

Ben Powell’s “In Defense of ‘Sweatshops’” article offers an uncommon point of view regarding the necessity of sweatshops. Powell knows that people know about sweatshops, but he offers another angle to the topic. The point he tries to get across is how sweatshops can actually be beneficial to the people in the third world countries, rather than them being a terrible thing. Throughout the article, he brought up some relatively good points, but not all he had to say was backed up with evidence. Therefore, Powell’s article was semi-effective.

Almost everyone knows sweatshops are not acceptable places to work or support. Sweatshops, per definition from the International Labor Organization are organizations that violate more than two labor laws (Venkidaslam). There are several arguments against sweatshops. First, is that these organizations exploit their workers. They provide them low wages and some pay below the minimum wage of the home nation. Moreover, these workers are forced to work more than 60 hours per week and are mandated to work overtime. In addition, workers are subjected to unsafe environments and sexual abuse. Finally, sweatshops are known for their child labor, where children below the legal working age are paid extremely small wages. Anyone who is against sweatshops will say, choosing to partner with these organizations are unethical.

Around the world are factories that take advantage of the less fortunate and those desperate for a job. These places, called sweatshops, did not come into existence recently, but they had existed in the past as well. A sweatshop is “a work place, often a factory, in which employees work long hours at low wages under poor conditions”. In sweatshops, workers are not given employee benefits or a living wage. However, sweatshops were most common in the United States during the Industrial Revolution, throughout the years 1880 through 1920.

By definition a sweatshop is a “negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay in horrible conditions, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay and or minimum wage”. Many corporations in the United States use sweatshop labor in countries over seas such as China to produce their products at a lower cost. As entailed in the letter from a man born in China, many citizens on these countries resort to factory labor to support themselves to escape other sources on income such as prostitution. Without these corporations usage of oversea sweatshops these employees would be forced to return to self-demeaning jobs such as these.