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Sweatshops: Since all children and women forced into sweatshop work are never happy how can we assume that this is not wrong?
Should the relative happiness of the individuals working in sweatshops be the guide for how consumers view sweatshops as institutions? First of all, one must define a sweatshop. A sweatshop is commonly defined as a place where women and men are forced to labor for low pay, because the standard minimum wage in the nation is so small, or because the sweatshop workers are illegal aliens in a nation such as the United States, thus they have no choice other than to work in illegitimate businesses that will not pay workers a living wage.
Sweatshop workers thus often labor under poor or unsanitary conditions, usually at substandard wages compared to other workers in their nation. If sweatshop workers are always unhappy with their lot, some individuals allege it is cut and dry that employing workers in a sweatshop is always wrong. The argument for sweatshops runs something like this: the use of outsourced low-cost or sweatshop labor in foreign nations by wealthy Western corporations brings in valuable trade and foreign dollars that can improve the standard of living in the poorer nation. Thus it can improve the fates of the sweatshop workers' children, by infusing income into the poorer nation. The argument in favor of the employment of illegal workers in the United States is that the workers chose their lot by illegally immigrating and often work under better conditions than they would on their home soil. Also, the children of the illegal workers will improve if the children are allowed to remain in the United States.
Thus, we cannot always assume that it is automatically wrong for sweatshops to exist, simply because workers do not feel the optimum satisfaction with their lot in life at this present moment in historical time. However, there are still powerful arguments against sweatshops besides immediate worker unhappiness or desire for higher wages and better employment. Having low wage employees legally drives down the cost of labor in the nation as a whole, and thus having foreign companies employ low-cost workers can ultimately be detrimental to the local economy. And illegal workers are not always simply poorly paid, but mistreated because no one knows of their existence other than their immediate family.
It was public outrage stemming from the fact that an already wealthy celebrity would use child labor to further acquire wealth that caused Ms. Gifford to react. It was a very highly publicized case, and in a journal article appearing in a 1998 edition of Afterimage, journalist Rebecca Schreiber commented this way: Every so often, an event like the Kathy Lee Gifford scandal uncovers the whole line of production, bringing
Sweatshops in Third World Countries Not so long ago when the word sweatshop was mentioned, images of Charles Dickens would surface, for the notion of sweatshops seemed to be a thing of the past. However, in recent years, sweatshops have been at the forefront of media attention. They are back, actually they never truly went away at all, and they are back in full swing around the world, mostly in third
Ethical issues have a particular resonance in American society at the present time, given the perceived failure of many of our public institutions to live up to the ethical standards they espouse and considering the consequences diminishing of public confidence in political leaders, religious leaders, the business community, and so on. A problem the fashion industry must face is the degree to which the goods they sell have been produced
Nike Sweatshops: Behind the Swoosh Should We Inflict Western Values On This Society? Concepts of Social Responsibility, Integrity, and Other Business Ethics Practices Forcing Western values onto the society in question might not be required, but as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical principles become increasingly recognized, businesses can govern behavior through their respective organizational cultures and ethical codes, thus doing away with the need to have additional laws, while also avoiding
The Secretary of Labor shall provide by regulation or by order that the employment of employees between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years in occupations other than manufacturing and mining shall not be deemed to constitute oppressive child labor if and to the extent that the Secretary of Labor determines that such employment is confined to periods which will not interfere with their schooling and to conditions which
Child Labor in the Global Environment Child labor has received opposition from all corners of the world. However, still there are companies that in exploiting their market in other countries they find opportunity of practicing child labor mainly because these countries might be having strict laws but they do little to protect the rights of children. Nike is among the companies that have been found to be using child labor