Sunday, April 17, 2011
No Sweat-not really...
Sweat shops are a difficult topic to wrap one's moral compass around. On one hand you have what essentially amounts to human labor camps with transnational corporations exploiting their workforce in substandard conditions for pennies on the dollar and on the other you have economic opportunity that is "lifting" millions out of poverty and allowing them to have access to rights and opportunities not otherwise avaliable to them. I have always tried to be congnicent of sweat shop conditons and have attempted shop with regards to that knowledge but it is very hard. After reading the articles from this week, I still do not have an answer but I did find one article particularly helpful. In his article, "Sweat, Fire and Ethic", Bob Jeffcot offers the perhaps the first step to a greater solution "...by admitting the limitations of ethical shopping. Isn't it a little presumtuous of us to think that we can end sweatshop abuses by just changing our individual buying habits". Instead he hopes that we will recognize our power as citizens and that we should do something with the rights we have, also he encourages us to support the areas in which these factories are located, what sort of assistance programs are offered to local communities, etc. I now recognize it was pretty short sighted of me to assume that by not buying those pair of Nike shoes or Gap pants I was doing someone across the ocean a favor. While I don't know the answer to the Sweat shop question, I know that it's not a black and white issue. If I want to do something to help those people that work in those factories it won't be by having them make one less pair jeans that I didn't buy, it will be by forced social changes started at the grass roots level.
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After reading your post, I have to say you hit right on the nose. I could not say it any better. If I stop buying it’s a problem and if I keep buying products made in other country’s its not good. Just the fact that people work in those factories to make a leaving its how they survive even if it’s not the best or safest place to work.
ReplyDeleteA great way to think about sweat shops. Helping those people in my opinion is to keep buying the stuff they are making. In that same article in the book "Sweat, Fire and Ethic" shows us how those poor ladies in sweatshops getting sexually abused. And also in the article "Bangladesh: On the Ladder of Development" we can see how those young ladies are trying to get the best out of sweat shops. They are working and putting money aside for their education.
ReplyDeleteIf as a consumer I stopped buying the stuff they are making, I could be a reason for those Bangladeshi women not to have a degree, or better care for their families. And in the future, they can have a degree to go work somewhere else other than that sexually abusive, dangerous sweat shop environment.
I definitely agree with your point of this article, and you are right, us not buying a pair of jeans will not end this issue, it has become a greater part of our lives, that we do things without realizing. Everyone does something for a living, and some people chose to work in sweatshops, and they are providing clothes to us from across the nation. The last we can do is appreciate what we have and hope for the best for them.
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