Kobee Crown
Discussion Section: Gamble
10:00 AM
Analyzing Alienated Labor in Regards to Democracy
The strive to maximize profits causes firms to mass produce commodity goods, which forces workers to dedicate a large portion of their time to their labor. The efficiency of mass production is certainly questionable, as economists like Keynes predicted that, given the massive technological leaps that nations such as the United States and Great Britain were already making, the average work week would be reduced to between fifteen and twenty hours a week by the twenty-first century (Graeber, “Bullshit Jobs”). While it appears that the technological advancements Keynes expected came to fruition, the average work week currently sits around
forty
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It is not a large stretch to assume that most of the sweatshop workers employed by Nike have never worn any of the items that they had a part in producing, which serves to create an effect of resentment, as those workers view Nike products as a reminder of their servitude and likely nothing more.
Like the product of one’s labor, the process of labor itself can also be a source of estrangement for workers in a capitalistic society. When workers have no influence on the circumstances surrounding their production, they can be treated as commodities. Those that are working in sweatshops are often doing so out of necessity, which gives firms control over laborers as they dominate the means of production and therefore have more leeway in regards to practices such as forcing workers to endure improper conditions or providing low wages. Firms like Nike can easily establish monopolies in the market for cheap labor in developing nations like Indonesia, eliminating the competition for wages along with any possibility of class ascendance. The result of this is the existence of laborers who are completely disconnected from the undertaking of their work, as it only serves as both a means of subsidence and a reminder of one’s reliance on the bourgeoisie. Naturally, the laborer will feel that the
One of the biggest and most popular brands in America, Nike, who targets athletes of all ages to be better athletes engages in unethical behavior by exploiting people from other countries by providing bad working conditions and low wages. Nike produces athletic equipment as well as apparel that is not only appealing to athletes, but also to the general public. However, the people that work for Nike and make these products are people being physically abused by supervisors and have to deal with horrible working conditions. According to an article written by Zaid Jilani, he said that thousands of women in Indonesia are being exploited by companies such as Nike where the wages being paid to these women are not enough to survive. Nike is well aware of what they are doing to these people in Indonesia, but still continue with it because the profits they receive at the end of the day is more valuable to them than the poor working conditions they offer to these Indonesian women. This shows that Nike uses the the Utilitarian approach because the company weighs out the pros and cons of the situation and still decides to produce products in Indonesia where it’s perfectly legal to pay low wages and have bad working conditions even though it is
Since the 1990s, Nike has been embroiled in controversy over its use of sweatshops. Including numerous media reports of workers earning very little an hour (14 cents per hour), and even workers abused by sub-contractor (Allarey, 2015). Incidents such as these are ingrained in Nike’s history and not quickly forgotten. However, as CEO I would like to attempt to correct wrongs.
Some will argue that the mind simply becomes exhausted as one works throughout the day, and that the job description effects this minimally. Yet, a common story a century old
Nike has suffered attacks from a number of agencies and organizations throughout the world that claim that the workers who manufacture Nike shoes are denied the basic essentials of living—a fair wage and decent benefits. All
If Nike would use all its power to try to give better work conditions and wages and in the end the companies donʼt live up to that, Nike should not be held that responsible although I would strongly suggest to end the contract.
One of the greatest economic theorist Karl Marx whose ideas were once used in the Soviet Union and other countries that failed to success makes human beings think of the type of economy that they are living in. Karl Marx was born in 1818 in Trier, Germany. He witnessed the rise of the industrial revolution and the beginning of capitalism. Marx was the strongest capitalist critic who analyzed the ills of the capitalism. Marx wrote lots of books and they were mostly about the capitalism. And Capitalism is one type of economy. The United States is a capitalist country. One of his writings that this paper will focus on is “Alienated Labor” and it talks about different types of Alienation that the workers of capitalism experienced. Alienation
They should be responsible for the legal, social and philanthropic aspects of its subcontracted factories. They are not paying their employees the legal minimum wage, caring about the working conditions and welfare of these employees and just not taking into consideration the well-being of others. Ten years ago, the company had been subjected to negative press, lawsuits, and demonstrations on college campuses alleging that the firm’s overseas contractors’ subject employees to work in inhumane conditions for low wages. With the introduction of the fair labour association and worker rights consortium, Nike is slowly trying to improve the working conditions on subcontracted factories and hopefully in 10 years, they would be able to re-establish themselves as a morally acceptable company.
The laborers understood the need for new equipment and considered investments for new machines that would in turn bring about other newer machines. This helped them to gain surplus from the labor which is the only factor that could add value during the process of production.
The Pou Chen factory is located in a place where the minimum wage is far below the national average. It has 10,000 workers who make Converse sneakers. Most of the workers are women, and they earn only 50 cents an hour. The amount that they earn is not even enough to cover their food and very poor housing. In this factory, the women are both physically and verbally abused. Nike’s own investigations have proved these complaints to be true. The company made a statement saying that immediate actions would be taken to deal with the situation. It is interesting to note that, “an internal Nike report, released to the Associated Press after it inquired about the abuse, showed that nearly two-thirds of 168 factories making Converse products worldwide failed to meet Nike’s own standards for contract manufacturers. Twelve are in the most serious category, ranging from illegally long work hours to
Unfortunately, the same factor that contributed to Nike’s exponential growth (low-cost labor and production) also contributed to hurting Nike’s public image as a leader in “athleticism, health and fitness, and innovative marketing and design” (Locke, 2002). Nike was criticized for unethical practices by their subcontractors, which included underpaid workers, poor working conditions, child labor, and abuse (Locke, 2002).
Nike took advantage of that and disregarded that the people making their products at an extremely low price were actually humans. It was ethically wrong for Nike to not see those employees as actual people but saw them as a machine that produced products. They did not care to see how being underpaid affected a person’s family. They also did not see that children were working to support families and continued to work in terrible health conditions because they needed the money no matter the environment. The biggest issue was that the company had a total disregard for human life.
In various cultures in the era before Christ, the material world was thought impermanent and inferior to the mental and spiritual world, but work was not disdained. The Buddha in the sixth century B.C. said that people suffer because they thirst for material things and physical pleasures, and that the
Viewing the worker as a product of labor means that the more the worker works hard, the more
Labour represents all physical and mental abilities which people can make available for production of
To be formed into the mold of a productive worker. What does this do for the