Sweatshops Poor People Better Off Summary

Sweltering heat, long hours, and unfair working conditions are a few descriptive words that Americans use to describe a sweatshop. I believe our judgment is being misguided by the success of our nation, and it is imperative we redefine the word “sweatshop”. Individuals that endure life in third world countries know hardships that Americans could not imagine. If we were to recognize these economical differences it may shine a light on why these workers seek sweatshop jobs. In many of these cases, children must work to aid in the family’s survival. If these jobs are voluntary and both parties agree to work conditions, it results in a mutually beneficial arrangement. One of the worst things we can do as outsiders, to help these impoverished

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.

Cambridge dictionary defines sweatshop as a small factory where workers are paid very little and work many hours under bad conditions. People working there are deprived of any kind of worker’s benefit. Child labor is very common in sweatshops. Workers in sweatshops are often missing key pieces of safety equipment such as face masks to ensure safe breathing or work in environments with insufficient means of emergency exit since employers may lock the doors and windows to prevent theft during working hours (Hartman ). The workers are abused, beaten, kicked, and shoved, even if they are sick or pregnant. Sweatshop is nothing but a modern form of slavery, because the workers are forced to work in harsh condition for a little wage, and they are denied any fundamental human rights .

In a hot, dark warehouse, hundreds of women sit, hours on end, working at rickety old sewing machines. No one talks, the only noise that can be heard is the buzz of the machinery. Occasionally, there will be a cry of pain followed by a sharp “get back to work”. Sitting at one machine is a single mother working to send her kids to school. Her hands bleed and her back aches, but the fear of the alternative is worse than that of her reality. She has been at the machine for 8 hours now without a break so that she can meet the strict quotas that determine her pay. The smell of formaldehyde plagues the air, clinging to her clothes making her short of breath. This is where she will be stuck for years, decades even, working to pay off her debt and

First, sweatshops have poor working conditions. Examples of poor working conditions are factories are not ventilated; no toilets, have to work for longer hours, there is no emergency exists and minimum wages are given. There are some owners of sweatshops who forced their employees to work for longer hours but pay a minimum wage. This is proved in a case called Two Cheers for Sweatshops, Mongkol’s daughter had to work for nine hours straight but she is only paid $2 a day. She also works six days in a week. The poor working conditions actually can affect a person mental and physical

Sweatshops have been around for centuries, beginning around the late 1880’s. Sweatshops are classified by three main components, long work hours, very low pay and unsafe and unhealthy working environments. Sweatshops are usually found in manufacturing industries and the most highlighted production is clothing corporations, who take full advantage of the low production costs of their products. Many may think sweatshops are a thing of the past but they are still affecting many lives across the nations. There are many ways sweatshops affect lives, but a recent article titled “New study finds ‘more sweatshops than Starbucks’ in Chicago” explains that there are many low wage industry jobs that are violating labor laws in the United States alone. The article also reports how employees who are working in such conditions won’t speak up in fear of the retaliation employers will implement. Analyzing Sweatshops through the lens of the Sociological perspectives will help us better understand the illegal conditions of workplaces that still exist today.

In “Where Sweatshops Are a Dream”, Nicholas Kristof states sweatshops may be too harsh in America’s eyes, but a dream for many families in poverty. Phnom Penh, Cambodia is a city where, in some places, the trash pile high and smoke fills the air. For the people who live there, scavenging through the trash, finding plastic and, selling it is just a way of life. Many Americans believe that labor laws should be improved to try to help them. However, what they do not see is that many want to work in sweat shops. To work in a sweatshop and get out of the trash collecting life is a goal for many people living there. Kristof defends his statement by saying sewing machine jobs would be a more preferable job then what people do in Phnom Penh. On the

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.

1) “Where Sweatshops Are a Dream” is a short article in favor of sweatshops. The author talks about how the living standards rose due to sweatshops when he was a kid (Kristof). This article has a personal story from the author about improving conditions. This makes for a good pathos argument.

"Teens in Sweatshops." Junior Scholastic, vol. 106, no. 8, 24 Nov. 2003, p. 8. EBSCOhost,cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s8419239&db=prh&AN=11430419&site=ehost-live. This article focuses on teenagers that work in sweatshops, specifically in the United States. The article contains personal interviews and examples from real teens that were most likely immigrant workers working in sweatshops. The article describes events of a variety of different people working in different sweatshops and the effect it had on them. There are direct quotes from not only workers from sweatshops but also from workers in corporate companies speaking about their side on sweatshops. With statistics and facts being used in the article important information can easily be read through and understood. The article is important because it easily sums up sweatshops from what they are to what they do and how it affects others. With the article being so small and easy to read people with varying reading levels can read the information being presented and know about the abuse that is happening. Moving accounts from people and specific names of popular clothing stores serve as important details that impact a reader’s opinion on

The fact that there is so much competition in the clothing industry forces companies to seek the cheapest labor and material. To get products that are the least environmentally harmful will cost the company more money. That can lead future CEO’s to look for less expensive resources that may not meet their current standards. For example, because Patagonia makes synthetic clothing, plastics used to make the clothing release micro-plastics into the water when washed. These micro-plastics cannot be completely filtered by waste water filtering plants. (Martinko, Katherine)

They are complications in international trade. Classical views promise the benefits to both countries from trade but the complications are when you look closer at how that trade might actually hurt our country, their country, and both of our countries. For example, sweatshop labor can benefit manufacturers and customers but what about the people working in them, some of them would consider their labor exploitation by force and others consider it exploitation by choice. This is the division, their views. Another complication is “wolves in sheep’s clothing” meaning someone or something that tries to appear appealing to you under a certain circumstance is actually the exact opposite. So, opposition to having sweatshops in poor countries come from

How fast fashion is affecting the environment is a very serious topic since this type of consumerism in the United States is heavy on supply and demand, and because of that shoppers want it all and want it now which is basically fast fashions motto. The way to make these pieces of clothing heavily rely on cheap materials that can be made quickly, so that is polyester and cotton being made in big factories that emit out toxins into our earth. Cotton being one of the most used fabrics takes a lot to be made into a single garment. Uzbekistan which is the 6th biggest producer of cotton had faced many conflicts during production since cotton uses so much water to be made it has dried up the 4th largest lake the Aral Sea because of how much we need to produce cotton fashion. (Prospectjournalucsd) Buying these cheap garments that become unwearable after 5 times (Forbes) of wearing it usually gets thrown out after and producing more waste that gets put into our waterways since theses garments shed easy and through washing them can “find their way into oceans and on the shores everywhere.” (Sweeny) So with the help of shoppers, being able to cut down on the purchase of fast fashion can help aid in keeping the ecosystem in order.

Generations ahead of us only had a tiny wardrobe, where clothes were not washed every day. In our generation, fast fashion is in. It’s ok to have multiple shirts or shoes of the same color. It’s actually ok to throw away unwanted apparel. Apparel companies are beginning to focus on sustainable fashion, also known as eco fashion. Apparel, fashion, and textiles is the most polluting industry in the world. Every stage, that a garment goes through, uses up and threatens our resources.

Recycling is the process of reusing old clothing fibers and textiles to make something new in the textile and apparel industry. (Kunz, Karpova, & Garner, 2016) In the textile industry, recycling is one of the major issues in the industry. “The necessary steps in the textile recycling process involve the donation, collection, sorting and processing of textiles, and then subsequent transportation to end users of used garments, rags or other recovered materials.”(Leblanc, 2017, page 1) The environmental benefits of textile recycling are that recycling decreases landfill space, foreign fibers are not being used, reduction of water and energy used in the production of textiles, prevents pollution and there is a lesser demand for toxic dyes. (Leblanc, 2017)