Sweatshops

Exploitation & Greed

Sweatshops are defined as having: difficult and dangerous working conditions, along with limited rights for their workers and few ways for their voices to be heard. Sweatshops can expose an employee to harmful or hazardous materials while already working at excruciating temperatures. In my opinion the employers inflict this type of abuse.

I understand that most people working in these third world sweatshops are doing it because they have chosen to. This doesn’t mean it is right. Employers are exploiting these citizens because they know that the employees will continue to work under the current conditions because the money is there. This brings me to an even worse situation, one regarding wages. It is sick how meager the employees wages are. It doesn’t matter to me that these people are making “enough” to survive. It is inhumane to exploit them in this way when we can afford to pay them more for their efforts.

Child labor in completely inhumane and the laws prohibiting this act should be intensified. Their is absolutely no excuse for child labor and the people continuing it should be jailed. Regardless of whether the child's parents allow it for their own selfishness or employers are forcing them it should all be the same in the eyes of the law.

(www.coopamerica.org)

Through the continuation of sweatshops these countries will continue to live in poverty because they allow companies to make their wages so low. Companies pay the bare minimum because they are greed driven, and provide only enough so their employees can survive. The only way to stop sweatshop labor is to boycott the buying of the products they produce. This is much easier said than done, especially considering the United States imports a significant amount more than it exports.