Sweatshops

When most people hear the term sweatshops, most likely the first things that come to mind involve horror, forced child labor, and law breaking. Many people tell of horrible things they have read or seen on you tube that involve terrible stories with sad endings. When asked if you are for or against sweatshops there is not much thought that goes into the reaction of "I am totally against sweatshops, they are bad." However, in my personal opinion, I am not 100% against sweatshops.

In American culture, we are taught that forced child labor is wrong and pristine working conditions are a requirement. the American way is the right way and no others suffice. But when comparing America to other countries, we all know that we are not nearly the same. The term sweatshop refers to a manufacturing workplace that treats its workers inhumanely, paying low wages, imposing harsh and unsafe working conditions, and demanding levels according to www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/s.html. But what about the child who is the sole provider for an 8 person family? It is that child who needs the job to provide the resources for the family to survive. Granted, it is unfair but a 13 year old child does not have much of a choice when it comes to looking for a job that will allow their family to survive but it still their livelihood.

According to Andy Peterson's article, Third World Countries Need Sweatshops, "No person can claim that the increase in production that came with sweatshops didn't contribute to the evolution of [many] countries, because the change can be seen today: there are now minimum wages, age limits, and safety procedures that must be followed in the entire industrial world." His article goes onto support the idea that development in many third world countries is a long and difficult process that America has very close to achieved. In fact in some countries, sweatshops offer higher wages than in the domestic market.

There are unfortunately sweatshops that do not treat their workers with any kind of respect and sexually harass workers. But some of the alternatives in these countries for children involve child prostitution. I believe that sweatshops should not be completely wiped out but the supervision of humane conduct needs to become more important and practiced. It will never be possible to know for sure if all factories in the world are treating their employees right but with enough of a force and consequences the world can get closer to the elimination of these problems.

Below is a video of Penn and Teller and their defense of Sweatshops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjsshqyAFh8