Rajeev Ravisankar begins his essay, “Sweatshop Oppression,” by writing about the broke lives of college students and trying to find the best deals. The problem he identifies is the human cost to making inexpensive consumer items. He assumes his readers are college students. His purpose is to inform the reader of the inhumane conditions in sweatshops around the world, and the solution his University is seeking.…
Modern times offer a very diverse way of expressing oneself. The expression of a single person who consumes more than they need may not be enough to hurt the environment; however, the overproduction of harmful waste from big business is big enough to impact the environment. Critically acclaimed author Anna Lappé describes the climate crisis through the food production industry in a sector of industry where people rarely scrutinize in her article “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork.” In a very different, yet scarily similar way Carolyn Merchant metaphorically describes the problems with modern human tendency and desires through the image of a shopping mall in “Eden Commodified.”…
It is important to know that sweatshop conditions can exist anywhere there is a vulnerable population such as undocumented immigrants, who are incredibly susceptible to sweatshop practices. Although most sweatshops are located in poverty stricken, third world countries, sweatshops still exist in the United States. Sweatshops are continuing to cause major concern in the United States as well as other foreign countries. As the demand for material possessions grow so do the need for these establishments. The environmental standards of these facilities cause enormous safety concerns yet the laborers settle as this is their only means of survival.…
SweatShop Summary Joseph Stallin said, “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is statistic.” When it comes to one man it is sad and depressing, but when it comes to millions of people, it’s hard to not forget. Such as 9/11 attack, and the France attack that happen 11/13/15.…
Factories have been placed in these countries by massive companies seeking cheap outsourcing, usually in the fields of textiles, footwear, and agriculture. Such companies or brands include Nike, H&M, Wal-Mart, Forever 21, and Victoria’s Secret. Wal-Mart is often criticized for their Bangladesh factories, as these buildings have previously collapsed and killed workers. Regardless, “in the hierarchy of jobs in poor countries, sweltering at a sewing machine isn’t the bottom” (Kristof, N. 2009). Working in a sweatshop factory is at least more comfortable and less dangerous than working in mines or scouring smoldering…
Due to the inhumane conditions that people in third world countries are forced to undergo, the inequitable profits acquired by companies, and the misleading marketing and advertisements for such products, companies endorsing sweatshops should not be sanctioned. Workers are given very little rest time and are expected to work long shifts with hard labour. On average, it is normal to work a twelve hour or more shift. The conditions of these workplaces are cruel for they provide a cramped, hazardous and unsafe environment for workers. These poor…
Part 2: Essay. Describe the argument that inequality constrains a consumer society. Inequality refers to the inequity of members of a consumer society, a society that is built around consumption, the buying and selling of goods and services, to consume equally and the inequity placed onto other societies by a consumer society. Not all members of a consumer society can indulge in the choices and freedoms that are said to exist in a consumer society as they are constrained by various factors to be discussed. Moreover, a consumer society creates inequalities not only within itself but outside of its boundaries too, creating inequalities in other societies around the globe, constraining many people of good working conditions and a living wage…
Ravisankar notes that only a small wage increase could make a considerable difference for those who work in sweatshops. In his essay, Ravisankar addresses the main argument against his thesis, that opposition to sweatshops creates a negative effect on those in the developing countries. Companies say these protests force industries to relocate and causes factory workers to become unemployed.…
Everyone who lives in America know that sweatshops are bad, but the question is, is a sweatshop really that bad? Author Pietra Rivoli explains her views on the issue in her novel The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy and breaks it down into why sweatshops are bad and why they are good. Along with Rivoli’s arguments, sweatshops can help stop the war on poverty, drugs, and terror. I believe that sweatshops overall are a good thing to have and that we shouldn’t get rid of them. Pietra Rivoli, the author of The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, breaks her book up into 4 main parts: King Cotton, Made in China, Trouble at the Border, and My T-Shirt Finally Encounters a Free Market.…
The Sweatshops Nilesh Rohit(300821002) College Communication Professor Catherine Boote July 28,2015 The Sweatshop “I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” ~ Unknown Sweatshops are generally painted as an unhygienic working environment, with lower wages and inappropriate long working hour, which do not follow the necessary safety and health standards. They are in practice since ages in production of goods all over the world. However sweatshop is a choice of a worker, not a forced employment; so nowadays it is considered as iconoclastic alternative to eradicate the long lasting…
Globalization is evident within the production of sweatshops. It creates unity and economically increases wealth. It builds jobs in areas that don’t have money, and brings the world together financially. Economic Globalization is an aspect of globalization that sweatshops pertain to. Economic globalization focuses on large companies and corporations becoming transnational, by having integrated operations around the world.…
The chemicals that may go around in factories can cause long lasting effects on the workers especially pregnant women. According to the documentary “The True Cost” intaking chemicals given off by machines, can influence many types of cancer as well as defects in the brain like mental retardation and down syndrome. In the We have day care programs, home help aid services, even ways for people like this to get in employed. In bangladesh people have to cope with these things. They have to feed, clothe, and look after these children often until they die.…
“Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibly for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained” - Helen Keller (Good Reads). Social justice has become an increasingly more popular subject in the past decade. Regardless of whether or not all of the proposed ideas and solutions are good ideas, it is important to know the different perspectives about this topic. Two well-written articles on the topic of social justice are “Where Sweatshops Are a Dream” and “Social Justice Deficits in the Local Food Movement.” In “Where Sweatshops Are a Dream” published by the New York Times in 2009, Nicholas Kristof seeks to change the minds of most Americans about sweatshops.…
In their annual report, The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) mentions that on average, every person living in a first world country purchased 64 clothing items in 2014. Because the companies that use sweatshop labor are some of the most famous and richest western brands and companies, most of the clothing items purchased around the world come from these companies (“Highest-Paid CEO’s”). The consumers are funding the western companies which are buying cheap…
In the "Sweatshop Oppression," published in The Lantern newspaper, Rajeev Ravisankar begins his essay by introducing himself as a fellow, struggling college student as a way to form a connection with his audience so that he can grab their attention and his readers will give heed to his argument. By identifying with, and expressing empathy for his readers, Ravisankar (2006) is able to establish a connection with his readers based on the similar financial plight of being a college and their wish to spend less and save more (para. 1). Furthermore, it is because of the average college student’s lack of financial prosperity that contributes to the drawback of “low-cost driven consumerism”: sweatshop labor (para. 2). Ravisankar assumes that although…