10 links for blog

http://www.waronwant.org/overseas-work/sweatshops-and-plantations/china-sweatshops

http://prospectjournal.org/2013/06/25/chinese-sweatshops-profits-over-people/

http://www.positivedeviance.org/pdf/research/ArnoldHartmanPositiveDeviance[1].pdf

http://www.laborrights.org/creating-a-sweatfree-world

http://humaneeducation.org/blog/2013/05/29/thinking-critically-responsible-sweatshops-it/

www.fordschool.umich.edu/rsie/acit/Documents/Miller-Challenge.doc‎

http://worldissuesscrapbook.wikispaces.com/Sweatshops

http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2012/06/three-reasons-sweatshops-are-good-for-the-poor/

http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/journals/dissent/summary/v052/52.2.rothstein.html

http://www.eap-journal.com/archive/v39_i2_05-tisdell.pdf

Chinese Sweatshops and Western Consumerism.

Chinese Sweatshops and Western Consumerism.

China has quickly become the world leader in exports. They have been able to succeed greatly in this area with the use of Sweatshops. Sweat shops are considered as an exploitation of human labour and deemed bad by the media. But some also believe Sweatshops are a necessary step for the future developing economy of a developing nation. The unquenchable thirst that is “Western Consumerism” is the main cause to this boom in sweat shops.

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            Once China opened its doors to the international market it quickly became heavily industrialized with many of its rural residents moving into urban areas seeking a better life with better income. Many of the jobs that became available were just laborious tasks as the majority of the work force was uneducated workers. This created many workers in factory jobs which in turn created the sweatshops you see today. Ever since China opened its markets internationally and heavily industrialized itself its GDP has raised substantially and even the income per capita rose significantly . This coincided with a large percentage of the population rising above the poverty line.

            Current developed nations were not void of sweat shops either while they were going through their industrial development. APWU shows that during USA's industrial age that sweat shops were used in the USA and law enforcers and political figures turned a blind eye to what was happening. These sweatshops also had terrible conditions some even worse than what is happening in China. That shows that our perceptions of sweat shops are not completely true as throughout the ages the world has always used cheap labour to help boost its economy. As a nation that is already developed we seem to forget that in the past the exact same thing was happening to our countries as we were developing industrially. The nations even used slaves to do their work. They lived in much harsher conditions and many were not even treated as a human being. 

                Even though there are many benefits to a countries wealth, there is still one major downside to the sweatshops, the conditions. With sweatshops being necessary for a counties economic climb the conditions of the sweatshops is what is holding them back in the eye of the rest of the world. “In 2009 alone approximately one million workers suffered industrial injuries and about 20,000 were victims of occupational disease”. In addition to the harsh conditions workers are forced to work 70 hour weeks and work seven days a week and forced to live in cramped dormitories with up to 6 other people as they do not earn enough to live else ware within the cities.

            Although the conditions are harsh, many endure them as the pay for unskilled labour is much better in factories than back in their rural villages. In a western eye the pay for the workers is incredibly low (CNY 1,690, 333.71 NZD) but to the people the pay will provide a better standard of living and some people believe that the pay outweighs the risks.

            Let’s not forget that it was only 200 years ago when England banned slavery and much more recently the USA. The USA also did not want to implement the banning of slavery and it was one of the leading factors for the American civil war. During the period of slavery the slaves were not classed as humans and could be bought and sold as cattle. The government did not represent them and they were not even allowed to be taught how to read and write. The situation in China is no different to what current developed countries were in the past and even have better standards of living and are treated fairer.

            To conclude, we can see that countries use sweatshops purely for economic reasons. This is based on the fact that the developed nations want cheap goods and developing nations are willing to exploit their low labour and production costs. We can also see that this is not purely just for the nations to increase their GDP. The people want these jobs as it can provide them with more income and a better life for their family.

Reference:

Defending Sweatshops: Too Much Logic, Too Little Evidence (2005) Vol. 52, pp. 41-47 http://muse.jhu.edu.ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/journals/dissent/summary/v052/52.2.rothstein.html

Sweatshops in China (2009) http://www.waronwant.org/overseas-work/sweatshops-and-plantations/china-sweatshops

Tisdell. C (2009) Economic reform and openness in China: China’s development policies in that last thirty years. Retrieved from: http://www.eap-journal.com/archive/v39_i2_05-tisdell.pdf

The American Postal Work Magazine (2005). http://www.apwu.org/laborhistory/04-2_trianglefire/04-2_trianglefire.htm