Do Sweat It

There are many aspects of modern global society that are less than ideal.  Perhaps one of the most confrontational of these aspects is the global use of sweat shops.  On the surface, this issue might seem to have a simple answer, but this is far from the truth.  Many people are quick to denounce even the smallest support for sweat shops, but the truth is that sweat shops are a necessary evil.  Every person who is against child labor and low wages is quick to promote the discontinuation of every sweat shop world wide.  What these activists seem to forget is that many of the people who are employed by sweat shops depend on that job for survival or because it is the best option available to them.  This means that until a better solution is ready to be implemented we must continue to deal with these sweat shops.


It has been a commonality for their to be only two parties of thought the first is the anti-sweatshop party publicing protesting sweatshops, seeing them as an unacceptable evil. Pushing for lawsuits towards large companies such as Nike, and Forever 21.

Such public dispays are a commonality for these anit-sweatshop groups.

When asked about the working conditions in sweatshops, sweatshop supporters argue that the wages these workers make only seem inferior compared to salaries in the developed world. Compared to subsistence farming for example, the pay is many times greater, and the work is equally as many times easier. It is said that if these jobs didn’t improve the living standards of the workers doing them, no workers would take the jobs. Sweatshop supporters argue that if not for these jobs, many people would be forced into subsistence farming, and many women specifically would be forced to use prostitution as a way to make money. When the Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated fifty thousand children were dismissed from garment industry jobs in Asia. Being forced to find other jobs, many of these children had to resort to jobs, like “stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution.” The State of the World’s Children study by UNICEF in 1997, found that these other jobs proved to be a greater threat to the children’s’ health that garment making.

As consumer we should be aware of where the clothes we are purchasing are coming from and who they are made by. However, we should not boycott a company if it employs a sweat shop. Sweatshops are a necessary evil, which is needed in the developing countries they reside in. Without them the people of the country turn to more unpleasant means of gaining income. This statement is not to be mistaken under any circumstance as us as a blog group believing that sweatshops are a good thing. Quite contrary to that we believe that they are a very unpleasant institution; however, they are needed in countries they reside in until a better alternative can be devised.