The Pros And Cons Of Sweatshops

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The definition of a sweatshop, according to the US Department of Labor, is any factory that violates two or more labor laws such as those pertaining to wages and benefits, working hours, and child labor. There are still thousands of factories in developing countries with sweatshop like conditions that remain in the world today. Since the 19th century industrialization era, factories have been exploiting their workers in the harshest of terms. Children have been forced to work for very little pay and have suffered from deformities and lack of education. One might think, "Yeah, that's in the past, but we fixed that right?” This assumption is wrong. Through globalization, workers in third world countries have underwent these horrible conditions. In the mid to late 1990's the anti-sweatshop movement took hold when people discovered that most of their clothes were made in these types of places. New laws and codes have been implemented but some companies like The Gap and Benetton's were discovered violating them in 2013, after their factory collapsed and killed thousands. Many multinational companies defend themselves under the pretext that sweatshops help the impoverished people by employing them and are just a side effect to globalization that is necessary to stay competitive in the world market. This however is a false statement. Even though people have jobs at factories in developing nations they are not being benefitted due to the multinational companies' lack of respect for the laborer's individual rights, poor working conditions, and denying that they can be successful without sweatshops.
To begin, the economic and social costs of sweatshops domestically do not outweigh the global benefits and should not be ignored. Urbanizati...

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...ng nations through the voluntary cooperation and assistance of companies and institutions.
In conclusion, it can be proved that the average factory worker in a third world country is not being aided by the workshops. The standing definition of a sweatshop remains as any factory that violates two or more labor laws. While the amounts of sweatshops are diminishing, they still exist. There is a quote from Oscar Arias Sanchez, "The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves." Society has to join the cause of anti-sweatshop movements through buying goods made from non-sweatshop companies and raising awareness of them. We, as humans, must take responsibility for these exploited people in hopes that one day there won't the problem of sweatshops, but rather successful factories that are fair and just around the world.

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