After attending the lecture on human trafficking this evening in Jones Auditorium I thought that it would be fitting to demonstrate how our countries economy and business structure ties into to worker enslavement. Over the years our country has decreased in amounts of manufacturing due to the business principle of profit maximization. For example, Americans who wish to make manufactured goods to sell to larger companies in our country are wanting to be paid good wages and demand higher prices for their products. Big businesses have more incentive to maximize profits by spending less on materials and products due to competition in these separate and integrated markets. America has created a very competitive market for the least expensive products, which has led to the rapid increase in outsourcing in recent decades. This fight to be competitive trickles down in these countries and they then must find ways to stay competitive to us as consumers. To do this they use sweatshops where people are forced to working long hours for basically nothing, continuing the theme of humans as a false commodity.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Humans as False Commodities Today
After attending the lecture on human trafficking this evening in Jones Auditorium I thought that it would be fitting to demonstrate how our countries economy and business structure ties into to worker enslavement. Over the years our country has decreased in amounts of manufacturing due to the business principle of profit maximization. For example, Americans who wish to make manufactured goods to sell to larger companies in our country are wanting to be paid good wages and demand higher prices for their products. Big businesses have more incentive to maximize profits by spending less on materials and products due to competition in these separate and integrated markets. America has created a very competitive market for the least expensive products, which has led to the rapid increase in outsourcing in recent decades. This fight to be competitive trickles down in these countries and they then must find ways to stay competitive to us as consumers. To do this they use sweatshops where people are forced to working long hours for basically nothing, continuing the theme of humans as a false commodity.
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It is hard to think about how wide spread those employment practices still are. With the number of foreign made products that the United States consumes, it seems nearly impossible to know exactly where and how each of those products came to be made. Additionally, because manufacturers use multiple suppliers in the process of making their finished goods, attempting to find the origination of each part used is very difficult. Given that, and the amount of commingling that occurs, it is anyone’s guess as to whether a good is the product of dubious labor practices. Not too long ago, the United States was shocked to find out the foreign employment practices of a certain shoe manufacturer. Much like during the times of slave operated sugar plantations, it seems the only way an individual can remove themselves completely from supporting uncivil types of labor practices it to stop consuming those types of products all together.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how many products make our economy a global one today. How many sweatshirts someone owns before realizing that none of them were made in the United States. Take coffee for example, who doesnt know someone whose caffinee addicted. Well several coffee companies buy beans from places where the minimum wage is outrageous. People working for a dollar a month. Unfortunately its not even their fault. A lot of companies buy from a middle man, a supplier thats already bought from the original seller at an unfair price.Personally I think people first and farmost need to be educated about the situation. Perhaps they would boycott, as Chad suggests if they were .
ReplyDeleteI was lucky to go to a free trade/ fair trade event on campus last year for my history and evolution of global processes class. At the event there was a guest speaker who owned and operated a small coffee company here in Austin. He spoke in behalf of fair trade and spoke how he traveled to Columbia each year and personally chose the best batch of coffee from workers in Columbia. Unlike large companies who use this "middle man" approach, it was refreshing to hear an entrepreneur take so much pride in the quality of his product and to also be socially responsible. He did mention that it costs more to conduct business this way but he also said that he wouldn't conduct business any other way. I personally do not see fair trade being a predominate form of transaction of goods but I can definitely see free trade and fair trade meeting in the middle, given there has been a lot of media attention to this subject in recent years.
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