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Someone always tries to justify third-world labor exploitation
Posted by: Nathan ( brat magazine, USA ) on January 18, 1999 at 16:15:57:
In Reply to: Third world, sweat shops, ridiculously low wages posted by Ekaf Eman on October 13, 1997 at 13:48:56:
Someone always tries to justify third-world labor exploitation by saying -- well, it's not the company's fault, those are poor contries -- or, what would you have them do, leave the third world and put people out of work?
The underlying logic is that the magical forces of the "free market" will cure all the world's ills. Yech.
I think it's astoundingly obvious that McDonald's or Nike or Tommy Hilfiger could provide higher wages and better working conditions for the people who produce their products, rather than concentrate as much welath as possible at the top of the pyramid. Does the fact that people live in poor countries (ahem, these countries usually have a very rich, very small elite and a large, poor majority, and US foreign policy keeps it that way to make corporations happy) make it okay for them to be exploited by wealthy companies who *could* be treating them more fairly? Not only could they -- they have a moral responsibility to provide more and better for their workers, but they don't!
Furthermore, it's true that labor conditions in the US were once similar to the third world. And it is only through the power of labor unions and social activism (not to mention the strong socialist currents in the country at the time) that it changed. That strikes me as an important lesson.
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