Sweatshop Free America

When it comes to child labour and child laborers in sweatshops, there has been much publicity, news programs and articles, and a variety of other programs developed to help eliminate this social injustice issue. This social injustice, at least in the eyes of the western world, has been ongoing for centuries. It is sort of a paradox though, as the western world, or at least in the US, we try to buy the cheapest stuff we can find, just look at the success of Wal Mart. While more jobs are shipped overseas and corporations looking to cut costs, more workers and governments will be exploited overseas, and we will go into this further.

Will it ever end, child labour and child laborers in sweatshops, that is, or can we put a stop to this, or at least what or current western societal norms are, think is wrong.

The problem lies in the fact that when we look at sociology and it’s role in this, we come to realize that there are still many different cultures that exist on the planet in this current day, that differ from yours and mine. In our culture, western culture that is, at least I am assuming, child labour in sweatshops is not acceptable, but in other cultures, this labour, or child laborers, it is almost a necessity, and is standard or the socially accepted norm. There are many countries in the third world as we refer to them as, primarily those which have these sweatshops, and the vast majority of the people living in these third world nations are literally dirt poor. While we can say and talk about how much we want to and how much we are going to help them, the reality of the situation is, they are basically left on their own, especially during times of world economic struggles. For some of these cultures, this type of thing has been ongoing for many generations. They are literally so poor that they have to send the kids to work, and in some cultures, even sell them as laborers. I know we think this is an atrocity, but we have to look at their side, and live in their shoes to understand their point of view. For them, this is what they have known and done for many, many years, hard labour work in sweatshops, and it is a way of life for them, just like going to Wal Mart and buying cheap stuff is for many of us.

Child labour is nothing new to the world, nor is the use of child labour in sweatshops, and we have in the past mounted campaigns against such business tactics, but it is still an ongoing problem which will be hard to put an end to. The only true way for which we can solve this problem is to do so at the human and societal level by fixing all of our social and humanistic woes, such as greed, and the need for material things or commercialism, especially those cheap things which are produced primarily by children or exploited workers. As our supposed Corporate World Leaders continue in their quest to cut costs by outsourcing jobs and increasing profits on behalf of Wall Street, they cut away at the very fabric of our middle class, and destroy what was once the American Dream, or those similar dreams in other industrialized nations. Now, as they continue to ship more and more of these jobs overseas to children or people whom are paid much less, less and less people can afford their crap anymore, and so they wind up having to cut more corners and cut more costs, so they outsource some more of those jobs, and, or hire even cheaper labor. Soon will come they day when they start to outsource the outsourced jobs, mark my words! It is a never ending vicious cycle that will continue to spiral out of control until they are finally out of business, or they find a sense of morality, I for one, unfortunately, believe it will be the former by the way. Other businesses which are much more unscrupulous and ruthless have always, and will always use these sweatshops, and even if they are caught, they will just pack up and go elsewhere and get new child laborers to exploit and buy new corrupt government officials and have them in their pockets.

This phenomenon of sweatshops is obviously something which is not new to the world, and it has been ongoing for centuries, just like slavery, actually, probably more than likely since the beginning of man I would imagine, knowing human nature. It will continue to be a problem in this world as long as their is humans left to their own devices, such as greed, dishonesty, cruelty, and a lack of respect for others, in human hearts, if they even have one, and in human minds. So I wish us all good luck with putting an end to this, as I don’t see us stopping greed, corruption, or other such bad human characteristics just like that, at least not in the short term. As it stands now, we can’t even make an truly honest and solid effort to save the planet from ourselves, climate change, and pollution, and this is literally our home, from the same greed, dishonesty and cruelty and power characteristics that enslave many of these young children into child laborers. So, this being just one example of how humans and human nature are somewhat flawed, or so easily corruptible. We have to look no further back than just two short years ago and the world shattering Wall Street meltdown, which ultimately caused the world economy to literally go down the drain and into the sewer, and for many of us on this planet, it is still there, the economy that is. Did doing the right thing in this case, or corporate ethics, or corporate morality keep these greed mongers from literally destroying the livelihoods of many millions of, if not in the billions of people? Do you think that by us attempting to put an end to possibly illegal sweatshops, and they aren’t illegal everywhere, only morally wrong, will stop these immoral businesses from going on and keeping child labour and child laborers on their payroll, if you can even call it a payroll. Sweatshops I would imagine will go on forever and the use of a child in these to do what is deemed labour will always exist, until we can cure the human factor which we went into previously, albeit briefly, but that my friends is another article.

For now in this day and age, the only way we can truly stop this socially unacceptable form of slavery or illegal labour is to do so at the consumer level, and hurt these guys where it hurts most, their bank accounts. To put an end to, or minimize child labour in sweatshops, we must do so as a well organized, well planned, global action with many, many people participating in boycotts. A few people here and a few people there just won’t accomplish anything my friends, as it is but a little grain of sand on a huge beach. We need to have many, many people, organizations, and if possible, governments involved to truly be successful in any attempt to make a real difference here and stop these people from exploiting child laborers. We need to truly use the power of the internet and other resources to be successful at any attempts to shut down this form of slavery and put an end to the immoral activities of the people that perpetrate these crimes against humanity!