Sweatshop Factories: A Bad Thing or a Springboard for the Economy? Many people in our society today constantly ask themselves, “Why do sweatshops exist?” The answer to this question is that companies like Nike and Wal-Mart use sweatshops to produce their goods at a much lower price, to reduce the cost of their products. The problem with sweatshops is that workers are subjected to hard work in often bad times for minimal pay. But while many people may condemn sweatshops, there are some benefits that many people overlook when opposing sweatshops and their practices. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn are New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who spent fourteen years in Asia researching sweatshops. country as well as the sweatshops of that country. In their article “Two Cheers for Sweatshops” they clearly summarize the misunderstanding of “sweatshops” by most of the modern world. “Yet sweatshops that seem brutal from the perspective of an American sitting in his living room may seem appealing to a Thai worker who feeds on cockroaches.” The fact of the matter is that sweatshops are not as harmful in the eyes of real workers as many activists make them out to be. Although many organizations that oppose sweatshops and their labor practices try to point out that sweatshops should not exist. But you have to consider the fact that companies that use sweatshops are creating at least some kind of jobs for the people who willingly accept them. Linda Lim, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, visited Vietnam and Indonesia in the summer of 2000 to obtain first-hand research on the impact of foreign-owned export factories (sweatshops) on local economies. Lim found that, in general, sweatshops pay above-average wages and conditions are no worse than general alternatives: subsistence farming, domestic services, casual manual labor, prostitution, or unemployment. In the case of Vietnam in 1999, the annual minimum wage was 134 US dollars while Nike workers in that country earned 670 US dollars, the same is also true for Indonesia. Many times people in these countries are very surprised when they hear that Americans are boycotting the purchase of clothes that are produced in sweatshops. The simplest way to help many of these poor people who must work in sweatshops to support themselves and their families, would be to buy more products made in the same sweatshops they hate..

Topic > Sweatshop Factories: A Bad Thing or a Springboard for the Economy? Many people in our society today constantly ask themselves, “Why do sweatshops exist?” The answer to this question is that companies like Nike and Wal-Mart use sweatshops to produce their goods at a much lower price, to reduce the cost of their products. The problem with sweatshops is that workers are subjected to hard work in often bad times for minimal pay. But while many people may condemn sweatshops, there are some benefits that many people overlook when opposing sweatshops and their practices. Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn are New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who spent fourteen years in Asia researching sweatshops. country as well as the sweatshops of that country. In their article “Two Cheers for Sweatshops” they clearly summarize the misunderstanding of “sweatshops” by most of the modern world. “Yet sweatshops that seem brutal from the perspective of an American sitting in his living room may seem appealing to a Thai worker who feeds on cockroaches.” The fact of the matter is that sweatshops are not as harmful in the eyes of real workers as many activists make them out to be. Although many organizations that oppose sweatshops and their labor practices try to point out that sweatshops should not exist. But you have to consider the fact that companies that use sweatshops are creating at least some kind of jobs for the people who willingly accept them. Linda Lim, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School, visited Vietnam and Indonesia in the summer of 2000 to obtain first-hand research on the impact of foreign-owned export factories (sweatshops) on local economies. Lim found that, in general, sweatshops pay above-average wages and conditions are no worse than general alternatives: subsistence farming, domestic services, casual manual labor, prostitution, or unemployment. In the case of Vietnam in 1999, the annual minimum wage was 134 US dollars while Nike workers in that country earned 670 US dollars, the same is also true for Indonesia. Many times people in these countries are very surprised when they hear that Americans are boycotting the purchase of clothes that are produced in sweatshops. The simplest way to help many of these poor people who must work in sweatshops to support themselves and their families, would be to buy more products made in the same sweatshops they hate..