The Devil's Bargain: Sweatshops and the American Scheme [View All]

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from HuffPost:



John W. Whitehead
The Devil's Bargain: Sweatshops and the American Scheme
Posted January 2, 2008 | 05:04 PM (EST)



"They hit you...They hit you in the head...To make you work faster."
--Nicaraguan Factory Worker


The so-called season of giving is officially behind us. Even in these sluggish economic times, Americans still managed to spend more than $50 billion in gift-giving. Now that all the gifts have been opened, all that is left is for us to enjoy them.

Yet I can't help but wonder whether our pleasure would be dimmed were we to truly understand what is involved in bringing these gifts--at the bargain prices Americans love--to our homes?

Writing for the Texas Observer, Josh Rosenblatt notes in "Buy Some Stuff, Enslave Somebody" that "the expanding global economy demands that corporations seek out the cheapest possible labor to maximize profit, and stimulate growth and innovation. With free trade has come an explosion of global inequality that has left more than 2.8 billion people living on less than $2 a day."

This inequality makes it possible for Americans to buy more and more while paying less and less. But as the National Labor Committee (NLC), an organization that investigates and exposes human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world, points out, "The people who stitch together our jeans and assemble our CD-players are mostly young women in Central America, Mexico, Bangladesh, China and other poor nations, many working 12 to 14-hour days for pennies an hour."

Some in the business world insist that the business sector's efforts to tap into the vast pool of willing and cheap labor in poorer countries are all about free market economics. However, critics such as the NLC consider the resulting dehumanization of this new global workforce to be the overwhelming moral crisis of the 21st century. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/the-devils-bargain-swea_b_79341.html