Sweat Shops

In the piece on Multi-Cultural Feminism, there is a part that talks about women in the workplace. In this sense, the workplace being referred to is the sweat shop. I have an interesting case to make about the sweat shops that I think can be brought up in class, and with some economic help (ehmmm AMIDIA!) I think I can explain why the sweatshops, while being an opression of not only women, but also children, are in fact a good thing.

Harsh I know, sweat shops are a good thing?? Well I would have to say that they are indeed a very good thing for millions of people around the world. Yes they are paid slave wages, and yes they work in terrible environments, however what are the alternatives to working in the sweatshops? Dumpster diving. Yea that's right. If they aren't getting paid the pennies an hour they are making in the sweat shops, they aren't able to be hired any where else in the country. They don't have the skill, or the company employing people just straight up doesn't have the money to employ people at normal wages. So by leaving the sweat shop, it enables people to stay out of the dumpsters, and stay out of the streets begging. Is it truly a  good thing? Obviously not. But it certainly is the lesser of two evils.

This point brings up another interesting thing. The fact that we, as Americans, think we have the right to go over to other countries and tell their people that they can't work in those conditions for that pay. This is certainly not our right to do. For example, I saw a news clip after a sweat shop was shut down in which a younger boy that worked in the shop was interviewed. He couldn't figure out why the United States hated him so much that they would take away his job and force him to beg on the streets... Just an interesting thought.