According to the Oxford dictionary, capitalism is “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” (Oxford) Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a significant number of companies in developed economies move their factories to countries with looser labor laws and cheaper costs of labor such as China in order to increase profits and please their shareholders. As a result, more sweatshops in countries such as China have increased in number; most of which have horrible working conditions.
In this paper I will explore the morality of businesses’ decision to move factories to countries without labor protections, thus relying on sweatshops to produce cheaper goods that lead to increased profits. I will draw on the arguments and theories of Karl Marx, John Rawls and Robert Nozick to show that these business decisions that are enabled by free trade, do not serve the greater good and despite the benefits of economic development that comes through it, it is not enough to justify the infringement in the individual rights of workers.
I will start by laying out Marx’s communist theory from the Manifesto of the Communist Party to show how class stratification has developed over time. I will then draw on his critical analysis of capitalism in his Das Capital piece and show that his labor theory of value and capital is compelling in illustrating the danger of the exploitative nature of capitalism. I will then lay out John Rawls social contract theory in order to make plain the liberties that should be accorded to human beings. Through Rawls’s Principles of liberty, I will show that free-trade capitalism is unjust and suggest a welfare ...
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... necessary to institute a welfare system that mitigates the effect that are ignored in a free trade system. I have also discredited Nozick’s defense on libertarian views and shown that a free trade capitalist system is not only inherently exploitative but also provides a structure though which unconscionable infringement of individual rights of workers.
Works Cited
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "Capital." Capital Volume I. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. Vol. 1. London: W. W. Norton and Company, 1867. 3 vols.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Mark-Engels Reader." The Communist Manifesto. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1978.
Nozick, Robert. "Anarchy, State and Utopia." n.d.
Rawls, John. "A Theory of Justice." Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. London, n.d.
Oxford dictionary, “Capitalism” http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/capitalism
In his article “Sweatshops, Choice, and Exploitation” Matt Zwolinski attempts to tackle the problem of the morality of sweatshops, and whether or not third parties or even the actors who create the conditions, should attempt to intervene on behalf of the workers. Zwolinski’s argument is that it is not right for people to take away the option of working in a sweatshop, and that in doing so they are impeding on an individual’s free choice, and maybe even harming them. The main distinction that Zwolinski makes is that choice is something that is sacred, and should not be impeded upon by outside actors. This is showcased Zwolinski writes, “Nevertheless, the fact that they choose to work in sweatshops is morally significant. Taken seriously, workers' consent to the conditions of their labor should lead us to abandon certain moral objections to sweatshops, and perhaps even to view them as, on net, a good thing.” (Zwolinski, 689). He supports his argument of the importance of free choice by using a number of different tactics including hypothetical thought exercises and various quotes from other articles which spoke about the effects of regulation business. Throughout the article there were multiple points which helped illuminate Zwolinski’s argument as well as multiple points which muddle the argument a bit.
Sweatshops started around the 1830’s when industrialization started growing in urban areas. Most people who worked in them at the time were immigrants who didn't have their papers. They took jobs where they thought they'd have the most economic stability. It’s changed a bit since then, companies just want the cheapest labor they can get and to be able to sell the product in order to make a big profit. It’s hard to find these types of workers in developed areas so they look toward 3rd world countries. “sweatshops exist wherever there is an opportunity to exploit workers who lack the knowledge and resources to stand up for themselves.” (Morey) In third world countries many people are very poor and are unable to afford food and water so the kids are pulled out of school and forced to work so they can try to better their lives. This results in n immense amount of uneducated people unaware they can have better jobs and that the sweatshops are basically slavery. With a large amounts uneducated they continue the cycle of economic instability. There becomes no hope for a brighter future so people just carry on not fighting for their basic rights. Times have changed. 5 Years ago companies would pay a much larger amount for a product to be made but now if they’re lucky they’ll pay half, if a manufacturer doesn't like that another company will happily take it (Barnes). Companies have gotten greedier and greedier in what they’ll pay to have a product manufactured. Companies have taken advantage of the fact that people in developing countries will do just about anything to feed their families, they know that if the sweatshop in Cambodia don't like getting paid 2 dollars per garment the one in Indonesia will. This means that there is less money being paid to the workers which mean more will starve and live in very unsafe environments. Life is
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The Marx-Engels reader . 2d ed. New York: Norton, 1978. Print.
Marx, Karl. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." marxists.org. marxists.org, 20/9/2009. Web. 26 Mar 2010. .
With means of production becoming more efficient due to the introduction of modernization and technology, workers jobs begin being replaced by machines. No longer is the laborer’s skill of any value to the capitalist, especially, when the worker can be replaced by a more affordable machine, or when they can be replaced by the exploitation of another countries’ cheaper laborers or resources. With capitalism main objective being profit at whatever means possible; we see that one nation isn’t enough to contain this destructive force, so it stretching across the globe. When the differences of age, sex, race, nationality, gender and any other distinctive social validity, the sobering consequence develops the very demise of the capitalists and creates an untamable globalized chaos caused by the force of productions and the greed of the
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The Marx-Engels reader. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1978. Print.
In his Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx created a radical theory revolving not around the man made institution of government itself, but around the ever present guiding vice of man that is materialism and the economic classes that stemmed from it. By unfolding the relat...
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Trans. Paul M. Sweeny. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998.
Marx, Karl. And Engels, Friedrich. "The Communist Manifesto." Mountain View College Reader. Neuleib, Janice. Cain S., Kathleen. Ruffus, Stephen. Boston: 501 Boylston Street, Suite 900. 2013 Print.
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party. New York: International, 1948. Marxist Internet Archive. 2000. Web.
Karl Marx, in the Capital, developed his critique of capitalism by analyzing its characteristics and its development throughout history. The critique contains Marx’s most developed economic analysis and philosophical insight. Although it was written in 1850s, its values still serve an important purpose in the globalized world and maintains extremely relevant in the twenty-first century.
Karl Marx noted that society was highly stratified in that most of the individuals in society, those who worked the hardest, were also the ones who received the least from the benefits of their labor. In reaction to this observation, Karl Marx wrote The Communist Manifesto where he described a new society, a more perfect society, a communist society. Marx envisioned a society, in which all property is held in common, that is a society in which one individual did not receive more than another, but in which all individuals shared in the benefits of collective labor (Marx #11, p. 262). In order to accomplish such a task Marx needed to find a relationship between the individual and society that accounted for social change. For Marx such relationship was from the historical mode of production, through the exploits of wage labor, and thus the individual’s relationship to the mode of production (Marx #11, p. 256).
Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. "The German Ideology." The Marx-Engels Reader. Ed. Robert C. Tucker. New York: Norton, 1978. 146-200. Print
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 769-773.
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The Communist Manifesto." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: Norton, 2001. 769-773.