Sweatshop Analysis

Prompt #7

In judging the moral permissibility of “sweatshops” in a globalized economy, we must first introduce the framework by which we evaluate “moral” actions. Mill’s articulation of utilitarianism serves as a clearly superior philosophy. In defense of this philosophy, Mills states: “happiness is a good: each person 's happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons.” Moreover, rule utilitarianism provides a more solid framework than act utilitarianism, as rule utilitarianism saves more utility from preventing failings, such as accidents by providing speed limits, than it thwarts, such as from unhappy people late to work. We can therefore establish a rule that proves the moral

As GDP per capita grows, the country’s standard of living rises with it. This newfound wealthiness allows for nations to invest in infrastructure, such as roads and education, and establish socially-conscious institutions, such as the American EPA, FDA, and CDC. In addition to further increasing quality of life and working conditions, establishment of such infrastructre allows foreign investment to be absorbed even easier: “Findings in literature indicate that a country’s capacity to take advantage of FDI externalities might be limited by local conditions, such as the development of local financial markets or the educational level of the country, i.e., absorptive capacities.” As the citizens become more productive, the government has more funds to invest in its own economy, which further improves the productivity of its citizens. This positive feedback loop eventually produces the necessary infrastructure of the nation begins to support itself. It can then afford to employ more effective and safer means of production, and sweatshops are phased out, no longer necessary. From here, the downsides of sweatshops will be completely gone, and replaced with only net social

One worker reflected upon working conditions during an interview, stating: “Factory life during the rapid industrialization of South Korea throughout the 1970s and 1980s meant tight communal living quarters and a drastic shift in cultural norms for the millions of factory workers that fed the country 's growth.” Yet, at the same time, South Korea made strides in public infrastructure; for example, “there was an unprecedented increase in primary and secondary education from around 1975 to 1990”. Eventually, the more educated and powerful citizenry challenged the authority of the factory and government, and “in April of 1980, students participated in massive demonstrations... and labor pressure was on the rise”; by 1987 the government announced it would hold “direct and open presidential elections”. South Korea is not special in this - all developed nations have had similar developmental histories, like with the industrial revolution and its deplorable working conditions being a crutch for the west to progress as a society. These serve as a perfect examples of how the sweatshops of industrialization acted as a necessary step in a process that led to a better quality of life and form of