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I was recently reading an article about Sweat shops. In fact it seems to have been something of a topic for a while, with programmes showing on different levels. I did watch one very interesting programme last week where they sent 4 young whipper snappers to Mumbai, India to see the conditions. Something that I found very interesting though, was the attitudes. At first these kids were saying “this is disgusting, it’s horrible”, then they spoke to the workers who were saying “if we didn’t do this, we’d starve”. By the end of the programme, the youngsters had 2 views on the subject.
Now, I’m not a sweat shop advocate, far from it, I think the conditions are appauling. But maybe we should think this through in a less black and white way, yes, they work all hours God sends (as some of the workers said, it is (some of the time) their choice, the more they work, the more they get). Taking the work over to LA (as American Apparel are doing) is lovely, or simply not buying clothes made in India, it stops sweat shops, then the workers without jobs in India claim income benefit? No, they potentially starve (along with the families they are supporting), or, go to another sweat shop to work.
So, what I’m trying to say is, improve the conditions, maybe fair trade could be used. But simply taking the work out of 3rd world countries doesn’t solve the problem, it merely makes it far, far worse.