Sweatshops

Made in the USA or made in a US territory situated in a third-world country?

I feel sweat shops are a wrongdoing even though I myself wear products that are made in those appalling factories.

What are sweatshops?

When you think of sweatshops you may think of old factories from the turn of the century. Workers toiling away, mostly women, mostly child laborers, maybe hooked to their machines, being paid hardly anything. Maybe you remember reading about the 1911 fire in a sweatshop in NYC, where the workers were locked into the building by their bosses and had no way to escape the flames.

You must not think things like that happen anymore, but they do, just not as much in the US very often. Maybe that's related to the fact that most clothing is now made overseas.

US labor laws also have something to do with it, but they don't help anyone outside the US, which I think is terrible.

Sweatshops still exist. You may come across the definition of a sweatshop as a workplace that does not meet minimum labor standards. That's the nice way of saying it, too nice actually, in my opinion. Least labor standards can mean anything and vary from country to country. Then there's the questionable enforcement of these standards. Big companies go to poor, developing countries because they can get away with things they couldn't somewhere else, cheap labor, relaxed or non-existent labor standards, and a lack of scrutiny, all in the pursuit of profit. It's called exploitation, or again, the 'nice' way of saying it, economic globalization. Sometimes when you see "Made in the USA" it really means, "made in a US territory situated in a third-world country". Sneaky right?

Laborers in sweatshops bear low wages, unsafe working conditions, indentured servitude, filthy living quarters, physical and mental abuse, violations of sexual and reproductive rights including forced abortions, inadequate diets, timed and infrequent bathroom breaks, no healthcare and no way out!

Clothing is undervalued. It's seen as throwaway because of the character of its materials, the changeable cycles of fashion, and occurrence of a consumer culture intent on having the 'latest thing' and yet the produce

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