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209782 Responseshttp://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/04/a-simple-first-step-solution/A+simple+first+step+solution...2010-04-09+01%3A47%3A28Sam+Richards to A simple first step solution…
I think stop buying clothes is kind of an unrealistic comment and solution. Of course limiting the number of clothes you buy would be the first step in helping stop slavery and sweatshops but in the end, everyone needs clothes and everyone is still growing so there is always going to be a need to buy new clothes. Learning where the clothes are being made and are coming from would be a more realistic way of helping, and it would definitely help. Educating ourselves is the first and best way to go about it. Then we can go about limiting clothes.
I think that your move is one in the right position, but I believe that within this, a couple problems arise. I believe that this is a step that can take us in the right direction, but I believe that many people feel that they need new clothes, and very often cannot escape this. From there, to think that our whole country would take this step would be a bit outlandish. Additionally, though this would be a good step, these goods will be produced so long as American retailers continue to purchase them. Also, advertising will continue to influence Americans so long as they want to sell goods.
Slave labor is attractive to large corporations because it is so cheap and profits increase. To end it the best thing to do is to somehow make it less profitable to use slaves; however that is next to impossible. I do not know how affective boycotting slave made products has been or could be but that is the first step because you are directly cutting into companies wallets. It is always great when a large corporation agrees to fair trade because they have chosen morality over profits in this world of cut throat competition and global capitalism which is a very tough thing to do. I think more companies should do this and one all companies agree to fair trade the playing field is level and a new morally sound competition will be in place with no corporations having an edge over another. Some companies are taking steps and I hope others do so in the near future.
I completely agree that this is probably one of the best solutions not only to help reduce sweat shop labor but also help the planet. Reusing and reducing resources is always the best solution to conserving the planet. The less resources we use the less we use up, but the problem one or two people doing this will not really make that much of a difference. More people need to participate in reducing for it to work and with our society the likely hood of this occurring is slim but it is always worth a shot to keep preaching and trying until you get through to someone. So I hope this word keeps spreading and people do listen.
I think this is a fair proposal. Especially to so many of these kids walking around campus who have to be the "freshest" and have the top of the line clothes from the most expensive stores. So many girls feel the need to blow money every once in a while and go clothes shopping without realizing where those clothes might be produced. If you feel any kind of way about slave labor, stop and think if its more important to look top of the line for all the other college kids. If you really feel you need these expensive clothing then I feel sorry for you. If you do feel some kind of way about slave labor then maybe you should do some research on the companies you like to shop at. If you find nothing disturbing then there is no problem with buying those clothing items. If a certain store does have something shady about it, then you should stop shopping at that store. I have learned a lot from Sam, and I would like to think others have also. One big message from class is that we're all gonna die one day and nobody really cares about what kind of clothes you are wearing. Sam even said last class he is wearing nothing but hand-me-downs. A normal professor would probably be sporting an expensive outfit to try and look professional, but what does it really matter? In the big picture it doesnt mean shit. So I for one think this is actually sound advice and I back it up and will do my best to consider it the next time my parents take me out shopping.
Okay so I don't know if this guy was serious or not. But his solution was no simple solution. Even if you don't buy clothes everyday (which most of us don't) keeping few clothes for years on end is not going to get many of us into the professional environment we are trying to adhere to in the real work we are attempting to jump into. What will we do next? Stop eating sugar? As if one hundred years ago the average American ate 17 pounds of chocolate, today we eat upwards of 176 pounds of sugar! These things are impossible to escape! And not eating them or swearing off new clothes completely is a ridiculous solution. It doesn't work, is irrational, and there are more solutions to look at instead. I mean if you really want to become someone who swears off all of the things that our society is obsessed with, whether good or bad, you can go ahead and do so, but in many respects it will probably hinder your progress into the work force… which doesn't help if you are trying to make change in the slavery parts of the world.
I think the simple first step is education. I am a huge education advocate. We need to educate ourselves on what we are buying. Kind of like when you purchase processed foods, you need to educate yourself on what you are putting into your bodies. The difference between what you eat because no matter if you view it as solely your issue, your actions–our actions affect everyone who has worked to make the consumer goods we buy available. The laborer, the farmer, the merchant, the workers who load the stock, and so on and so on. It affects everyone involved. Of course things would be a little more expensive if all bought fair trade, but isn't that worth not "eating people's flesh?" or progressing at their expense? Even after we watched the video clip of the slave laborers on the chocolate plantation I didn't want to eat the second piece of chocolate–but then I thought, if I don't eat it am I just putting all of their hard labor to even more of a waste? Is this unreasonable? I feel as we get older we realize there are no simple answers or solutions to every problem, sometimes there aren't answers at all. For instance, Sociologically speaking, though poverty is a problem in every society, there will never be a solution for it, because it is a viable part of society that needs to take place, not everyone can prosper.. that is a tough reality to come to turns with. Another example is that our country for example will never be out of debt because it is important to our government, if we didn't have national debt, people wouldn't want to pay taxes even more than they don't want to pay them now, the argument would be, "Why am I paying taxes when you don't need my money?" That being said, no one deserves to be enslaved and simply by watching the things we buy we can put a serious damper on the industry. Educate yourself. Educate your friends, your family. Make others aware of what they are doing. The United States is the largest consuming country in the world. Even if a small portion of us watched what we ate and purchased as consumers it would affect the global market. Like Sam said, small steps. Lets not be irrational.
The only problem is clothing is not the only part of slavery but it is a great start. Most people especially at Penn State when they buy clothing they are paying ridiculous prices for something’s which are probably produced for close to nothing. I use to work at a department store and when it came to clearance time I would always wonder how they could sell shirts for 5-10 bucks which us to be between 25-30 dollars. I knew the store wasn’t losing money on these shirts or they probably would have just sent them back to the distributor or they would get recalled and put in a different store or sold to a different company. So how could they still make money on a 5 dollar shirt? The answer is slavery it is honestly disturbing now that realize that slavery is still around in the world. Until this class I thought the problems were more child labor such as in China and they can make stuff for cheap with cheap labor however the sad part is they still get their materials from slave markets. The idea he represented would be a great start to the problem but the thing is there are way too many people who care about having new clothing. I believe what we need to do is create a fair trade clothing market. When I use to work at a department store there were several incidents I remember in which customers were sad that the clothing was made in 3rd world countries or China then the clothing that said they were made in the United States were usually one part was assembled in the United States. The only reason I knew this information was because some customers researched the brands and found out the info. The problem is though they come and want to buy this type of “fair trade” clothing however there is none. We just aren’t doing something like this for the clothing market. We use to offer Columbia as an American made brand they were a little more expensive than Nike and the store brand however they claimed to be American made and people were willing to pay the extra few bucks for the American made clothing. However I was recently informed by a customer that Columbia is no longer made in America and they have outsourced as well. In reality American made clothing is basically a thing of the past because of our high cost of labor. So we need to create a fair-trade market for clothing where people can sustain an adequate level of living. I believe that “Fair-trade” markets for clothing would be are best option. The secondary part of the plan would be to educate not only the consumers about the “Fair-trade” but the stores and sales associates so they can inform customers.
I think this would be pretty hard to do, to have everyone stop buying clothes. I think a better solution would be to put an emblem or something on the tag of the garment that says that it was made without slave labor. Just like they have the RUG MARK program, which puts an emblem on the rug to make sure it is not made by slave labor. That would certainly deter more people from buying clothes made by slaves. If we just stopped buying clothes, there would just be a surplus of cheap clothes and people would buy them because they were so cheap, not because they need them.
I would take this a step farther and say a pretty good rule of thumb would be, if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. You could personally save a load of money, plus you can be sure you don’t support sweatshop labor.
And as Sam said in class, this is a tricky issue. If you don’t buy these products all at once, people are not going to be in a good situation. If people do start to buy fair trade, this is much better, however you are still supporting an economy in those countries that serve the industrialized world. This is a problem when they are simply trying to put food on their table—not make money.
I think that this guy’s point is kind of funny but also so very true and simple. Come to think of it, I really only go through about twenty-five different shirts and I own a lot more than that. I barely wear a lot of the shirts I own ever so I could give a lot of mine away as well. I think it’s great that he gave his away and after seeing that video in class with the cocoa slaves I’m definitely thinking about giving clothes away. It was very sad to watch how their everyday lives were. I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky I am be to born where I was and how just by chance or fate these people were born in areas and into social communities where they will never have the chance to be free or live their own life. It’s actually very emotional when you think about it. I think that’s why people can appeal to it so much because they can’t not feel for another human being unless you are just a bitter person.
However, I don’t think just giving away all your clothes is totally necessary. There’s nothing wrong with buying clothes as long as you know they weren’t made through slave labor. The thing is that the majority of people, especially in America, doesn’t realize what clothes are or aren’t made by slaves. This is because the stores selling these clothes keep it hidden, or rather don’t bother expressing to the consumer that the clothes they sell are slave made. I personally think that there should be a law in this country about how all merchandise stores need to display whether or not their clothes are made from slaves or not. Without this law, our country just looks like an inhumane selfish group of people, which is actually how we apparently appear to the majority of the world. Go figure.
I really do believe that a law like this would drastically change the ways of slave labor, I just don’t know to what degree and in which way. I do believe that the majority of people would turn away from a store after reading a sign on the window or counter that slaves took part in the making of the merchandise. Because of this, I think that slave owners would quickly lose money but I’m not sure how they’d react. Just because they’re losing profits in one item doesn’t mean that they won’t make their slaves do work in an alternative field. I feel as if a slave owner might never run out of ideas to make money when they have a slave or slaves at their hands. And that is just what scares me.
That’s definitely a good though and idea… but realistically it would take a LOT for everyone to do this. There are so many people who would be so unwilling and completely against even the thought of giving away half of their wardrobe and not buying new clothes. Aside from people’s willingness to do it, say everyone agrees to do it; there are other things to take into consideration. What about kids? They are constantly growing and need new clothes—you can’t stop them from buying new and bigger clothes when they grow out of their old ones. Even if they go to get clothes people have given away in the past, there’s no saying the kid will find clothes of their size. Kids would need newer and bigger clothes more often than adults and who’s to say how long the cycle would last? It’s a good thought, but difficult to put into practice.
I don’t think that this is a very practical solution. Clothes get worn out, they get stained and dirty and people are going to want to buy new ones. I don’t think that simply not buying new clothes is going to get people very far, yes it is funny to think about and maybe if all of the world could collectively agree to it we would get somewhere, but that is never going to happen. People in the world today have an attachment to material wealth and no matter what we do to try and stop this, it has already gone to far. First steps are not as simple as this if we truly want to make a difference. Yes, they are good steps to get the word out if you tell everyone you know, and they will make you feel better. They will also ensure there is no hypocrisy in your arguments about slavery which is also important. But, there are enough people in the world willing to keep buying the clothes that a few people not buying them will not really make a difference. I am not sure what the correct steps are to stop something like slavery. I think petitions and trying to get Penn State to sign off that they will not have good made by sweatshop workers are definitely steps in the right direction. I think we need large groups of people and people with influence to stand up and fight against the slavery. People of the modern and developed world need to know and become educated about modern slavery-before this class I had no idea the extent the slave labor was still used. I think that the companies that use illegal labor and sweatshops need to become public knowledge, maybe this will create an uprising enough that people will stop buying THEIR clothes. If the word is out that people are using slave labor and we can prove it, I do think that a lot of Americans would boycott their clothing and goods, they have boycotted for less.
This whole idea is not useless, he does have a point, we all need to take small steps in order to make any meaningful steps. Someday there might be a group that can get through to people enough that they stop all slavery. But because the labor is cheap and everything in the world today is about getting the most money you can, while spending the least—nothing is looking promising for these poor people. It is an awful thing that money drives people into slavery. Maybe the news should cover things like slavery instead of the stupid stories they usually run. By getting public attention, a lot of slavery could be shut down.
In response to not contributing and putting an end to modern day slavery, I do not think giving away most of my clothes and not buying clothes will be a feasible solution. However, others conscious about this issue and I could start spending a little bit extra on clothing made with social responsibility. American Apparel is a company that displays corporate and social responsibility in manufacturing their clothes. They make all of their clothing in the United States paying their workers legal wages. Their efforts are ensuring that they are not cutting corners that would burden underprivileged manufacturing workers in other countries. Clothing companies and other companies in the United States that outsource their manufacturing to other countries should start taking on corporate and social responsibility. The US may be profiting on other countries’ discounted manufacturing, but workers in these other countries are suffering. That is not fair. US companies should consider implementing some type of fair trade manufacturing or start manufacturing in the United States (since there are many people who need jobs in the United States).
I was just giving this same advice to my two friends as we were walking to class. They were talking about going on a shopping spree at Forever 21 since their clothes are so cheap, but are still in style. After watching a video in my women studies class specifically about the sweatshops run by Forever 21 and the abuse they put on their workers, I have refused to buy any clothing from there regardless of the fact that Forever 21 has been my favorite store to shop at since I was in the 6th grade. When I informed my peers that I was doing this and why, they did not respond how I thought they would. They simply said, "there's no way I'm going to stop shopping at Forever 21 even if they are run by sweatshops." Before watching this eye opening video watched, I will admit I would have probably had a similar response. Yet, this is the sole reason why change does not happen. People are too stubborn to change their ways and they are not exposed to the torcher being commmitted on these people. Even if people are aware of the problem–why is that not enough for them to stop supporting a certain company by purchasing their products? Take WalMart or Nike for instance. The whole world knows these corporations are making their investment by taking advantage of foreign workers. Still, millions of people are purchasing their products, thus supporting slavery! We can no longer blame this "bubble" we live in since we are barely exposed to the problem of slavery. We know it's out there and we know we're not doing anything to stop it. I'm not saying everyone should protest in front of these stores or what not, but boycotting certain products or avoiding shopping at certain stores or any other little thing, it actually does help. We cannot turn a blind eye to this problem that is growing everyday. Just because it isn't happening to us, does not mean it is not occurring to a million other helpless people. Like Sam points out, if we are attending Penn State, we are already among the elite. Why not cut down on what we already have, especially things that have been made by slaves? These days, it is obviously difficult since it's rare anything is made in the United States. However, just like this boy advises, why not cut down on what we buy, eat, use. Ask yourself–do you REALLY need it? I remember being in the same boat as this boy. I would buy anything and everything and didn't care where it actually came from. Learning about consumerism in all my soc classes this semester has been very eye opening for me and has changed the way I act and think in many ways especially where I shop. I rather stop shopping at Forever 21 than promoting Forever Slavery.
I think I have a very different opinion on this guy than a lot of others do. I do not want to be mean but I think this kid is a total idiot. I mean sure it is a nice gesture and thought and everything but in reality people need clothes, they are a part of everyday life. Honestly I do not see what giving a few articles of clothing away would do. The clothes were already made and there is nothing we can do about that. The only way that this idea would ever work is if every single person in the world decided to not wear clothes anymore. However, we all know that that will not happen because it is simply not acceptable in society to walk around naked all the time. There are weather factors and things like that involved also. I really don’t see what a few people deciding not to buy clothes anymore will do. It is also completely out of the question for young children who constantly grow at a very fast pace and grow out of their clothes quickly. They have no choice but to buy new clothes that will fit them. Also, is this guy seriously going to say that he did not get any clothes for birthdays? What about holidays? I do not believe it for one second. The other thing is that he also happens to be a guy. Guys are not nearly as concerned about clothes as girls are so in my opinion this would be much harder for girls to do. If he can seriously come to me in 50 years and prove to me that he did not buy any clothes that whole time that is when I will believe him. HOWEVER, even though I know I have been tearing him up, it is a very nice thing for him to do and I want to wish him luck in remaining to live that way.
In my opinion, this is definitely not the first step, basically because it will never work. It is a good thought, but it is never going to happen. The first step to take would be to take a closer look into where the clothes are coming from and just refrain from buying clothes that we know come directly from slaves. But even so, clothing is just one part that deals with slavery. Putting a little dent in slavery is all that we can hope to do at the moment. It is sad and it is a shame but we will never be able to stop wearing clothes, or eating food, or anything else like that. Our main goal should be finding other ways to get clothing and food that was never touched by slaves, and that is all we can do for now.
I agree with the post above mine, in an ideal world to give away a good portion of your clothes would be a perfect way to help end slavery in sweat shops. But in reality and especially the way today's society is sadly, I don't think that would even be an option. But if everyone did this or even just a good portion of the United States took apart of this we help the stop of slavery in a huge impacting way. Maybe, i am be pessimistic by saying that our society would not even be accepting of this idea, or that if a handful of people did this it would not have an effect on sweat shop slavery. But if we all thought that way and didn't participate we wouldn't get anywhere in most important matters. But even the majority of our class participated in this event and if we passed on this information to our friends and family maybe we could have an impact on terrible issue of slavery in forgien countries.
This kid brings up a very fast solution because if no one was buying these girls then the sweat shops would have to shut down because they would not be able to afford to keep the factories running. However there is no way that this would ever happen. You would always have the people that are self centered and do not care that people are being forced into slavery, so they would continue to buy the shirts. Also, people need shirts, it is a necessity. You would not get served at a store without a shirt on. To go to work at pretty much any job or go to school you are required to wear a shirt. Therefore, people are going to continue to buy new ones. Kids grow out of shirts, shirts can dirty or ripped, therefore new ones are going to have to be bought. So although this would solve the problem of the slavery it is not very practical.
I think his proposal is not really realistic. I mean yea sweatshops would eventually run out of business but so would regular clothing stores and that would of course lead to many unemployed people. It is true that people dress to impress and personally I think that it is impossible to tell people to stop all of a sudden. I think that the best thing to do would be to increase sweatshop awareness and eventually make it a nationwide, or worldwide, issue and have the government involved to pass laws about stores being prohibited to purchase clothes from sweatshops. I think that this movement would increase over the years and permanently ban sweatshops. I know I would feel better as a person of I shopped at stores where they prohibited sweatshops. Everyone would get a fair pay for their work in undeveloped countries. Clothes remind me of my hometown back in Mexico. The town where I live it as mostly known for making clothes. My aunt actually has her factory of making clothes and she works very hard to make them. I wonder what she would think knowing that many people do the things she does for very little pay that is not enough to survive. I feel like she would be angry and probably appreciate how lucky she is to be her own boss and not work under anyone like many people in this town do, which could be sweatshops as well. So increasing awareness across the globe would be a good idea and I’m there’s people here at Penn State that are trying to increase awareness because we’re a large university and we could potentially make a difference in this country. I still however, repect this guys suggestion and I understand where he’s coming from, but in reality people are never going to stop buying clothes. It’s too popular to go shopping and then to simply just say “ok I’m going to stop.” I feel guilty for all the clothes I buy that I know I don’t need, I have many clothes and still go buy more. I never thought of sweatshops before and now that I do I don’t mind limitating my shopping and not just buying stuff to buy. I can’t stop myself from shopping completely but I can limit myself to buying things when I really need them instead of just doing it for a hobby. I think if everyone started doing this, especially us girls, we could make a difference. Another suggestion would be to find out where your favorite brands of clothes are made and see if they are made in sweatshops and limit yourself from purchasing from them.
Seriously this has to be a bit of a joke, we all can’t just stop buying clothes. If this happened it would have a chain reaction and the entire clothing industry would fall apart. By not buying clothes it won’t stop the sweat shops from being in operation, it’ll increase their labor. Since there will be a decline in sales more work will be put in to making clothes that will sell. The workers will grow tired and will be forced and possibly beaten until they decide to continue working. If people really want to not buy clothes because of the feeling that kids or people that were paid low wages made this. I’m sure there are clothes that aren’t made in sweat shops; the only downfall is they will more than likely be more expensive
This is was pretty funny to hear. It’s cool that you are trying to help out sweat shop slavery by not buying anymore clothes. However, I don’t think that this is the answer to stop it. There is no way that you would get enough people to stand side by side on this issue and fight for this cause. For sweatshops to be closed down across the world, the governments of all countries are going to have to get involved. It’s just too hard to unify everyone against certain companies which are using sweatshops. I think that the people who take an active role in stopping this need to start aiming their efforts at the government, rather than other citizens, because that is where the most power lies.
I completely agree with you. We definitely all have to pitch in and take a stand on the issue of slavery. I really enjoyed Sam's class but think it could have been a lot more effective if he prepared this lecture while we were reading the book Disposable People. His chocolate demonstration really made me stand back and think, this is terrible, how can I eat this chocolate? How can I use products that are products of slavery?
Firms are always looking for ways to cut costs. However, it is extremely unethical that these companies knowingly let other humans suffer and die so they can profit. Many firms have excess cash of millions of dollars. Even spending one million dollars or less to pay people for their hard work would not greatly affect their growth or stability. These countries are underdeveloped, and their citizens can live a great life with the U.S. minimum wage. CEOs do not need to be getting paid 10 to 150 million dollars a year. CEO Larry Ellison would have to spend over $180,000 an hour on things that can’t be resold just to avoid increasing his wealth. It is ironic that doctors who are saving lives and curing diseases should be making millions of dollars a year and do not. Instead, companies and CEOs who indirectly kill people and are compensated this money.
Sam taught us all a very valuable lesson. There are so many objects online on websites and eBay, for example, "authentic jerseys", that are sold online for half price and are shipped from countries other than the U.S. Clearly these inexpensive items are products of some form of slavery. I will not buy these items and it is a shame that they are accessible through the web. I am interested to hear what other suggestions everyone has to end slavery. I wish we had more time to learn about other products we use in the U.S., such as diamonds, that are made from slave labor.
I am very grateful for the education I received at PennState University. If you are a student of the Smeal College of Business, you cannot graduate without taking the class BA242. It is called, Social and Ethical Environment of Business. This class is obviously a lot of common sense, but it goes into further depth of business ethics. The actions of businesses play a huge role on our society. Like in the book, Crossing the Boulevard, we learn about the effects pollution has on our society and pollution regulations imposed on businesses. A corporation has a huge responsibility to society. The class does not just discuss society within one nation, but our world as a whole. Business fits into an extremely intricate web of relationships within society and corporations can affect individual lives, directly or indirectly. It is morally wrong for firms to do things that negatively effect individual lives.
I think in an idealist way this would indeed be a great idea and everyone should do it from now on. However, realistically, it will not happen now or ever. It is much easier said than done. Additionally, it would be easy for guys to do this because for most occasions guys can get away with wearing a t-shirt and it is socially acceptable however, girls are supposed to dress up depending on the occasion and there are only a few stores such as Plato's Closet where girls can drop off their gently worn clothes and buy new ones that aren't just t-shirts.
I think stop buying clothes is kind of an unrealistic comment and solution. Of course limiting the number of clothes you buy would be the first step in helping stop slavery and sweatshops but in the end, everyone needs clothes and everyone is still growing so there is always going to be a need to buy new clothes. Learning where the clothes are being made and are coming from would be a more realistic way of helping, and it would definitely help. Educating ourselves is the first and best way to go about it. Then we can go about limiting clothes.
Feb 12
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I think that your move is one in the right position, but I believe that within this, a couple problems arise. I believe that this is a step that can take us in the right direction, but I believe that many people feel that they need new clothes, and very often cannot escape this. From there, to think that our whole country would take this step would be a bit outlandish. Additionally, though this would be a good step, these goods will be produced so long as American retailers continue to purchase them. Also, advertising will continue to influence Americans so long as they want to sell goods.
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Slave labor is attractive to large corporations because it is so cheap and profits increase. To end it the best thing to do is to somehow make it less profitable to use slaves; however that is next to impossible. I do not know how affective boycotting slave made products has been or could be but that is the first step because you are directly cutting into companies wallets. It is always great when a large corporation agrees to fair trade because they have chosen morality over profits in this world of cut throat competition and global capitalism which is a very tough thing to do. I think more companies should do this and one all companies agree to fair trade the playing field is level and a new morally sound competition will be in place with no corporations having an edge over another. Some companies are taking steps and I hope others do so in the near future.
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I completely agree that this is probably one of the best solutions not only to help reduce sweat shop labor but also help the planet. Reusing and reducing resources is always the best solution to conserving the planet. The less resources we use the less we use up, but the problem one or two people doing this will not really make that much of a difference. More people need to participate in reducing for it to work and with our society the likely hood of this occurring is slim but it is always worth a shot to keep preaching and trying until you get through to someone. So I hope this word keeps spreading and people do listen.
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I think this is a fair proposal. Especially to so many of these kids walking around campus who have to be the "freshest" and have the top of the line clothes from the most expensive stores. So many girls feel the need to blow money every once in a while and go clothes shopping without realizing where those clothes might be produced. If you feel any kind of way about slave labor, stop and think if its more important to look top of the line for all the other college kids. If you really feel you need these expensive clothing then I feel sorry for you. If you do feel some kind of way about slave labor then maybe you should do some research on the companies you like to shop at. If you find nothing disturbing then there is no problem with buying those clothing items. If a certain store does have something shady about it, then you should stop shopping at that store. I have learned a lot from Sam, and I would like to think others have also. One big message from class is that we're all gonna die one day and nobody really cares about what kind of clothes you are wearing. Sam even said last class he is wearing nothing but hand-me-downs. A normal professor would probably be sporting an expensive outfit to try and look professional, but what does it really matter? In the big picture it doesnt mean shit. So I for one think this is actually sound advice and I back it up and will do my best to consider it the next time my parents take me out shopping.
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Okay so I don't know if this guy was serious or not. But his solution was no simple solution. Even if you don't buy clothes everyday (which most of us don't) keeping few clothes for years on end is not going to get many of us into the professional environment we are trying to adhere to in the real work we are attempting to jump into. What will we do next? Stop eating sugar? As if one hundred years ago the average American ate 17 pounds of chocolate, today we eat upwards of 176 pounds of sugar! These things are impossible to escape! And not eating them or swearing off new clothes completely is a ridiculous solution. It doesn't work, is irrational, and there are more solutions to look at instead. I mean if you really want to become someone who swears off all of the things that our society is obsessed with, whether good or bad, you can go ahead and do so, but in many respects it will probably hinder your progress into the work force… which doesn't help if you are trying to make change in the slavery parts of the world.
I think the simple first step is education. I am a huge education advocate. We need to educate ourselves on what we are buying. Kind of like when you purchase processed foods, you need to educate yourself on what you are putting into your bodies. The difference between what you eat because no matter if you view it as solely your issue, your actions–our actions affect everyone who has worked to make the consumer goods we buy available. The laborer, the farmer, the merchant, the workers who load the stock, and so on and so on. It affects everyone involved. Of course things would be a little more expensive if all bought fair trade, but isn't that worth not "eating people's flesh?" or progressing at their expense? Even after we watched the video clip of the slave laborers on the chocolate plantation I didn't want to eat the second piece of chocolate–but then I thought, if I don't eat it am I just putting all of their hard labor to even more of a waste? Is this unreasonable? I feel as we get older we realize there are no simple answers or solutions to every problem, sometimes there aren't answers at all. For instance, Sociologically speaking, though poverty is a problem in every society, there will never be a solution for it, because it is a viable part of society that needs to take place, not everyone can prosper.. that is a tough reality to come to turns with. Another example is that our country for example will never be out of debt because it is important to our government, if we didn't have national debt, people wouldn't want to pay taxes even more than they don't want to pay them now, the argument would be, "Why am I paying taxes when you don't need my money?" That being said, no one deserves to be enslaved and simply by watching the things we buy we can put a serious damper on the industry. Educate yourself. Educate your friends, your family. Make others aware of what they are doing. The United States is the largest consuming country in the world. Even if a small portion of us watched what we ate and purchased as consumers it would affect the global market. Like Sam said, small steps. Lets not be irrational.
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The only problem is clothing is not the only part of slavery but it is a great start. Most people especially at Penn State when they buy clothing they are paying ridiculous prices for something’s which are probably produced for close to nothing. I use to work at a department store and when it came to clearance time I would always wonder how they could sell shirts for 5-10 bucks which us to be between 25-30 dollars. I knew the store wasn’t losing money on these shirts or they probably would have just sent them back to the distributor or they would get recalled and put in a different store or sold to a different company. So how could they still make money on a 5 dollar shirt? The answer is slavery it is honestly disturbing now that realize that slavery is still around in the world. Until this class I thought the problems were more child labor such as in China and they can make stuff for cheap with cheap labor however the sad part is they still get their materials from slave markets. The idea he represented would be a great start to the problem but the thing is there are way too many people who care about having new clothing. I believe what we need to do is create a fair trade clothing market. When I use to work at a department store there were several incidents I remember in which customers were sad that the clothing was made in 3rd world countries or China then the clothing that said they were made in the United States were usually one part was assembled in the United States. The only reason I knew this information was because some customers researched the brands and found out the info. The problem is though they come and want to buy this type of “fair trade” clothing however there is none. We just aren’t doing something like this for the clothing market. We use to offer Columbia as an American made brand they were a little more expensive than Nike and the store brand however they claimed to be American made and people were willing to pay the extra few bucks for the American made clothing. However I was recently informed by a customer that Columbia is no longer made in America and they have outsourced as well. In reality American made clothing is basically a thing of the past because of our high cost of labor. So we need to create a fair-trade market for clothing where people can sustain an adequate level of living. I believe that “Fair-trade” markets for clothing would be are best option. The secondary part of the plan would be to educate not only the consumers about the “Fair-trade” but the stores and sales associates so they can inform customers.
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I think this would be pretty hard to do, to have everyone stop buying clothes. I think a better solution would be to put an emblem or something on the tag of the garment that says that it was made without slave labor. Just like they have the RUG MARK program, which puts an emblem on the rug to make sure it is not made by slave labor. That would certainly deter more people from buying clothes made by slaves. If we just stopped buying clothes, there would just be a surplus of cheap clothes and people would buy them because they were so cheap, not because they need them.
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I would take this a step farther and say a pretty good rule of thumb would be, if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. You could personally save a load of money, plus you can be sure you don’t support sweatshop labor.
And as Sam said in class, this is a tricky issue. If you don’t buy these products all at once, people are not going to be in a good situation. If people do start to buy fair trade, this is much better, however you are still supporting an economy in those countries that serve the industrialized world. This is a problem when they are simply trying to put food on their table—not make money.
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I think that this guy’s point is kind of funny but also so very true and simple. Come to think of it, I really only go through about twenty-five different shirts and I own a lot more than that. I barely wear a lot of the shirts I own ever so I could give a lot of mine away as well. I think it’s great that he gave his away and after seeing that video in class with the cocoa slaves I’m definitely thinking about giving clothes away. It was very sad to watch how their everyday lives were. I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky I am be to born where I was and how just by chance or fate these people were born in areas and into social communities where they will never have the chance to be free or live their own life. It’s actually very emotional when you think about it. I think that’s why people can appeal to it so much because they can’t not feel for another human being unless you are just a bitter person.
However, I don’t think just giving away all your clothes is totally necessary. There’s nothing wrong with buying clothes as long as you know they weren’t made through slave labor. The thing is that the majority of people, especially in America, doesn’t realize what clothes are or aren’t made by slaves. This is because the stores selling these clothes keep it hidden, or rather don’t bother expressing to the consumer that the clothes they sell are slave made. I personally think that there should be a law in this country about how all merchandise stores need to display whether or not their clothes are made from slaves or not. Without this law, our country just looks like an inhumane selfish group of people, which is actually how we apparently appear to the majority of the world. Go figure.
I really do believe that a law like this would drastically change the ways of slave labor, I just don’t know to what degree and in which way. I do believe that the majority of people would turn away from a store after reading a sign on the window or counter that slaves took part in the making of the merchandise. Because of this, I think that slave owners would quickly lose money but I’m not sure how they’d react. Just because they’re losing profits in one item doesn’t mean that they won’t make their slaves do work in an alternative field. I feel as if a slave owner might never run out of ideas to make money when they have a slave or slaves at their hands. And that is just what scares me.
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That’s definitely a good though and idea… but realistically it would take a LOT for everyone to do this. There are so many people who would be so unwilling and completely against even the thought of giving away half of their wardrobe and not buying new clothes. Aside from people’s willingness to do it, say everyone agrees to do it; there are other things to take into consideration. What about kids? They are constantly growing and need new clothes—you can’t stop them from buying new and bigger clothes when they grow out of their old ones. Even if they go to get clothes people have given away in the past, there’s no saying the kid will find clothes of their size. Kids would need newer and bigger clothes more often than adults and who’s to say how long the cycle would last? It’s a good thought, but difficult to put into practice.
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I don’t think that this is a very practical solution. Clothes get worn out, they get stained and dirty and people are going to want to buy new ones. I don’t think that simply not buying new clothes is going to get people very far, yes it is funny to think about and maybe if all of the world could collectively agree to it we would get somewhere, but that is never going to happen. People in the world today have an attachment to material wealth and no matter what we do to try and stop this, it has already gone to far. First steps are not as simple as this if we truly want to make a difference. Yes, they are good steps to get the word out if you tell everyone you know, and they will make you feel better. They will also ensure there is no hypocrisy in your arguments about slavery which is also important. But, there are enough people in the world willing to keep buying the clothes that a few people not buying them will not really make a difference. I am not sure what the correct steps are to stop something like slavery. I think petitions and trying to get Penn State to sign off that they will not have good made by sweatshop workers are definitely steps in the right direction. I think we need large groups of people and people with influence to stand up and fight against the slavery. People of the modern and developed world need to know and become educated about modern slavery-before this class I had no idea the extent the slave labor was still used. I think that the companies that use illegal labor and sweatshops need to become public knowledge, maybe this will create an uprising enough that people will stop buying THEIR clothes. If the word is out that people are using slave labor and we can prove it, I do think that a lot of Americans would boycott their clothing and goods, they have boycotted for less.
This whole idea is not useless, he does have a point, we all need to take small steps in order to make any meaningful steps. Someday there might be a group that can get through to people enough that they stop all slavery. But because the labor is cheap and everything in the world today is about getting the most money you can, while spending the least—nothing is looking promising for these poor people. It is an awful thing that money drives people into slavery. Maybe the news should cover things like slavery instead of the stupid stories they usually run. By getting public attention, a lot of slavery could be shut down.
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In response to not contributing and putting an end to modern day slavery, I do not think giving away most of my clothes and not buying clothes will be a feasible solution. However, others conscious about this issue and I could start spending a little bit extra on clothing made with social responsibility. American Apparel is a company that displays corporate and social responsibility in manufacturing their clothes. They make all of their clothing in the United States paying their workers legal wages. Their efforts are ensuring that they are not cutting corners that would burden underprivileged manufacturing workers in other countries. Clothing companies and other companies in the United States that outsource their manufacturing to other countries should start taking on corporate and social responsibility. The US may be profiting on other countries’ discounted manufacturing, but workers in these other countries are suffering. That is not fair. US companies should consider implementing some type of fair trade manufacturing or start manufacturing in the United States (since there are many people who need jobs in the United States).
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I was just giving this same advice to my two friends as we were walking to class. They were talking about going on a shopping spree at Forever 21 since their clothes are so cheap, but are still in style. After watching a video in my women studies class specifically about the sweatshops run by Forever 21 and the abuse they put on their workers, I have refused to buy any clothing from there regardless of the fact that Forever 21 has been my favorite store to shop at since I was in the 6th grade. When I informed my peers that I was doing this and why, they did not respond how I thought they would. They simply said, "there's no way I'm going to stop shopping at Forever 21 even if they are run by sweatshops." Before watching this eye opening video watched, I will admit I would have probably had a similar response. Yet, this is the sole reason why change does not happen. People are too stubborn to change their ways and they are not exposed to the torcher being commmitted on these people. Even if people are aware of the problem–why is that not enough for them to stop supporting a certain company by purchasing their products? Take WalMart or Nike for instance. The whole world knows these corporations are making their investment by taking advantage of foreign workers. Still, millions of people are purchasing their products, thus supporting slavery! We can no longer blame this "bubble" we live in since we are barely exposed to the problem of slavery. We know it's out there and we know we're not doing anything to stop it. I'm not saying everyone should protest in front of these stores or what not, but boycotting certain products or avoiding shopping at certain stores or any other little thing, it actually does help. We cannot turn a blind eye to this problem that is growing everyday. Just because it isn't happening to us, does not mean it is not occurring to a million other helpless people. Like Sam points out, if we are attending Penn State, we are already among the elite. Why not cut down on what we already have, especially things that have been made by slaves? These days, it is obviously difficult since it's rare anything is made in the United States. However, just like this boy advises, why not cut down on what we buy, eat, use. Ask yourself–do you REALLY need it? I remember being in the same boat as this boy. I would buy anything and everything and didn't care where it actually came from. Learning about consumerism in all my soc classes this semester has been very eye opening for me and has changed the way I act and think in many ways especially where I shop. I rather stop shopping at Forever 21 than promoting Forever Slavery.
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I think I have a very different opinion on this guy than a lot of others do. I do not want to be mean but I think this kid is a total idiot. I mean sure it is a nice gesture and thought and everything but in reality people need clothes, they are a part of everyday life. Honestly I do not see what giving a few articles of clothing away would do. The clothes were already made and there is nothing we can do about that. The only way that this idea would ever work is if every single person in the world decided to not wear clothes anymore. However, we all know that that will not happen because it is simply not acceptable in society to walk around naked all the time. There are weather factors and things like that involved also. I really don’t see what a few people deciding not to buy clothes anymore will do. It is also completely out of the question for young children who constantly grow at a very fast pace and grow out of their clothes quickly. They have no choice but to buy new clothes that will fit them. Also, is this guy seriously going to say that he did not get any clothes for birthdays? What about holidays? I do not believe it for one second. The other thing is that he also happens to be a guy. Guys are not nearly as concerned about clothes as girls are so in my opinion this would be much harder for girls to do. If he can seriously come to me in 50 years and prove to me that he did not buy any clothes that whole time that is when I will believe him. HOWEVER, even though I know I have been tearing him up, it is a very nice thing for him to do and I want to wish him luck in remaining to live that way.
In my opinion, this is definitely not the first step, basically because it will never work. It is a good thought, but it is never going to happen. The first step to take would be to take a closer look into where the clothes are coming from and just refrain from buying clothes that we know come directly from slaves. But even so, clothing is just one part that deals with slavery. Putting a little dent in slavery is all that we can hope to do at the moment. It is sad and it is a shame but we will never be able to stop wearing clothes, or eating food, or anything else like that. Our main goal should be finding other ways to get clothing and food that was never touched by slaves, and that is all we can do for now.
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I agree with the post above mine, in an ideal world to give away a good portion of your clothes would be a perfect way to help end slavery in sweat shops. But in reality and especially the way today's society is sadly, I don't think that would even be an option. But if everyone did this or even just a good portion of the United States took apart of this we help the stop of slavery in a huge impacting way. Maybe, i am be pessimistic by saying that our society would not even be accepting of this idea, or that if a handful of people did this it would not have an effect on sweat shop slavery. But if we all thought that way and didn't participate we wouldn't get anywhere in most important matters. But even the majority of our class participated in this event and if we passed on this information to our friends and family maybe we could have an impact on terrible issue of slavery in forgien countries.
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This kid brings up a very fast solution because if no one was buying these girls then the sweat shops would have to shut down because they would not be able to afford to keep the factories running. However there is no way that this would ever happen. You would always have the people that are self centered and do not care that people are being forced into slavery, so they would continue to buy the shirts. Also, people need shirts, it is a necessity. You would not get served at a store without a shirt on. To go to work at pretty much any job or go to school you are required to wear a shirt. Therefore, people are going to continue to buy new ones. Kids grow out of shirts, shirts can dirty or ripped, therefore new ones are going to have to be bought. So although this would solve the problem of the slavery it is not very practical.
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I think his proposal is not really realistic. I mean yea sweatshops would eventually run out of business but so would regular clothing stores and that would of course lead to many unemployed people. It is true that people dress to impress and personally I think that it is impossible to tell people to stop all of a sudden. I think that the best thing to do would be to increase sweatshop awareness and eventually make it a nationwide, or worldwide, issue and have the government involved to pass laws about stores being prohibited to purchase clothes from sweatshops. I think that this movement would increase over the years and permanently ban sweatshops. I know I would feel better as a person of I shopped at stores where they prohibited sweatshops. Everyone would get a fair pay for their work in undeveloped countries. Clothes remind me of my hometown back in Mexico. The town where I live it as mostly known for making clothes. My aunt actually has her factory of making clothes and she works very hard to make them. I wonder what she would think knowing that many people do the things she does for very little pay that is not enough to survive. I feel like she would be angry and probably appreciate how lucky she is to be her own boss and not work under anyone like many people in this town do, which could be sweatshops as well. So increasing awareness across the globe would be a good idea and I’m there’s people here at Penn State that are trying to increase awareness because we’re a large university and we could potentially make a difference in this country. I still however, repect this guys suggestion and I understand where he’s coming from, but in reality people are never going to stop buying clothes. It’s too popular to go shopping and then to simply just say “ok I’m going to stop.” I feel guilty for all the clothes I buy that I know I don’t need, I have many clothes and still go buy more. I never thought of sweatshops before and now that I do I don’t mind limitating my shopping and not just buying stuff to buy. I can’t stop myself from shopping completely but I can limit myself to buying things when I really need them instead of just doing it for a hobby. I think if everyone started doing this, especially us girls, we could make a difference. Another suggestion would be to find out where your favorite brands of clothes are made and see if they are made in sweatshops and limit yourself from purchasing from them.
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Seriously this has to be a bit of a joke, we all can’t just stop buying clothes. If this happened it would have a chain reaction and the entire clothing industry would fall apart. By not buying clothes it won’t stop the sweat shops from being in operation, it’ll increase their labor. Since there will be a decline in sales more work will be put in to making clothes that will sell. The workers will grow tired and will be forced and possibly beaten until they decide to continue working. If people really want to not buy clothes because of the feeling that kids or people that were paid low wages made this. I’m sure there are clothes that aren’t made in sweat shops; the only downfall is they will more than likely be more expensive
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This is was pretty funny to hear. It’s cool that you are trying to help out sweat shop slavery by not buying anymore clothes. However, I don’t think that this is the answer to stop it. There is no way that you would get enough people to stand side by side on this issue and fight for this cause. For sweatshops to be closed down across the world, the governments of all countries are going to have to get involved. It’s just too hard to unify everyone against certain companies which are using sweatshops. I think that the people who take an active role in stopping this need to start aiming their efforts at the government, rather than other citizens, because that is where the most power lies.
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I completely agree with you. We definitely all have to pitch in and take a stand on the issue of slavery. I really enjoyed Sam's class but think it could have been a lot more effective if he prepared this lecture while we were reading the book Disposable People. His chocolate demonstration really made me stand back and think, this is terrible, how can I eat this chocolate? How can I use products that are products of slavery?
Firms are always looking for ways to cut costs. However, it is extremely unethical that these companies knowingly let other humans suffer and die so they can profit. Many firms have excess cash of millions of dollars. Even spending one million dollars or less to pay people for their hard work would not greatly affect their growth or stability. These countries are underdeveloped, and their citizens can live a great life with the U.S. minimum wage. CEOs do not need to be getting paid 10 to 150 million dollars a year. CEO Larry Ellison would have to spend over $180,000 an hour on things that can’t be resold just to avoid increasing his wealth. It is ironic that doctors who are saving lives and curing diseases should be making millions of dollars a year and do not. Instead, companies and CEOs who indirectly kill people and are compensated this money.
Sam taught us all a very valuable lesson. There are so many objects online on websites and eBay, for example, "authentic jerseys", that are sold online for half price and are shipped from countries other than the U.S. Clearly these inexpensive items are products of some form of slavery. I will not buy these items and it is a shame that they are accessible through the web. I am interested to hear what other suggestions everyone has to end slavery. I wish we had more time to learn about other products we use in the U.S., such as diamonds, that are made from slave labor.
I am very grateful for the education I received at PennState University. If you are a student of the Smeal College of Business, you cannot graduate without taking the class BA242. It is called, Social and Ethical Environment of Business. This class is obviously a lot of common sense, but it goes into further depth of business ethics. The actions of businesses play a huge role on our society. Like in the book, Crossing the Boulevard, we learn about the effects pollution has on our society and pollution regulations imposed on businesses. A corporation has a huge responsibility to society. The class does not just discuss society within one nation, but our world as a whole. Business fits into an extremely intricate web of relationships within society and corporations can affect individual lives, directly or indirectly. It is morally wrong for firms to do things that negatively effect individual lives.
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I think in an idealist way this would indeed be a great idea and everyone should do it from now on. However, realistically, it will not happen now or ever. It is much easier said than done. Additionally, it would be easy for guys to do this because for most occasions guys can get away with wearing a t-shirt and it is socially acceptable however, girls are supposed to dress up depending on the occasion and there are only a few stores such as Plato's Closet where girls can drop off their gently worn clothes and buy new ones that aren't just t-shirts.
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