Comments on: A simple first step solution…

By: ACL

ACL — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:24:23 +0000

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.

By: igg5003

igg5003 — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:48:40 +0000

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.

By: debateorgohome

debateorgohome — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:13:15 +0000

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.

By: Dlj13

Dlj13 — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 01:21:49 +0000

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

By: maritzy

maritzy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:52:14 +0000

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.

By: Brittany729

Brittany729 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 04:46:06 +0000

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.

By: ask5089

ask5089 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 02:41:26 +0000

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.

By: Barbie215

Barbie215 — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 01:15:31 +0000

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.

By: dde5012

dde5012 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:51:50 +0000

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.

By: csd147

csd147 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:54:50 +0000

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).