Globalization's Expiatory Sheep: Victimization of workers

Essay by Gabe_Logan84University, Bachelor'sA, February 2006

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"Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work. . Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social service." These are excerpts from the Declaration of Human Rights. Written over 50 years ago, the Declaration was created to give, "inherent dignity and equal and indisputable rights of all members of the human family." The Declaration gave hope to many people across the globe who were living in tyranny and oppression, hoping for equality and fair treatment. Unfortunately for some, this document turned out to be merely one of false hope and lies. The people I speak of are our fellow human beings working under slave-like conditions in sweatshops. To them, the abovementioned promises are just a myth, something they can only dream about.

As the abovementioned articles state, all human beings are guaranteed fair pay and working. Are not those sweat shop workers human beings? Of course they are human beings!. Sadly, they're not treated like it. They're forced to work and incredible number of hours, under hazardous conditions and at ridiculously low wages. Don't they deserve the rights the Declaration mentions? Of course they do! This is the exact reason that such treatment can't continue. Something must be done.

Although proponents of sweatshops say that consumer demand for the lowest prices controls worker wages and conditions, they are just fooling themselves. If they want to talk about it economically, cheap labor actually debilitates the economy by driving wages down and forcing the lack of money which can only lead to a recession. In addition, workers who are paid less, are consecutively less motivated to work. In addition,