Swearing About Sweatshops

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

While we have all heard of sweatshops and the horrors they commit, it's really time that we rethink what we know about them. Although, they are morally, ethically, and socially wrong, there is more to them than one would think.

The reason one should think differently about sweatshops is that they provide jobs to people. And in a country were they're whole country is a sweatshop, the idea or even the logic of trying to shut them all down is laughable at best. Which in a sense is a tragedy. 

In a like manner, even if one could destroy or close all the sweatshops in a country, new one's would pop up. New one's that could hide better or be crueler. Furthermore, the economical ruin it would do the country would be horrific, and actually cause more damage to the people. In addition to that, think about the workers, they don't choose to work at sweatshops, it's only out of desperation. Closing down one may only cause them to lose money and to only go to another sweatshop to work at.

This being so, that's why we need to think differently about sweatshops. Yes, they are bad, but they do play a role in putting food on people's plate. For that reason, we cannot act all self-righteous and think that just because we took down a sweatshop, that it equates to a good or a righteous deed. When in fact, it only makes things worse.

Not to mention, historically, developed countries use to have many sweatshops, until slowly things changed, it took time, and yes some had to be shutdown, but not all of them. For the one's that weren't closed, they later became to be the shops that we see in first world countries. 

Ultimately, as consumers, we have to be responsible buyers, but more so we have to be smart about being responsible. We have to see the bigger picture of things, and how our actions, not just our lack of actions can affect things. While it may be good to petition and campaign to close down sweatshops, other times we should try and make the sweatshops change for the better. This is so, that we don't destroy the livelihoods of the innocents who work at these places. Action should be taken against sweatshops, but just be open minded to what action it is. Because we can't always control the river, but we can certainly change it's course.