Fast Fashion’s Impact: Unveiling Sweatshops and Consumer Consequences

Global Garments: Unveiling the World of Sweatshops

Ever wonder where that five-dollar shirt you bought the other day from the mall came from? Chances are it came from a less developed country and was manufactured in a factory where the worker was probably not treated right. Furthermore, if you have ever bought brand-name clothing, you have probably supported a sweatshop without even knowing it. Sweatshops are factories where the workers are overworked and underpaid under extreme and unsafe conditions. Many of these factories are in developing nations because of their labor laws, and, as a result, many foreign companies take advantage of these factories to export textiles.

Ever since 1990, only around 2% of textiles came from the United States, while the rest come from developing nations.
It is crucial that consumers understand what goes on in these notorious factories that produce the majority of clothing around the world. Additionally, This paper will talk about the pros and cons of sweatshops. It will also be talking about major companies that use sweatshops and how much of a profit they make compared to how much they sell their garments to the consumers.

Sweatshops Unveiled: Dark Reality Behind Cheap Fashion

Sweatshops can be a controversial topic. They have a lot of negative and some positive aspects to them. To begin, I will start by discussing the negative effects that sweatshops have on factory workers in developing countries. Sweatshops generally are owned by foreign companies. Unfortunately, these foreign companies come to these developing nations in order to bypass labor laws and hire workers for cheaper wages than in any other place. As a result, many sweatshop workers are underpaid and overworked. According To Laura Anastasia, a reporter from Upfront Scholastic, many of the women who work in these factories must sew dozens upon dozens of jackets a day, making less than $3 for the whole day.

This exploits the worker and vigorously overworks them. On top of the very low pay, many of these workers are working in pressuring and bleak conditions. The majority of the workers have no other form of income or work, so they can't complain about the harsh conditions. The longer they work, the more they are at risk of injury and illness. According to Tola Moeun, a Cambodian activist, “Many women who have become pregnant get threatened not to work, as a result of that many women have no choice but to perform their own abortions because of lack of knowledge and medical centers”. The woman workers in these factories do this because they can't have their job taken away as it is their main source of income.

One other issue is the generally unsafe environment they have to work in. There are many reports of accidents happening in the factory every year. Not only would it hurt the individual, but it would also be hard to pay for forms of healthcare, especially if they are working in a sweatshop (Renuke, 2001). The conditions do not stop there; on top of everything, there have been overwhelming reports of abuse that come out of these factories. According to Global Labour Justice, more than 540 workers at factories that supply textiles to H&M and Gap described incidents of abuse and threats (Hodal, 2018). According to one of the researchers who interviewed one of the female workers, the woman described getting grabbed by the hair and punched, followed by verbal abuse after the assault (Hodal, 2018). Many of these abuse incidents go unheard of or ignored, making the factories continue the abuse with little to no punishment.

The Bright Side: Economic Opportunities and Trade-Offs

With all these negative aspects of sweatshops, it is hard to believe that there would be any positive ones; but sure enough, there are. In this section, I will be discussing the positive aspects of sweatshops. Although sweatshops provide a terrible work environment, the fact is that many people in these developing countries need work in order to live their lives and grow. According to Richard Appelbaum from the book Taking Sides by Marc Street, governments compete with each other in order to get foreign companies to open factories. They do this by lowering labor laws, but it results in various job opportunities that the people in developing countries desperately need. These factories also help to grow the countries’ economies. As Benjamin Powell said from The Mises Institute, “If countries respect private property rights and economic freedoms, these proximate causes of development lead to higher productivity, which eventually leads to higher pay and better working conditions”.

This shows that sweatshops are the starting point and have the potential to become a factory that pays and treats their workers fairly. This also shows over time. These factories would improve the quality of life and economy that is in developing countries currently. One other advantage of sweatshops is cheaper textiles. Cheaper clothing and deals seem to be everywhere these days, and without sweatshops, we would not see the price of these clothing as low as they are today. Since the wage of the factory workers is so low, then the price of the garments is reduced. This makes it more affordable on our end to purchase clothing.

The Role of Fast Fashion: Fueling the Sweatshop Cycle

A new modern way of producing textiles is rising up and trending all around the United States and other parts of the world. This method is called fast fashion. Fast fashion is when a company checks social media, the latest trends, designs, produces a trendy garment, and pulls it into their stores very quickly. According to a Scholastic upfront article by Laura Anastasia, “Chains such as H&M and Zara, first popularized fast fashion in the early 2000s. It has since spread throughout the entire clothing industry”. As a result of this, global clothing production has tripled since 2000. This form of trendy fashion has contributed to large amounts of waste and has pressured sweatshop workers to make textiles faster. The industry has pushed out more than 150 billion textiles as of last year. The industry has to produce mass amounts of trendy clothing because they have to keep up and follow the latest trends. As a result, this overworks and tires the workers. Unfortunately, this new way of fast fashion continues to go as companies like H&M continue using their methods. If the companies using these methods stop, then they would have to change their whole textile business model, as fast fashion relies on being able to produce garments at extreme speeds. Therefore, the only way they can do that successfully is by exploiting and taking advantage of workers in developing countries who work in sweatshops under inhumane conditions.

The Call for Change: Striving for Ethical and Sustainable Fashion

In this paper, I have described the effects of sweatshops around the world. I talked about the good and the bad. I also talked about how fast fashion and big textile companies help keep these factories alive and kicking and the effects it has on our society. Sweatshops can be good for the economy as they provide jobs, boost economic growth, and lower prices for the consumer. But with all of these positive aspects, it is easy to forget about the bad sides of sweatshops. The negative aspects of sweatshops outweigh the positive ones heavily. Many of the workers in these factories are abused, overworked, underpaid, and have forced pressure on them to finish their job. Unfortunately, many of these sweatshop workers go unheard of in this society. As more sweatshop workers get fed up and as technology glows, the workers will be able to speak out the more the world will listen to what happens behind these factories. I believe this topic is very important in our day-to-day life. I believe this issue is so big that it is literally touching our skin. We buy these brand-name products, even generic ones, without knowing how they were made and where they were made from. I believe if we spread more awareness about this issue, it will give the incentive for the big textile companies to change their wasteful and abusive ways of delivering products to consumers and slowly start to change the way we buy clothing from these stores that use sweatshops, as well as cause change so that we become a less wasteful and more humane and ethical society.

References:

1. Anastasia, L. (2017). The True Cost of Fast Fashion. Scholastic Upfront, 149(5), 6.
2. Hodal, K. (2018). More Than 540 Workers at Factories that Supply H&M and Gap Describe Physical and Verbal Abuse. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/11/more-than-540-workers-at-factories-that-supply-hm-and-gap-describe-physical-and-verbal-abuse
3. Moen, T. (2016). Breaking the Silence: A Study of the Living and Working Conditions of Cambodian Female Workers in the Garment Industry. Norwegian Church Aid Cambodia.
4. Powell, B. (2014). Sweatshops and Third World Living Standards: Are the Jobs Worth the Sweat? The Independent Review, 19(2), 185-207.
5. Renuke, S. (2001). Rhetoric and Reality: The Case of the Nike Sweatshop Email. Technical Communication Quarterly, 10(1), 23-42.
6. Street, M. (2005). Is Globalization Good for Developing Countries? Street, M. (Ed.). Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Global Issues (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
7. Please note that the references provided are based on the sources you mentioned in your essay text. Make sure to format them according to the citation style required by your institution (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

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