Word: westernness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Third World child labor is perhaps one of the most strongly condemned and despised labor practices in the Western mass consciousness today. The typical, and virtually universal, Western response to issues relating to child labor is advocating a blanket ban on such practices. Unfortunately, such a reaction, while completely understandable and certainly well intentioned, often overlooks the complexity of the underlying issues which govern labor market conditions in poorer countries. In fact, these bans are counterproductive to the extent that they may harm the very segments of society which they aim to protect: The trouble with a blanket...
After all, what is the first thing that happens when you ban a company producing sneakers for Nike in Thailand from hiring child workers? You put children out of jobs. And while in principle the idea of children working long hours under questionable conditions might seem unacceptable to Western sensibilities, the alternative of surviving without even an exploitative job for support is much worse. Most of these kids work because they have to, and will continue to do so whether Western firms hire them...
...answer to child labor is not to ban Western companies from hiring kids, for a variety of reasons. For one, if the Nike factory doesn't hire them, some other probably more exploitative local manufacturer (over whom Western public opinion holds little sway) will...if they're lucky. If not, then they'll probably just try to survive by begging or rummaging through rubbish heaps--too many kids are forced to do this already...
Which companies would institute such programs? The same ones which would be prepared to stop hiring children in response to consumer pressure: those influenced by Western public opinion. But public opinion has to favor responsible employment of kids before Western firms will ever acknowledge hiring them. In the meantime, they and their subcontractors continue to employ kids, while denying it publicly, and since by their denials they become unaccountable, they are at times as exploitative as local employers...
...course, advocating child labor is a radical step in the Western world. Perhaps it would be easier just to ban our companies from indulging in it, and sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that the sweatshirt that we're wearing wasn't ever touched by underage hands--no matter that the underage hands which never touched this sweatshirt are probably at that very moment rummaging through a garbage heap somewhere since their employer threw them out due to our forceful campaigning. But then, our conscience is clear...