Sweat Shops Case Study

Working conditions in developing countries are linked to how consumers in developed countries spend their money. Back In 1997, women used to purchase an average of 19 articles of clothing annually, and in 2007, it has increased to about 34. A sweat shop is a factory or workshop for manual labor. 75% of workers in sweat shops are women, because sweat shops mostly produce garments, and it requires precise movements and control. Workers in the sweat shops receive low pay and get severely overworked. For example, a regular Bangladeshi worker in a sweatshop earns about 29 cents per hour, while retailers earn up to $23 an hour. Sweat shops also have about 168 million children working for them. This is due to the fact that the wages are so low,

In many developed countries, people define their identity through consumerism. Media endorses the belief that every person ought to buy new products, ushering people to think that the old model no longer keeps up to standards in the present. Corporations frequently add features to their products, most of which aren’t compatible with older versions, making consumers want to purchase it. Another motive to purchase these items is planned or perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is when an item is specifically designed to malfunction, so people are forced to buy the next product. Perceived obsolescence, however, is when media make the product look inferior to its successor, to again make the consumer buy the

Disposing of byproducts is expensive, and in order to make as much profit as possible, sweatshops tend to dump waste into rivers and large bodies of water. This poisons the water, so the working class that uses the contaminated water will suffer from severe illnesses and die. Sweatshops are also prone to fire accidents. This is because factories don’t follow simple safety precautions, like having fire extinguishers, or covering exposed wires to prevent fire. This is due to the fact that safety precautions costs money and factory owners want to save every cent that they