Summary: Cost Of Boycotting Sweatshop Goods

Consumers in Western cultures, such as those from Canada, have developed consistent trends in their buying habits. The instinct of a consumer is to buy goods based on their cheap price other than anything else, such as the location in which the goods were made. Whether the goods were made by a in a local Canadian factory or by a sweatshop laborer in an underdeveloped Third World country doesn’t matter nearly as much to the consumer as the price does. This is because Canadian consumers want to save money, especially with their wages beginning to go down. What these people don’t realize, however, is that the wages going down and the low price of foreign made goods are related. The reasoning behind it and the possible ways to prevent wages from

Finn has observed over time that the typical mindset of a consumer in Canada is to prioritize finding the best value over all other factors when purchasing goods. More times than not, the best value item is one that was created in a sweatshop in a Third World country. These goods cost less than those that were manufactured in through fair trade because of what Finn calls, “A vast global strategy designed ultimately to force wages down in Canada and other Western nations” (30). This statement reveals that Western businesses are always looking to maximize their profits, and if they don’t have to pay workers as much if they’re from a third world country, that will help them sell more items at a slightly lower price. Finn mentions that in the third world countries, businesses can get away with paying less wages and not having to worry about the requirements for working conditions and labor laws. This international business strategy also removes taxes that they’d have to pay if their production factories were local. Finn acknowledges these strategies only because he understands the solution to stopping them. Finn states, “As consumers,

He understood that the solution to the struggles of the economy had to be executed through the consumers, who have the power to boycott sweatshop goods in favor of those made locally. Finn chooses to write the article, “Harnessing Our Power as Consumers: Cost of Boycotting Sweatshop Goods Offset by the Benefits,” with the purpose that it can get readers through persuasive measures to understand that they have the ability to put down the corporate business strategies while helping themselves, their economy, and the laboring sweatshop