Research on Sweatshop Support by Consumers
Fraudulent Student Case [Sweatshops Research Paper Order]
Balwant (Brian) Singh
12XXX 81 A Ave
Surrey British Columbia v3w 0x8
Canada
Phone: (604) 599-1xxx
Email: brian-singh@xxxxxxx.com [and] xxxx@desiconnection.ca
On December 3, 2010, Balwant (Brian) Singh, a resident of Canada (Vancouver area), ordered a model research paper on sweatshops. Below is the information and correspondence between him and a freelance writer he hired to do his homework. Almost 6 months AFTER ordering the sample paper, he decided to steal from the merchant and started a chargeback. Maybe that's how he also treats his current and prospective clients or partners.
If you know the name of the university he attended to, please contact me immediately so that I could provide ultimate evidence of his scamming and cheating activities.
Paper Instructions
I have this term paper due on Sunday, December 5, 2010. I am currently failing and need atleast a B to pass. This is first year english, BUT the teacher I have is the hardest marker in the school. He was litterally voted the hardest marker for my school. Here is the criteria sheet given to my class for this essay which is worth 30 percent of my final mark. It is his substitution for our final.
Instructions: Write a 1500 word research essay on one of the following topics. In creating your essay, follow the steps you have learned for researching, drafting, and writing a research essay. Your essay must rely on a minimum of four academic sources (no Wikipedia, encyclopedias, or web site content). Your essay must make a clear statement of topic (controlling idea), articulate a coherent argument that begins with a focused thesis, and support this argument with the results of your research.
Your essay must have a descriptive title that suggests its topic and main argument. You will include a properly formatted works cited section, and correctly use parenthetical references in the MLA style, as shown in Strategies for Successful Writing.
*Paraphrase of sources is not permitted. All material from sources must be quoted and fully documented using MLA style. If you paraphrase, your essay will receive an F. If you plagiarize material, your essay will receive a zero.
Topics
1. Should communities have the right to censor public or private exhibits of art that some people consider offensive?
2. Should Canadian consumers boycott all products that may have been produced under "sweatshop" conditions elsewhere in the world?
3. Is excessive alcohol consumption an important problem on college campuses, and if so what should be done about it?
4. Can the United States and its allies successfully eradicate terrorism?
5. Should the existing nuclear powers, including the United States, prevent other nations from developing atomic weapons?
6. Is nuclear power too dangerous to be relied on as a source of energy?
Honestly, the writer can choose any topic out of these 6 that he or she thinks they can do a better job on. Remember ACADEMIC SOURCES, internet sources can also be used for more information though. This is a RESEARCH ESSAY. I need atleast a B, please do your best. EXTREMELY HARD MARKER!
BALWANT BRIAN SINGH WROTE:
Okay I will send payment today, PLEASE DO A GOOD JOB. READ INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY. I need atleast a B to pass this course, or else i fail. Could you send me a new quote without the one page summary, I do not need that in this RESEARCH ESSAY. Before your writer starts please tell me what topic he or she picks out of the topics I have listed in the instructions. Thanks.
The Consumer's Duty to Stop Supporting Sweatshops
The latest market trends invariably point towards an upsurge in consumerism as the past few decades have witnessed a rise in the buying powers of consumers and a shifting in consumer market trends for luxury as well as daily goods. With the ever-expanding market, competition has increased as the buyer has become more demanding in terms of variety and range of choice and also in terms of competitive prices and bargains. The slogan "Shop Till You Drop" has now taken new levels of meaning as corporations are increasingly becoming more aggressive in their marketing tactics and the consumer is reciprocating. The rising demand in consumer goods as well as the need to offer competitive prices has given rise to a culture of outsourcing. More and more big businesses, and even small ones for that matter, are opting to lower their labour costs and increase the bottom-line profit, while making their product affordable through hiring or sub-contracting manufacturing units in third world countries where employees work in inhuman conditions for below minimum wage. There was a period when the sweatshop culture was hidden from the eyes of the buyers but today their presence and widespread usage by brands has become common knowledge. Consumers, organizations and human rights groups have spearheaded many campaigns, some successful, others ongoing, to put an end to this heinous practice and force the corporate world to pay fair wages to all whom they employ, irrespective of their geographical location. As existence of the widespread practice becomes common knowledge, a debate centres on the consumer's role. The paper discusses the moral and ethical responsibility of consumers to boycott sweatshop goods as well as their unique placement in today's strong consumer culture to actually bring about a revolutionary change in how goods are produced by corporations.
The term 'sweatshop' was coined in the United States during the 1800s to refer to the inhuman treatment methods employed by factory managers to squeeze as much sweat out of a factory worker as possible (Jeffcott 20). Today, Paleczny relates how the manufacturing process is now mapped out using time studies that strenuously regulate timing, tying workers to machines allocating minimum time for maximum production (22). Once Mexico and some European nations were the centre of sweatshop production as post-war prosperity improved Canadian and American lifestyle and the rising labour costs shifted low-skilled factory work away from these countries. Jeffcott claims that this trend has now transferred to countries such China, India and Bangladesh that manufacture goods at even cheaper labour costs (20). These countries hire women and children mostly to do back-breaking labour for long hours, working in dangerous conditions with less-than minimum pay, no prospect of organizing for labour rights, no proper termination policies or fringe benefits and a workplace that would never pass inspection tests and forgoes basic safety rules in favour of cramped work stations. Maximum productivity is the primary goal as these contractors are constantly threatened by corporations to keep a steady supply of goods or their business relationship will be jeopardized (Jeffcott 20).
Jeffcott relates the 2005 incident of a nine-storey building collapsing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that housed Spectrum Sweater and Shahriar Fabrics - both supplying garments to major European and Canadian brands. 64 workers were killed and countless injured as the building, which had already been showing dangerous cracks and was built without a building permit, caved in (20). This incident alone is sufficient to recreate an honest picture of the working conditions these third-world labourers are forced to work in so that their nimble fingers could produce the best hand-stitched shoes, high-end couture, Canadian garments and World Cup footballs. Shirin Akhter, president of the Bangladeshi women workers' organization, Karmojibi Nari, rightly said, "This was a killing, not an accident" (Jeffcott 20). Brought on by the gross negligence of profit-hungry corporations, these and many other similar deaths are being conveniently ignored as annual profits sky-rocket.
The changing trends in the Canadian garment industry aptly relate the story. According to statistics provided by Barbara Paleczny in her work Clothed in Integrity: Weaving Just Cultural Relations and the Garment Industry (2000), the 1988 total employment of 95,800 in the garment industry in Canada fell to 62,300 by 1992. This industry has now diminished even further by depending largely on importing from third-world sweatshops. Out of the forty-five percent imports of the Canadian apparel market seventy-eight per cent of these are from low-wage countries. By shipping from under-developed nations to developed ones, the garment industry ranks second only to petroleum globally. These stats are just one example that shows the alarming trend of using sweatshops and shifting business away from home to cheaper destinations throughout the developed countries in general and Canada in particular.
The consumers, in such instances, are facing a strange ethical dilemma. Lulled into a satisfaction by the usually highly-publicized corporate social responsibility campaigns by brands and corporations, they do not know much about the practices and code of conduct employed by the companies in the manufacturing process. Reassured by the corporations' steps to build parks and help charity organizations spread literacy, the consumers do not question the work ethics of these companies. Such double standards provide these companies a respite from the potentially intense scrutiny and a chance of public outrage.
The situation, however, is undergoing a change. Michele Micheletti has discussed a unique viewpoint in which she states that capitalism, a force much lambasted by critics and social activists for perpetuating inequality and poverty, is exactly what can be used to bring about a change. Labelling it "a moral force ... vital for humanitarian movements" (121), Micheletti believes that corporate world can be forced to forego sweatshop oriented production in favour of a more ethical manner of producing goods. One must remember that the giant forces of capitalism, investing huge resources in building up their corporate image, hold profits to be most dear, so much so that they would go to great lengths to rectify their methods if their bottom-line profits were threatened by a unified effort of the consumers. The Nike's World Cup football scandal serves as a valid case in point. As soon as word got out that the footballs used in the 1998 World Cup were stitched by minors, slaving away in small factories of Pakistan for a pittance, politicians, trade unionists and activists raised an uproar and Nike went into damage-control mode. As a huge number of children were hurriedly laid off by football-making industries amid threats of global boycotts, the wage rates of adult stitchers were raised (Boje & Khan 9). This case proves that in the power equation, consumers hold sway. Intimidated by the public reaction and boycott, even Nike swiftly changed tactics to appease the public and rebuild its image. Using profit-driven market logic to force social-responsibility on unscrupulous market actors can and will become a successful strategy.
It is interesting to note that Micheletti has drawn parallels between the current anti-sweatshop campaign and the past anti-slavery campaign. Micheletti comments that the current anti-sweatshop movement protests the same kind of problems as anti-slavery, "which in contemporary language is termed 'dangerous working conditions,' 'non-living wages,' 'forced overtime,' 'child labor,' 'sexual harassment,' and 'corporate neglect'" (129).
Friedman believes that if the boycott sponsors - in this case, consumers, and the perceived victims - in this case, the men, women and children of sweatshops, are from different constituencies where the sponsor does not have anything material to gain from the boycott, then such a boycott is termed as a "conscience boycott" (45). Friedman believes that by addressing and rectifying the "conscience concerns" (45) a consumer can play a strong role and properly discharge his duty.
In Canada, as awareness about sweatshops is growing, so is the outrage of the public. Organizations such as Labour Behind the Label Coalition, Maquila Solidarity Network and Clean Clothes Campaign are becoming increasingly mobilized and their campaigns are generating better results with passing time. Consumers are beginning to realize that producing ethically manufactured goods is possible and will not potentially increase product costs as the corporations were already siphoning off a huge chunk of the profits for themselves. Consumers are using their powers to hold companies accountable for their flagrant human rights abuses. The anti-sweatshop campaigns have not, however, garnered as widespread a support as is needed to completely root out sweatshops. A great majority of the general public is still hesitant in boycotting goods, the use of which they have become accustomed to. Not only concerned with potential increase in product costs, they also sometimes face difficulties in finding ethical options for different products.
Every consumer has the responsibility to use his buying power wisely and to ensure that the brand or corporation he patronizes does not use his money in order to commit gross human rights abuses. Every consumer is morally bound to ensure that his choices and his purchases do not perpetuate inequality, injustice and do not put another person's life or health in danger. By buying ethically produced goods, a buyer is effectively stating that he is ready to make his contribution towards a truly equal and just global community.
Works Cited
Boje, D. & Khan, F. "Story-Branding by Empire Entrepreneurs: Nike, Child Labour, and Pakistan's Soccer Ball Industry." Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, vol. 22.1: p.9.
Friedman, Monore. Consumer Boycotts: Effecting Change through the Marketplace and the Media. New York: Routledge.
Jeffcott, Bob. "Sweat, Fire and Ethics: The Sweatshop Is Back." New Internationalist.
Micheletti, Michele. "The Moral Force of Consumption and Capitalism: Anti-slavery and Anti-sweatshop." In Citizenship and Consumption. Ed.'s K. Soper and F. Trentmann. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Paleczny, Barbara. Clothed in Integrity: Weaving Just Cultural Relations and the Garment Industry. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
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