The Cost of Convenience

The Cost of Convenience

By Anonymous

Introduction

Do American corporations that operate by contracting foreign suppliers to produce goods have an ethical obligation to prevent the exploitation and/or discrimination of the workers in those overseas factories? The outsourcing of labor has been a growing trend in American production based industries for over thirty years now. Countless corporations, especially those in the manufacturing industry, rely on the cheap labor that developing countries like the People’s Republic of China can offer. With a population of more than 1.3 Billion citizens, China has an unparalleled workforce, with a large number of new migrant workers moving east from their villages, where a lifestyle of subsistence farming is the norm, to work in the massive, modern cities, in factories that export goods to various countries around the World. Countries like the United States, who alone, currently imports 36% of the goods China produces each year. Those impressive numbers, however come with an enormous cost. Human rights and Chinese labor law violations associated with sweatshop conditions, indentured servitude, mandatory overtime, and the underpaying of overtime wages are the norm and American based corporations like Wal-Mart, target, JC Penney, Home Depot, and Timberland, in order to keep profits rising, have been accused of turning a blind eye. At most, they are doing just enough to cover their interests while failing to protect those responsible for producing the products they sell, and misleading those who purchase the products they sell globally. For this study I would like to focus on the illegal and unethical business relationships between Wal-Mart and its more than one thousand contractors and suppliers located in the People’s Republic of China alone. I chose Wal-Mart because it is the largest retailer in the World, and as such it should be the epitome of human and worker rights and a beacon for all others to look to for guidance. However, in reality Wal-Mart and its contractors in the PRC are actively involved in the systematic abjuration of worker rights. I will examine the current laws that are in place to protect the employees of the supply factories in the PRC. In addition I will review Wal-Mart’s corporate stance on the illegal and unethical issues being exploited to bring the American consumer inexpensive and convenient access to goods Twenty-four hours a day seven days a week.

Understanding the People’s Republic of China

The People’s Republic of China is the third largest country in the World. It has the largest population in the World and the second largest economy in the World. Even with such high ranking figures, China is still a developing country. Due to a significant number of its population living in poverty, which is less than