This is off-topic, but I thought it was interesting reading. Maybe not so off-topic, since those of you in INFS 1000 are picking topics for your midterm exam now... Perhaps this will pique some interest.
In a recent paper,
Sweatshop Labor is Wrong Unless the Jeans are Cute: Motivated Moral Disengagement, the authors look at how people rationalize their purchasing choices. We often give lip service to various social and ethical purchasing criteria, but when it comes right down to it, those criteria are pushed aside for a variety of reasons. I've made personal efforts to shop at thrift and consignment stores first for items, for example, not just to save money (although that doesn't hurt any), but to fight overproduction and consumerism and live a little more lightly on the earth. I look for "made in USA" or at least not "made in China" labels in items, and purchase materials made in other locations when I can. Do I know inherently that those items are "safer" or less likely to be made in poor working conditions? No, it is an assumption, perhaps an incorrect one in some cases, that I make.
With young children at home, I hear moms around me lamenting the use of high fructose corn syrup and trans-fats in some items they like to buy, especially for their kids. But with a husband who is a financial analyst for a local food company, I also hear the side of the company: if people will pay the extra price for the more expensive ingredients, they will make it. Consumer purchases truly do drive production. However, they have also had the experience of releasing a food product that they think meets those better production criteria to have people turn to the item down the shelf that is 50 cents cheaper. And, when I suggest organic or more "responsible" product alternatives, those same moms (and dads, too, I suppose, but I mostly am talking to moms) say, "but it's so much more expensive." Well, that's the way it is. You want cheap products? They're made with cheap ingredients.
And that includes labor.
What purchasing choices do you make?
Hanna, Julia. "Why Sweatshops Flourish."
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge: A First Look at Faculty Research. 23 Mar. 2009. Harvard Business School. 23 Mar. 2009.
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6126.htmlPaharia, Neeru and Rohit Deshpande. "Sweatshop Labor is Wrong Unless the Jeans are Cute: Motivated Moral Disengagement." Working Paper. Harvard Business School, 2009. 23 Mar. 2009.
http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-079.pdf
Photo credits: Creative Commons license from marissaorton's Sweatshop Project photostream on Flickr
This week, MCTC is being visited by our national accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission, and this is a Big Deal. This is what lets us grant credentials that have some meaning in the world of education. You may have noticed an announcement about this on the campus web site.
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