Sweatshops and Their Effects on Our Society

Hello, this is my second response to my teacher's question. I really like what we are currently discussing in class as it has truly opened my eyes to many of the terrible things that are happening elsewhere in the world, systematically because of the U.S . It is interesting to learn about all these different things/problems that are going on in this world. It makes me think how problems that I might have and complain about are truly SMALLER than the rest of the world's problems. We learned about how their are sweatshops here, and in other countries, that other people make our clothes that we put on our backs. Yeah, we get to buy our clothes for cheap, but look at those people that are living in the other countries that are making our clothes don't even get half of what we pay to buy those clothes. You would think that those people that our making our clothes are getting paid good money and getting to work in regular working conditions, but we figure that truly is not the case and we learn that this society actually has some problems with it. We learn that those that make our clothes are actually of what we would call the very "lower class" in society, because quite simply they are the only ones that really take these jobs. They have no other options many would argue, and that we are actually helping them because otherwise they wouldn't have anything else to live and survive with. But what I would think is that, because these people are taking these horrible condition type jobs, we should at least pay them for what they work for. Most of these people are poor women who are living in the ghettos of their country that have absolutely no rights, trying to keep their family alive. But why should we be allowing this to happen? Why can't people be more thoughtful about these people? It's sad to think that this is what our society has come to. Some can argue, protesting by not purchasing, but we are hurting those who make the clothes, others argue to buy less, but we are still purchasing, maybe even boycotting the companies, holding protests. But how much of this is going to work since not many people would even consider doing that. Some might argue they have no time, or whatever the case may be. But to me, I feel like it should be more of an organized protest from the people, and the people working in our governments. This is a very big issue, it is about human rights. It does not matter if it's about paying more for items, because like a classmate of mine pointed out, if we mass produced Nike's in the U.S, how many people would truly buy them for their full price of let's say $900 or whatever they would go for, it would force the companies to re-think what they are doing. I feel like if more people would to learn about this topic, more people would help out. It's a matter about caring for one another in this world, and if we can't do just that, than honestly, what kind of people are we and what are we doing to our world?