Sociology 1027A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Sweatshop, Investment, Environmental Racism

• School: Western University
• Department: Sociology
• Course: Sociology 1027A/B
• Professor: Wolfgang Lehmann

Document Summary

Global inequalities map: fair countries usually located in the global north (not geographically but socially) Sweatshops: cheap consumer goods for us and high profit margins for companies. Poor countries have unstable government = corruption, easy/cheap access to resources, labours, weak ,regulatory frameworks, waste dumping, etc . Poverty makes people vulnerable: medical testing for safe products for us. Poverty and brain drain: immigration of high-skilled labour for us. Poverty = work for the rich specialists, experts, and celebrities Workers makes free choices to work there: alternatives are worse (poverty, prostitution, etc ) Wages: comparatively high, wages too high = destruction of local economy, but helps increase the local wage levels over time. Bring more investment to country: builds industrial infrastructure, investment of mnc means decline of repression and oppressive regimes. Overall argument: sweatshop labour starts a virtuous cycle, following humane labour practices (by western standards) would destroy local economies. Neo-liberal polices: enforces deregulation and makes hosts relatively powerless.