Monkey Poop

Although I majored in business in college and understand the economical reasons for outsourcing, I have never liked the idea of it.

Of course most of you have probably heard about The Gap's sweatshop story. (They're also the same co. as the Banana Republic and Old Navy). A kid was sold into slavery by his own parents. The kids worked 16+ hours a day without pay. They were punished for whining or crying or getting sick. The hallways were "flowing with excretions from an overflowed toilet." This makes me sick!

There is a common misconception that paying more money for things means that their business is done in a moral way. Not true. Look at Nike, their workers are paid next to nothing. The materials for their shoes cost about $2 but we pay up to hundreds of dollars for them.


You would expect your $5 Wal-mart shirt to be made in some poor country by slaves or people paid so poorly, they might as well be slaves. But $40 shirts from The Gap? That is a surprise to me. Can the products really be guaranteed as quality? They contract these jobs to random places they don't even know much about, like whether it is ten-year-old kids making their clothes or semi-skilled people?

People say let them outsource these jobs, nobody in America wants them anyways. I would beg to differ on that - does everyone here even have a job? Unemployment rates point to NO.

There is more profit in it for businesses, which ends up helping our economy. I'm not convinced the profit of big companies helps us more than giving every American a job, but I'm no expert either.

We are an advanced, wealthy economy. We have the means to make the world a better place - by doing things properly, maybe not as cost-effectively as possible, but the right way. If we quit sending the jobs over there, won't there will be less demand for slave labor to make American products? Maybe they will put their manpower into something more productive and humane? Probably not. Why can't we at least set a standard for workplace environments and send the message these will not be tolerated? I really don't think most Americans care, they just buy what they like regardless of how it got there or what it means in the bigger scheme of things. And how are we as consumers supposed to know anyways? All we know is what the companies and the news tells us.

I think ignorance on The Gap's part, and other companies, too, is a choice. The average consumer has no way of knowing where their products come from but there is no reason for the big corporations/companies not be investigating who produces their products. Wait, yes there is, cost effectiveness. The almighty dollar. The older I get the more I learn that money is all the world is about. When will the world evolve into a caring, loving place? I think we're moving backwards instead of evolving.


It's like we're all a bunch of primates, slinging poop at each other, fighting over a banana tree to hoard them all for ourselves. How's that for a simile?

What do you think about outsourcing? Do you know of any other companies famous for this?