Skip to main content

Go for the Discount and Participate in the Exploitation of Human Labor

Author Ellen Ruppel Shell, after spending years researching the cost of stuff, has recently published a thrilling book entitled Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. Her book examines not only the impact of cost on the direct consumer — high debt, low incomes, job losses and a whole slew of other troubles — but also the price for the people that produce the goods.

This is particularly interesting to me today as her book outlines specific examples in which the exploitation of both human labor and the environment is clear. One example given in a New York Times review, explains the surge in the shrimp market from the 1970s to today. The impact on the change in shrimp farming and our subsequent shrimp consuming has triggered loads of troubles.

The article explains:
“for a while, there were some newly affluent shrimp-farmers along the coast of Thailand as traditional operations were transformed into gigantic factories with the help of international lenders and investors. Massive onslaughts of chemicals made the factories productive, but fish — like cows, pigs and chickens — do not flourish in the long run under such extreme, artificial conditions. They get sick, and their ponds become black holes of pollution and toxic waste."

Ruppel Shell writes "what followed was ruinous debt, environmental degradation, horrifying human rights abuses and violence that left millions destitute." This isn’t just shrimp. This sort of chain link is implicated in everything we buy. The actual cost for production of many items is considerably higher than what we are charged.

Who is paying the extra cost?

I agree with Ruppel Shell here that working people pay the cost. She notes that a third of the poor have jobs in retail with a historically low wage, but that is just one side. The other is the seedy underbelly of how our goods are produced. Sweatshops, while presenting a different opportunity for the poor Chinese, Mexican and Vietnamese, give the workers no chance to demand higher pay or better working conditions because the manufacturer could easily close the factory or move their operations somewhere else.

Our goods, assembled by people working for much less than fair wages, pay the price for the $4.99 tee-shirt we are taking home from Wal-Mart. This is a sad reality of our consumption and the way we look to get things produced. We are impacting others (and in particular the poor) with every item we purchase. Not only that but we haven’t even begun to talk about the impacts of this on the environment!

So, what do we do?

I think the first thing we can and should do is to understand our individual relationship with consumption. Of course, this is if we have the privilege to do so (see my post on Paying to Be Poor).

Understanding ourselves in relation to our spending and consuming is a must. Many Americans are spending away at things that are unnecessary, driving the machine for more stuff, and turning the wheel toward more exploitation. I wonder if we all became mindful of who is paying the price for the discounts, we might just be able to turn this around.

There is a great video called The Story of Stuff which I highly recommend viewing. The blurb from their website puts it best:
“The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.”

You also can watch Ruppel Shells' one minute YouTube video or read her interview via the Environment Report.


This post was written by Laura Scroggs who is a feminist scholar living in the mid-west. She is currently an active community volunteer and volunteer blogger with the Literacy 'n' Poverty Project. Please leave your comments or email info@makesocialchangeareality.com with questions.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What is the Literacy Rate of the US?

The World Factbook , prepared by the CIA , states that the US literacy rate is around 99%. This means that around 3 million people in America are unable to functionally read and write . That is equivalent to the entire population of Mongolia! As if those numbers weren’t enough to make you sit up and think, there is some dispute about the 99% - the actual figure could be lower, depending on the various definitions of literacy used. Jonathan Kozol, in his book ‘Illiterate America’ states that the government based the 99% literacy rate on interviews and written responses to Census Bureau mailings from a small portion of the population. Of that portion, if the responders or interviewees had completed fifth grade they were considered literate. About 5% had not completed fifth grade , but 80% of those were subsequently considered literate, and so the Bureau reached a conclusion of a 99% literacy rate. In 1993 a new study was released . Over 5 years, and $14 million spent ( the largest lite

We Stopped Blogging and Got Serious About Our Future

It's been over four months since we last posted to this blog! While it breaks our heart to have been out of touch for so long, we had good reason. You see, our blog is run by volunteers of the Literacy 'n' Poverty Project. LnP is a social initiative I started that addresses multiple aspects of literacy - health, reading, writing and financial - to empower the poor and low-income adults to lift themselves up out of poverty . But, if you've been keeping up with our blog which we know you all have :), you can see that adult education has not been the focus. And rightfully so. How We Got Started Make Social Change A Reality was created as a venue to discuss various issues concerning the broader concept of social change from the environment to women's issues to healthcare to youth development . As a startup with goals of becoming an international social enterprise, we felt that y'all deserved a place of your own to learn, engage and share information and resources

The Meaning of Social Change

All around us, there are changes happening; the calendar changed from 2008 to 2009, a new president was elected, and for many us, we have decided to do things differently and make changes in our diet, our lifestyles, or in our overall well being. Social change is something that I plan to be involved with this year in many different ways: volunteering , reading, attending events and sharing ideas. Social change means different things to different people. To me, social change means being involved in making things better for your community. Doing something instead of just saying something. Raising money instead of just donating to a cause. Working with others to make sure that the change we desire is attainable. I have been involved with a variety of organizations that make social change a focus of their organization. This is important to me because I am a firm believer that through social change and helping each other and supporting one another, we as a people can right all