Friday, October 10, 2008
Do 3rd World Countries Benefit from Oursourced jobs?
Who is to say that workers in third world countries are forced to take outsourced jobs? In fact workers in third world countries make their own decisions to work. Why do workers choose to work terrible jobs with low wages and long hours? I personally feel that workers choose to work these outsourced jobs with long hours and low wages because it is basically the only option they have. The reason that it is the only option is because arguably the outsourced option is the better option for the third world country workers. Third world workers are presented with a limited amount of assets. Whether it is education or income, third world workers lack the essential economic variables to create opportunity for themselves. Therefore it is the outsourced jobs that essentially create a “fraction” more of opportunity than what the workers had prior to their low wages and long hours. Thus, it is difficult for an individual to be critical of a “free trade zone” because workers in Jamaica experienced poverty even before the era of the free trade zone. It is the same for a large percentage of the Mexican population. Children leave school at the age of ten on average, the sixth grade, and begin working for their family, earning equivalent to two American dollars per week. Not only do the children lack the education to create opportunity for themselves, but now they are inevitably trapped to work more than forty hours a week for less than two dollars.
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3 comments:
I think you are mistaken because you overlook the fact that Jamaica experienced poverty even before the era of the free trade zone BECAUSE of imperialism. Jamaica had been invaded by Spain and British for a long period of time. Jamaica is not poor because their lands have always been infertile or their people unproductive. The reality is Jamaica is poor because these nations have exploited their land. The cultivation of sugar cane and coffee by African slave labor made Jamaica one of the most valuable colonized areas in the world for many years. Historically, the people in Jamaica were struggling for independence. The efforts put into that do not allow them to focus on strengthening their own economy. I think that the attempt of the capital to rescue people in Third World countries like Jamaica (in the name of "free trade zone") is nothing but a total lie. They are doing it for profit-making. Yes, the outsourced jobs do create a "fraction" more of opportunity to the people in the Third World countries, but can't we do better than that? I believe that there are alternatives, they may be hard to be implemented, but if the whole world is ready to make changes, things will be different.
As we have discussed in class, choosing between working at an outsourced job or dying of starvation is really not a choice at all. Third world workers are more or less forced to work any job available to them. There is little to no choice on their behalf. While one cannot argue that outsourced jobs alone are responsible for the workers' predicament, neither can one argue that outsourced jobs are helping them to a large degree. Free trade zones can come and go as they please because of the hypermobility of capital. Therefore, outsourced jobs in a third world country cannot be relied upon as a steady source of income. They provide temporary opportunity for workers not to starve. The benefit that third world country experiences from a free trade zone is marginal at best. As soon as the workers are comfortable enough to start asking for decent wages, the free trade zones can move to a more desperate country, leaving the first third world country in the same predicament it was in in the first place.
I admit that I agree with your opinion. However, not all third-world countries are forced to do outsourced jobs. But, I will not argue about it. As a matter of fact, it is true that the citizens in a certain third-world countries such as Bangladesh and Myanmar do not have any other selection of jobs. They need to earn at least one American dollar per day in order to buy food or else, they have to starve. They also could not find a better job as they lack of education. Poverty leads them the children to discontinue their education and find a job to support their family. Because of poverty, they are forced to choose the only option that they have. Even worse, they work very hard and for long hours, but only being paid a very little amount of wages. How cruel is that? This also reminds me of a horror movie entitled Saw that Prof Perry mentioned in class. In this movie, the victims that had been caught by Jigsaw have only two choices; both choices lead to death. Whatever choices they made, they will eventually 'killed' by Jigsaw. However, as Cohen say, their choice; death, is not reasonable or acceptable or worth considering.
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