Trade is the action of exchanging goods and services with others. Without trade, people in different parts of the world would be limited to the resources available locally. Seeing as some countries cannot support certain resources due to their climate, it is necessary to have a means of providing resources to places where they might be sparse.
In her book, Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang details the lives of young women working in the Dongguan factories in China. She attempts to approach the subject matter from an unbiased angle and tries to focus primarily on what she sees, rather than how she feels. Their lives in the factory are difficult, with long days and little time to themselves, all while receiving a small paycheck. However, the …show more content…
What truly is the right choice when intervening in someone else’s culture? I’m not sure if there’s really an answer that is absolutely correct, at least without harming someone in some way. For example, when changing the working conditions at a factory, a corporation might have a better image, but the workers might be somehow in a worse situation than before.
Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel discuss in their book, More Than Good Intentions, they challenge the idea that having “good intentions” when trying to solve the problem of poverty is really enough. They argue that, while having intention is important, it is more important to have an effective way of helping the poor. They use economics to provide methods of getting poor people out of poverty, through microfinancing, microloans, and other types of …show more content…
The women in the factories have lives that work for them, and changing the way they function without forethought may not bode well. A hypothetical example would be a corporation requiring the companies they work with to increase their workers’ pay. Upfront this might seem like a great idea, but when considering the possible consequences, it is difficult to say for sure. The workers might get more pay, but they might also end up with fewer hours, and work faster to make up for the lost time. They might also be denied overtime, which can be an important part of their paycheck. The point here is that it is hard to know if intervening is always the morally correct choice, even if it seems like it. Then again, in a capitalist society, morality may not be the most important factor to a corporation.
In Louise Levathes’, When China Ruled the Seas, she describes a world in which China briefly ruled during the 15th century. They set off on giant ships to trade with those in different parts of the world, such as Japan or Africa. In one part of the book, Levathes describes the emperor of the time, Zhu Di, as accepting to trade with Japan after the Shogun had humbled himself to him. This situation makes me wonder if, in a society in which government was more transparent, if people as a whole would have accepted
In her book, Factory Girls, Leslie T. Chang details the lives of young women working in the Dongguan factories in China. She attempts to approach the subject matter from an unbiased angle and tries to focus primarily on what she sees, rather than how she feels. Their lives in the factory are difficult, with long days and little time to themselves, all while receiving a small paycheck. However, the …show more content…
What truly is the right choice when intervening in someone else’s culture? I’m not sure if there’s really an answer that is absolutely correct, at least without harming someone in some way. For example, when changing the working conditions at a factory, a corporation might have a better image, but the workers might be somehow in a worse situation than before.
Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel discuss in their book, More Than Good Intentions, they challenge the idea that having “good intentions” when trying to solve the problem of poverty is really enough. They argue that, while having intention is important, it is more important to have an effective way of helping the poor. They use economics to provide methods of getting poor people out of poverty, through microfinancing, microloans, and other types of …show more content…
The women in the factories have lives that work for them, and changing the way they function without forethought may not bode well. A hypothetical example would be a corporation requiring the companies they work with to increase their workers’ pay. Upfront this might seem like a great idea, but when considering the possible consequences, it is difficult to say for sure. The workers might get more pay, but they might also end up with fewer hours, and work faster to make up for the lost time. They might also be denied overtime, which can be an important part of their paycheck. The point here is that it is hard to know if intervening is always the morally correct choice, even if it seems like it. Then again, in a capitalist society, morality may not be the most important factor to a corporation.
In Louise Levathes’, When China Ruled the Seas, she describes a world in which China briefly ruled during the 15th century. They set off on giant ships to trade with those in different parts of the world, such as Japan or Africa. In one part of the book, Levathes describes the emperor of the time, Zhu Di, as accepting to trade with Japan after the Shogun had humbled himself to him. This situation makes me wonder if, in a society in which government was more transparent, if people as a whole would have accepted