Preview

Child Labour and Ethics

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
612 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Child Labour and Ethics
Utilitarianism

We have all heard that child labour is a bad thing, however, lets try and think – is it, really?

By introducing child labour companies save millions of dollars which are passed to the consumer as a cheaper price on products they buy from our firm, if there are more profits there are more taxes paid to the Government. By having better profit margins our company is able to pay bigger dividends to shareholders thus giving them a better return on their investment and making them richer.

And to top it off, the children are not being forced to work – they are working out of their free will – what our company does is give children the opportunity to earn some extra money if they feel like it.

In the end, every stakeholder is better off if our company and other companies use child labour!

Deontological

Our society sets the rules for what is right and wrong, what is allowed and what isn't. However, different countries have different ideas about justice, fairness and rights.
For example in America and Japan you are forbidden to give expensive gifts to your bosses as it is considered bribery, while in Russia and some of European countries you are welcome to do that!

So how can people from one society judge that something is wrong that what another society considers right – shouldn't it be left for them to decide, how can we impose our point of view on everyone else – this is called Tyranny is it not?

If China allows Nike to employ children – why should we judge them?
Isn't it the child's right to decide whether to work for Nike or not ?
We give children the possibility to make money if the want to – if they need money - they come and work for us, if they don't- then they don't.

In Arab Emirates it is forbidden for women to work, should Arab companies be forbidden to employ women when they base their operations abroad? Isn't this limiting to people's freedom and choices?

Giving more choices to everyone, that's our motto!

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Satire Child Labor

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The child laborer stays away from the streets, helps their family meet their survival needs, doesn’t have to dig for food in garbage’s, and gets paid. A low wage, but gets paid! The person running the child labor business doesn’t have to pay a high wage for the child laborers because the children don’t go to school and wouldn’t know how much they are getting paid. All they would know is that they are working to survive. Another benefit is that children’s bones and ligaments don’t fully develop until they are an adult, so if they get injured they will heal quickly compared to that of an adult worker. As for what child labor brings us, the list is endless. A whole range of goods such as cheap skirts, shirts, toys, matches, textiles, and hand-knotted carpets which are very popular in North America.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In my opinion, the best way to reduce child labor for multinational corporations is to help the host nations in stressing the value of education to its citizens and improving educational opportunities such as better schools for its children. At the same time, the companies should strengthen its screening process to ensure that they are not hiring children. Just as it states in our text “Since poverty is synonymous with child labor, if a company pays higher wages, it can have a beneficial effect in raising local living standards and hence reducing the need for children to be employed” (Fieser, Moseley, 2012, p8.3). The same jobs that are using child labor could be given to able adults. From my ethical perspective, there needs to be balance in employing children. School should be the first priority for children yet they should also be allowed to partake in some form of regulated part time work in order to give them some experience and prepare them for the working world. Many teenagers graduate from high school and are unprepared for the transition from full time school to fulltime work. The ethical perspective of the group with which I belong to (African American), education is a priority however, young adults need a part time job in order to prepare them for their adult life and instill responsibility in them. As noted in the text “Covert child labor involves either participating in a family-run, income-generating activity, such as farming or retailing, or replacing the child’s parents in performing household chores such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water, and gathering fuel” (Cigno, 2012, p 65). Not all forms of child labor are detrimental.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Labour at Walmart way

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages

    = If the company does not use child labour, its productivity would rise and require lesser supervision. Also it would be remarked and known as the company that does not use child labour apparently giving a right impression.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When business owners found a low-cost workforce by hiring children, their profits increased. This one fact is the main reason child labor was allowed then and is tolerated today. When profits are increased the company looks good on paper, but we must look deeper than that. Businesses were…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sweat Shops

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    All of my life I have considered myself as a person who loves children. I enjoy playing with them, helping them, and just being around them. So when I first agreed with corporations who use child labor I shocked myself completely. After examining two articles; one "The Case for Sweatshops", by David R. Henderson, and two "Sweatshops or a Shot at a Better Life", by Cathy Young, I came to the conclusion that in some cases when young children work under proper conditions it can keep them out of the streets and be helpful to them and their families.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Live Free and Starve

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is true that child labor is a terrible thing, especially for those children who are sold to employers by their parents at the age of 5 or 6 and have no way to protect themselves from abuse. In many cases it will be decades -- perhaps a lifetime, due to the fines heaped upon them whenever they make mistakes -- before they can buy back their freedom. Meanwhile these children, mostly employed by rug-makers, spend their days in dark, ill-ventilated rooms doing work that damages their eyes and lungs. They aren't even allowed to stand up and stretch. Each time they go to the bathroom, they suffer a pay cut.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kids who work don’t get to experience a childhood, don’t have time for family, and have to work in horrible conditions. In the article, What Is Child Labor, it states, “The term child labor is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” when these kids grow up they’re going to be heartless because their feelings would be gone. They wouldn’t know what happiness is and their kids might end up being the same way when they get older.…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We need to make sure that we are getting children through school and allowing them to make their own decisions after school instead of throwing them right into work at the age of 12. This issue is still a concern in America, but not as much as it used to be because of all of the laws that we now have put into place. It is a big concern around the world though, especially in poor countries. I can see distributive justice in child labor. “Distributive justice addresses the allocation of resources such as wealth, power, and reward” (Cannon, 36). I see a problem of us consumers continuing to consume these products that are made possible by putting children to work. The companies in between are the ones making all of the money, the children are making a couple dollars a day and we the goods are being sold for way more than that. We can make things right with these children by giving them safe working conditions and paying a little better. For example, we are all consumers of goods such as cell phones. Children are working in unsafe conditions in order to get what is needed to produce cell phones. We can do them a justice by solving the problem and finding a more efficient and safe way to produce the…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parents are supposed to be the ones working and providing for the family, not the other way around. Many of these children have to go off and help support their families because their family cannot afford to survive on their own. These children are compromising their education to work long hours away from home, for very little…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Child labour is a very big problem in today’s world. Many organizations work towards diminishing it however, it is a very touchy problem and needs to be handled with caution as the process is very tedious which is not realized by many people worldwide. Many think that diminishing child labour suddenly and as soon as possible is going to be good for the world however, this is not true. The fight to end child labour is going to be long and hard because of the many negative impacts it will have on the world…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Child Labor In America

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For parents and corporate leaders worldwide, the issues concerning child labor are some of the most controversial topics affecting today’s society. Child labor is work that uses children to perform physical, industrial tasks. Commonly viewed as an immoral injustice and a denial of basic human rights, child labor is conversely described as a necessary evil by some. Through propaganda and prejudice, the general public tends to neglect the notion that some nations face intensely destitute conditions where they require extra labor forces to maintain decent standards of living. Despite their actions, these countries, such as China, are still in their post-industrial eras and surely understand the unfavorability of exploiting children to factory…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Among all of us, we are all healthy, happy, human beings that have, good jobs with, a degree. Right? WRONG! Hundreds, maybe thousands of kids around the world are forced to work. They earn barely enough money to sustain the family and often is unsafe. It happens in countries around the world, including the USA and China that have that problem. Child Labor is not a common thought ,but it's still done. You may not think about it ,but kids are beaten, bruised, and sometimes even killed from child labor.…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the beginning of the industrial Revolution many people have migrated here to Britain to start working in towns and bigger factories. As the Revolution is occurring there have been alleged claims that Victorian factory owners are using child workers. I have investigated these claims and the results are true that children are being made to undergo various forms of hard physical labor. As there are no laws or rules to take action on this matter factory owners have taken advantage of this and employed children as they do not require much or any pay and work in almost unbearable and unhygienic conditions.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Child labor, the exploiting of children for profit, is far more prominent in the world than the average person realizes. According to stopchildlabor.org, 168 million children are pressed into labor under physical or financial threat; these children are forced to work to support their families or pay off a debt. They can be as young as five years old, the age of a kindergartner, and work up to eighteen hours a day for seven days a week. They are exposed to dangerous situations such as working with complicated equipment in need of repair, or with toxic substances such as nicotine. It negatively impacts their lives in more than just depriving them of their childhood; they sustain long term injuries, respiratory issues,…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most work conditions for children are very dangerous and not only put the child's life at risk, but also are done undercover and illegally. Kids lose their lives every day due to this easily fixable problem. Plus, when a child is sent off to work, it prevents them from going to school. This child will then be set up for an uneducated future all due to one mistake. Along with the effects outside of work, any child who works in a factory is at high risk being abused by their “auntie” or boss. This is an effect of when the child doesn’t create enough products or doesn’t work hard enough.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays