Nick Whaley

Many of America’s most successful businesses are large corporations that do most of their manufacturing overseas and treat their employees poorly. Amazon and Nike, for example, basically run sweatshops, but they are wildly popular. Why do so many American consumers support these corporations despite their shady ethics? To get a better sense of the public’s opinion on this issue, I asked several individuals about how much value they place on business ethics.

Two out of the five people I interviewed said they don’t think about companies’ ethical choices at all while shopping. Instead, they focus more on other factors, such as price, quality, and convenience. One individual answered, “I just look for a good deal. The treatment of the workers never even crosses my mind.” Two of the other people I interviewed answered that they consider the ethical choices of businesses while shopping, but they both admitted to buying from Amazon and other unethical corporations. “I don’t like [Amazon’s] treatment of factory workers, but at the end of the day, it’s pretty hard to beat free one-day shipping,” said one individual. They acknowledged that keeping workers in hazardous, unsanitary conditions is wrong, but it is not enough to keep them from shopping with the companies. For them, the low prices and convenience factor outweighs the exploitation of foreign workers. One person that I interviewed, however, took a particularly strong stance. He is very aware of who he shops with, and he does his best to avoid buying from foreign companies and corporations that outsource their jobs. When asked how he feels about corporations that operate sweatshops in foreign countries, he responded, “I think they suck. They are traitors to the American people. They should build their factories here in America and give jobs to the American people even if it is more expensive.” Needless to say, this individual is willing to pay extra money for products that were manufactured in the US.

In a capitalist society, you vote every time you make a purchase. Every time you make a purchase, you are saying “I support this,” whether you think about it or not. The majority of people I interviewed either don’t consider the unethical treatment of factory workers, or they don’t care enough to support more ethical companies at a higher cost. The American consumer has voted in favor of large corporations that run sweatshops because of the benefit of lower prices and convenience. Until there is a fundamental shift in which Americans consumers are willing to pay the higher price for ethically produced goods, the exploitation of workers will persist.