Don't Sweat Sweatshops?

In general, Americans tend to think negatively about companies utilizing sweatshops, but is it possible we're wrong ? In his article for the New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristoff, begins by inviting President Obama on a tour through the horrors of a garbage dump that many people have taken to living in. Kristoff takes to neutralizing the views that many people have on conditions that sweatshop workers are put under.

He writes that if you were to ask anyone who lives in a dump, they would say it would be a dream to be able to have a job in a sweatshop. One of his main points, and beliefs is that this method of  producing is basically the lesser of many evils. To get his points across he tries to appeal to the emotions of his readers. For example, he mentions the living conditions of some of the numerous families that live in the dump, tells stories of a woman who as witnessed children get run over by garbage trucks,and this does an effective job of making people visualize the reality of these people's lives. He goes on to say that many people in poor countries share his values and while Americans believe that they exploit too many people, they actually think it does not exploit enough. To a certain extent I agree with Kristoff, but I still strongly believe that the conditions can be improved and companies should not subject their workers to such inhumane things.

The writer seems to direct his essay towards Americans since they are normally the ones with negative views on sweatshops. But, the essay is better understood when an educated individual is the one reading. For example, he employs the use of figurative language, more specifically an allusion, when he speaks of Dantes's Infierno, which is widely known as a classic about a tour through hell, and only those who are educated in literaure would have recognized and understood the reference. He also uses logos to get his point across in the final sentence, "'It's dirty hot, and smelly here', she said wistfully. "A factory is better."

As a refutation, Kristoff admits that when asked he says he would never want to work in a sweatshop, but he does defend his point by writing that in the hierarchy of jobs for poverty-stricken countries, factory or sweatshop jobs are definitely not at the bottom. Nicholas D. Kristoff does a great job in explaining his views and effectively tries to persuade. However, it would have been better if he had included multiple different perspectives instead of only looking at it from a standpoint of sweatshops being beneficial. After reading this essay I can understand why Kristoff sees sweatshops as a beneficial method for poor countries to provide jobs, but I continue to imagine brutal conditions when thinking of sweatshops.