On the Utility of Sweatshops

The necessity of cheap goods to an economy wracked with sub prime mortgage woes, hedge fund concerns, and a dollar plainly imploding is clear to all sane people. Moralizers and ethicists naturally lament the existence of so-called "sweatshops," for if they did otherwise, they'd tend to negate their own job security; however, economics is no place for sentimentality and emotions have no bearing on matters dependent upon pure logic.

Relatively speaking, "sweatshops" provide vital income to lower classes. For them, what most consider to be paltry sums are actually comparatively quite high. A dollar to these benighted lumps of flesh is actually a lot of money. Nevertheless, what really matters is that the goods move off the production line to the supply chain, through the corporate warehouses, and into the households of consumers. This cash flow is vital to the shareholders. The directors of corporations realize this and act accordingly. It simply would not do to allow sentiment free rein in the corporate world.

After all, what else can be done with the lower classes? They aren't fit for much else, and legitimate work keeps them off the streets, which has the added benefit of decreasing crime rates. I already hear shrill, accusatory cries of callousness from critics, but they have neglected their studies and have rather paid too much heed to bedtime bugaboos. This is a callous universe, not a fairy tale utopia. Ignore nightly fantasies of religion and pay more attention to true human motivations and you will do well; trust to such delusions and it is this writer's humble opinion that you deserve to toil in a sweatshop.

Now there is one criticism of sweatshops that has some merit, but which I think a solution to is in sight. It is said that such dreary lives of monotonously repetitive labor leave much to be desired by way of personal fulfillment. Suicide rates in Chinese factories, and in those of other less developed and developing countries, tend to bear this criticism out. While I consider the concept too obscure, indeed, almost metaphysical, and entirely subjective to address here fully, the solution still seems obvious: anti-depressants. If we could set up a system where all menial workers were provided with a liberally rationed stock of the newest and most potent SSRIs, and I think we're incrementally nearing that point, then this would clearly go a long way torward quelling dissent and disquietude among the lower classes.

Various plans of government managed healthcare have been presented and legislated by a plenitude of politicians, and what with the Michael Moore documentary on this subject, I think it won't be all that long before a mental hygiene code of normalcy is gradually imposed upon the herd. The sooner this occurs, the better.