Let Them Sweat

Andrew Jeffress

English 3100

Professor Coilier

9-15-15

Summary

In the article "Let Them Sweat", by Nicholas D. Kristof. Kristof tries to convey the theory that without sweatshops these third world countries would be worse off. Kristof tells a story of a middle eastern boy who lives for the day to work in a factory. The boy is sole man of his house after his father passed away, currently the boy struggles by making a $1.40 a day. while he looks around a pile of trash for scrap metal. If he was in a factory making 10 cents an hour he would be better off and provide better for his family. Then Kristof moves on to tell us about a women in Afghanistan wishing Nike would come back so she can work for them. Kristof tells us how thousands of teenage women die from AIDS due to sex trafficking in cambodia. When the women do not have jobs and are widowed then they have nothing to turn to but sex trafficking. Anti-sweatshop campaigns do not help these people Kristof says and need to focus on a new way of helping.

In response to Kristof, I was raised in an area of the country where we did all the work ourselves. I grew up being taught to do everything yourself and not have to rely on others for help. In part my family grew up in hard beliefs that America needed to do everything themselves. Not saying we were anti-sweatshops we just believed it was not good for our economy to take jobs across seas and leave many of our own people without jobs. That being said after reading this article and doing my own research I agree with Kristof and that these third world countries need these sweatshops more than we do. His stories of the boys who live for the factory life instead of a farm life I understand; growing up on a farm myself I know the hard work it is and can not imagine how hard it is in a country that does not have proper machinery or tools. In the United States we have a pretty easy living standard compared to other countries. The women in foreign countries do not...