capitalism
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Capitalism & Free Trade
A global assembly line is a capitalist dream come true. It allows companies to do business in free trade zones to manufacture goods throughout the world at the lowest possible cost to the company. This assembly line enables companies like Nike, with corporate headquarters in the U.S. w to shut down their factories here, and move over seas where there are less restrictions and cheaper labor. Where as the production cost are drastically less in these free trade zones, so are the human rights laws, especially those pertaining to women, the majority of the work force.
By moving its production sites to places like Asia, Nike is able to pay workers sub-minimum wage, on top of allowing the corporation to dodge responsibility for the treatment of its work force. Nike strategists have certainly managed to devise a plan to escape the responsibility and liability of insuring that it assembly line sites are safe, healthy and fair labor places of work, by subcontracting to foreign owned and governed factories. South Korea, the " sneaker capital of the world" is one of these places.
According to the article "The Globe Trotting Sneaker" the workers in these assembly factories are predominantly women...