Ethics in our World
Shidane & Nisar
Poverty
Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Another type of poverty is “Relative poverty” it’s known as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live. There is only a limited amount of money available in the local and global economy. Since about 10% of the population own 95% of the supply, the world as we currently know it based on a per capita distribution exists in poverty. If people cannot afford to buy thing then business cannot flourish, without businesses looking to expand and needing to create additional capacity, you will not see a rise in wages or a rise in employment.
Government
•Losing Money: This is a big issue because governments are not going to make any profit if they spend a lot of money poverty so basically they are losing a good amount of money and barely gaining anything from it. If the government does not spend the money wisely, or if they simply steal the money for themselves, the people in that nation will suffer. The money the government earns should be used to establish more jobs, provide essential infrastructures, and help ensure that everyone receives proper education and medical attention.
•Less Tax: This issue also important because if governments are getting less tax from consumers then they are going to have trouble doing business with other countries like getting products from different distant places (Example International Trade). The relationship between tax rates and poverty is unclear. “A study comparing high tax Scandinavian countries with the U. S. suggests high tax rates are inversely correlated with poverty rates. The poverty rate, however, is low in some low tax countries such as Switzerland. A comparison of poverty rates between states reveals that some low tax states have low poverty rates” (Statistics). For example, New Hampshire has the lowest poverty rate of any state in the U. S., and has very low taxes.
• Demographic and Social Factors: Another factor that causes poverty is the demographic and social factors. This includes everything from war, crimes, to overpopulation. Many poor nations tend to be at war. These can be anything from genocide to drug wars etc. When a country must deal with a war, this means that the country must spend money on protection and some even have to loan money which they will have to pay back with interest. Some of the poor countries dealing with wars can even loan money because they are so deep in debt that they cannot afford to loan any more moneyBusiness
Cost:
•Lost of Revenue or income: Even though you can still able to recover it by doubling your effort and sales, it’s still very difficult to lose revenue. In case the assets or the business itself has been damaged due to any crime, it is not easy to put things together again. It will take months to years until you recover your lost. In some case business may become bankrupt especially if crimes have caused them an extreme damage not just to property but also to revenue and capital.
• Products not Affordable: This is an issue is common for a lot of people because a lot of businesses could lose money and won’t be able to make money if no one is purchasing their products. The reason this might happen is because if people are poor then they are going to have trouble purchasing good/services, and by this it affects peoples businesses.
Consumer/Citizen
• Lack of food and shelter: Lack of food and shelter is a issue for the consumers and citizens that are living in our cities because if they do not have the amount of food and shelter that they are suppose to have then it just makes the governments and the city they live in look bad and careless. If all the food and shelter are going to all the people that are under poverty then it makes it tough for the consumers to purchase more products for themselves because it might not be enough for them and their family.
• Lack of health care: People with low incomes, mostly those who live in poverty, face particular challenges in maintaining their health. They are more likely than those with higher incomes to become ill, and that die at a younger age. They are also more likely to live in poor environmental situations with limited health care resources. The impact of poverty on health is a key focus of public health. Reports say that those with low incomes have lower health status than those with higher incomes.
• Little amount of Good and Services: The amount of goods and services there are in some countries are good and in some countries bad. The reason this is because they are certain countries that are putting so much money into certain issues like poverty and from this it affecting the cites consumers with purchasing good and services. The higher class people have no problem purchasing goods but the lower class people struggle with this because it depends on the amount of money they have and we all know the lower class are barely successful in today’s economy.
Sweatshops
Government
Laws are being broken:
The conditions in which the employees work in break multiple labour laws such as the Fair Labour Act. This law sets the minimum wage,overtime pay and youth employment standards. Also the child labour law which states that children under the age 14 cannot work for more than 3 hours on work days and Sweatshops break many more laws
Benefits:
Decreases Poverty:
Sadly most of these big companies pay more than the national wages of the third world countries. The sweatshops workers make more money than those to choose to work on farms,etc. If not for sweatshops many of the people would turn to other things whether it be legal or illegal. When people make more money the national GDP goes up as well, so in a sense they are providing for their economic.
Businesses
Costs:
Loss of reputation:
Using sweatshops to make products are viewed as unethical and could affect the reputation of the business. There have been many cases where consumers have joined the fight against sweatshops, for example Team Sweat which is an organization against the Nike sweatshops.
Benefits:
Saves Money:
The use of sweatshops reduces the cost of production by a lot. Instead of paying someone in America the minimum wage, they move production to developing or undeveloped countries where they can pay someone 30-60 cents an hour.
Consumers
Because the companies are paying so little to get the products manufactured, the consumers get the low prices they demand.Products that are usually 10-15 dollars could drop down to prices of 5 dollars. Low costs means happy costumers.Though it can be argued that by buying these products you are supporting the cause.