The article printed by the Economist earlier this year, “When the jobs inspector calls” reveals the complicated relationship between large companies and their use of factories and workers overseas. The off-Broadway play “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs”, though revealed to somewhat falsely portray the working conditions of the apple factories, sparked the purpose of this article to touch on the ethically troubling issue of poor and dangerous working conditions in return for lower production costs.

Large companies, such as Nike and now Apple, have been revealed to have dangerous and unfair working conditions for their factories and workers abroad.  Though they continue to say that their conditions are improving, it is difficult to measure the proper worth of these luxuries compared to the working conditions of those producing their parts. Ideally, there would be a safe and protected environment for which these workers work under, but since that is currently unattainable, how far can we justify the production of these items?

Additionally, since we as consumers continue to provide a market for these products, there is little incentive for these large corporations to reform their systems that prove to still function. What are we, as consumers, and these companies as producers going to do to properly improve the working condition abroad?