There has been much publicity about the exploitation of workers in developing or third world countries. The issue has been in newspapers, magazines, on T.V. and radio and attempts made by people to boycott western companies that partake in these sorts of actions, but the exploitation of workers in the developing world is a matter of great debate because the term exploitation is generally ill defined. Some people insist that exploitation occurs when workers are poorly paid, poorly treated, or work in poor conditions, these people are the ones that have made the attempts to boycott American and European companies engaged in this behaviour, for instance Nike.
But other people's opinions are dithered to the above opinion because they believe exploitation in the above sense is a matter of judgement. They say for example what may seem like corporate exploitation to a westerner may in fact be a valuable job opportunity for a unskilled labourer in a developing country. The $5 a day earned by the unskilled labourer may seem like nothing to westerners but in comparison the developing country that does not charge as much for items as westerners, the $5 may be enough to get them their needs. In Managua, Police officers earn $100 a month, the unskilled in the sweatshop earns $90, ask yourself, do you think this is really exploitation???.
Without this employment in the sweat shop the unskilled would have to resort to crime, begging or prostitution to feed their family. The only way to really see exploitation on level terms is to look at things such as coercion. I guess you would agree that when people are forced to work - as in Burma - or else face imprisonment, bodily harm, rape or worse if they don't agree to work, that this is a definite exploitation of workers. Such conditions are intolerable and demand moral action.
In this sense Exploitation affects the lives of the peoples subjected to this treatment in a number of ways.
