Nike, to offer the best return to shareholders maximises profits by using the cheapest labour.
Or they go out of business. That's the way it works. As entrepreneurs at these forums, we know how important it is to keep down costs.
Nike uses Women and Child labour and pays incredible low wages. This means parents cannot afford to send their kids to schools, but instead make them work. In other words, it keeps them in poverty.
Absolutely not true. I recommend 'The End of Poverty' by Jeffrey Saks. Women in Bangladesh, for example, will willingly walk miles to work and spend 12 hours a day at their job in order to earn $1/day. This is a huge opportunity for them and allows them, for example, to send their children to school. It's really important that we not judge other countries by our standards. The truth is that jobs of this sort are raising them out of poverty for the first time.
Having been to many of these countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mozambique, Morocco, Uganda, etc.), I can tell you just how important it is for them to receive outsourcing contracts. We see sweatshops in the news, and of course they are wrong, but they are by far the exception. One important rule I use in daily life is to remember that many in India survive on $0.25/day - that's 12p/day. (Incidentally, I never buy treats for myself these days but instead think of ways I can spend that money more usefully.) For them, a wage of $1/day, with some basic benefits and maybe even daily meals, is a fourfold increase in income.
As of 2006, an estimated 17.8% of the population live below the poverty line, and 49.0% of the population live on less than US$2 per day. * Source Wikipedia
But you must understand the context (see above). If you get the chance, I'd recommend going to these places. Then you'll begin to understand just how important it is for these people to have meaningful jobs - and how meaningless it is to use figures and benefits expected by workers in the West.
No, but lets not kid ourselves. This country is just about feeding itself despite being the 21st richest country in terms of GDP. Sure, some people are obviously wealthy, but its the few, not the many - which is also distorting the figures, as per-capita they stand in 114th place.
I've been there. I've seen the squallor and experienced the slums. I spent time with a family, for example, in which 8 people lived and slept in a single bare room and the community's latrine was a dirty brick wall in public view of all and in which dogs fed on their vomit (indeed, it was humbling to eat a banana and to drink a can of the local cola the family gave me, with the entire family watching me, knowing that this probably cost them a day's wage - yet I was expected to accept their generous gift). Outsourcing is a first step on the ladder and out of such poverty. Foreign aid to government never works, but giving real people real jobs does - over time. Again, I recommend going to somewhere like this and witness the situation first-hand. Trust me: it's a life-changing experience.
Yes, as I pay a western price for my shoes. This high price, on top of exchange rates (If £90-100 here in the UK, that's $200 for Trainers which costs less than $10 to make), meaning wages could be considerable higher without much financial penalty for Nike.
It doesn't work like that. If Nike paid workers Western rates, it would destablisize the society (making the rich richer and the poor more destitute). Worse, other companies would go to other countries only too willing to accept a $1/day - and Nike would go out of business and the Indonesians would lose their jobs. Again, please don't judge other countries by our standards.
As you can tell, I feel quite emotional about this topic. Having seen children running around naked in their own filth, having to keep my car window closed in the sweltering heat because of the stench of a huge slum, I understand very well just how important it is to help them. Some call them lazy, but they'll willingly walk 5+ miles a day for a bucket of water. These are people with pride who won't accept charity. They just want the opportunity to work, and Western companies are offering them that chance increasingly. We must do all we can to encourage this trend because it's changing the world - and we can feel good about it.
What frustrates me immensely are the arrogant idealogues who proclaim on TV how we must tax the rich and end globalisation and give to the poor. This approach would undo all the progress we've made and lead, once again, to government failure. I'll bet you that very few of these idealogues have ever even visited a third world nation and experienced first-hand what it means to live there.
