There’s no I in TEAM

After watching Bucknell’s production of Daisy’s play, I appreciated the breaks they incorporated into them. It made me really think about who could actually do something about all of the issues brought up in that hour and a half play. Ultimately, what stood out to me was that China designated this city, Shenzhen, to be the industrial center of China. The government knew specifically what it was doing when deciding on Shenzhen’s fate. My opinion is that the Chinese government should regulate these factories and the working conditions their citizens endure every day. Daisy’s script says a worker died after a 35 hour shift; this could be a fabrication or completely made up, but at the moment lets pretend its the complete truth. How can the Chinese government sit around as American “reporters” come back to the US with these horrible stories and not want to change the situation? Whether it’s true or not, westerners are hearing that China literally works their workers to death.

On that note, would America actually do anything about it? These workers labor all day to produce the goods and electronics we use, and take advantage of, every day. It’s not plausible or realistic to say that we should give up on consumerism to protect these Chinese workers; they earn a living through their jobs and our lives are made easier by the products they produce. Furthermore, America’s economy runs off of consumerism. It cannot be abolished for worker’s rights.

I think the only feasible answer is regulation, on both ends. Consumers need to know where their products are coming from through a ranking. This ranking could be similar to the way that Whole Foods ranks the animals lives before they were killed and put on the shelves. If the workers are known to have humane and comfortable working environments, they get a higher ranking. Meanwhile, it on China’s side to regulate the standards of work in it’s factories. Make the new norm not 15 hour work days and below minimum wage salaries, but actual human working environments. It’s a team effort, not an individual race to the finish.