Ethics and International Business:
Finding the Lesser Evil

At the beginning of this course it was made apparent that the class was not meant to be a monologue by the instructor but a discussion. From the numerous discussions held in class, I have come to the belief that ethics in international business was the most significant topic discussed in this course.
Ethics in international business and the outsourcing of labor is a prevalent issue that affects not only the United States and our nation's economy, but also the economy of other countries. In a world where technology has made the whole world accessible, the global economy has become more and more important. The labor standard of the outsourcing companies also gets down to
The perspective that sweatshops are a lesser evil requires a look at the bigger picture involved. This perspective takes an approach that in general conditions and wages in sweatshops are equal or better than the alternatives available to the labor force in these countries. While these conditions are not ideal, they do provide for improvement. It is not doubted that there will be situations in which the conditions of sweatshops cross the line and infringe on universal human rights; however, those special situations should not lead to the complete halt of sweatshops, rather better regulation of their practices. In the case of wages, one might question why an increase to wages doesn't occur due to the fact that the increase would not lead to an extreme increase in labor cost to the multinational corporations. However, once again the bigger picture has to be evaluated. Rapid growth to the gross national product of a developing country can cause more hindrance than help. Growth must be steady and even sometimes slow. Even countries such as the United States faced times of low wages such as in the Industrial Revolution. A country cannot grow completely in one step. It must take many smaller steps. As for the economy of the world as a whole, outsourcing labor can prove to be beneficial to both the home-country of the corporation as well as the host-country receiving the labor. The fine line as to where the balance