Nail salons and the modern day slave trade

This topic is a real eye opener to me. When you read the attached article it will suck you in. Not just for the fact that it opens the curtain to an industry that on the outside appears to be quite normal, but to the downright slave like conditions that these workers endure. After reading it I guarantee you never think of "getting your nails done" the same way again. What this exposes is the systemic abuse these workers are dealing with in a desperate attempts at “the american dream”.

When you think of poor working conditions what is one of the first things that comes to mind? Most people will answer a lack of compensation.  These workers are paid below minimum wage because they are considered “tipped workers” however the owners of these salons use this loophole in the system to pay them far below minimum wage. One worker is quoted in the  article as working without pay on slow days.  

Using the often illegal status of these workers against them, affording them little to no rights. The nail salon owners are stripping them of their personhood and using them purely as a means to a profitable end. 

As a male I have not spent very much time in a nail salon so this to me seems probably more shocking then to someone who frequents these businesses. Reading about this from the perspective of the people suffering through it is heart wrenching. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/nyregion/at-nail-salons-in-nyc-manicurists-are-underpaid-and-unprotected.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Walmart Employe's on food stamps

While researching for my previous post regarding welfare abuse I came upon a well produced story regarding Walmart employees and qualifications for food stamps which are officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This article and video are part of a much larger series that Slate and Marketplace are producing together called “The secret life of a food stamp”. This series spotlights Ohio for a portion of its data as well as its interviews. I found this series so interesting because it is in contrast to my previous post. Rather then people outright abusing the social welfare system it involves people working hard for long hours and still earning so little they qualify for government assistance. 

Now I know it is a well publicized fact that a percentage of Walmart's employees live below the poverty line. The reason I found this article and accompanying video so fascinating is that is looks at the issue through the eyes of an economist and puts data to work to explain just how much money Walmart averages in a year based on food stamp income alone. and how much it would cost Walmart to increase the wages of their workforce to push them out of food stamp qualification.

The reason Walmart gets the spotlight on this issue so often is twofold. Walmart is the nations largest retailer employing a staggering amount of people in all 50 states. Walmart also pays a large portion of its workforce, the cashiers and floor associates, an average of $8.81hr. This results in people working 35-40 hours a week and still not making enough to feed themselves. In Ohio alone 15% of Walmart employees use the SNAP program.

The video is short but very informative. I listen to marketplace on a daily basis on NPR and the reporting is always very well done. I encourage everyone to read the series The Secret life of a food stamp and watch the video.

All information for my article is from American Public Medias Marketplace website in conjunction with Slate.

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/secret-life-food-stamp 

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/secret-life-food-stamp/save-money-live-better

https://youtu.be/vAcaeLmybCY

Welfare reform

Welfare as a whole is a system that has a large amount of abuse nationwide. As a country we spend billions of dollars annually providing free assistance to Abawds — able-bodied adults without minor dependents ages 18 to 49, that otherwise could fend for them selves if they found motivation. Now before I get into the body of my post I want to make it clear that I don’t feel like the social welfare system is a bad thing for those who genuinely need it. I know for millions of Americans it is the difference between life and death. This opinion stems from my own experience watching firsthand someone in my own family abuse the system.

This hot topic issue has always been in the back of my mind growing up. I came from a family of divorced parents. My Mother decided after getting divorced from my father that she did not feel like working anymore so she proceeded to “adjust her lifestyle” to qualify for food stamps. My mother was a bookkeeper for her whole life so her claim of no longer being able to work was one that I met with skepticism. My impression of the situation was from the outside but as a 20 year old adult I watched my own parent basically abuse the system for free food and other assistance. I say abuse because she would work a side job as a bookkeeper for cash while still claiming a need for public assistance because she could not work. Being raised by my father who instilled in me a hard working ethic, this was contradictory to everything I knew.

So what do we do as a country? Well Maine it appears seems to be on track to get this problem taken care of.  The Governor of Maine has mandated that people do one of three things.

• Work 20 hours per week,
• Take state job-training courses
• Volunteer for six hours per week

Now from those three things I don’t feel that they are asking for too much.  All they are saying is if you aren’t actively seeking employment then you need to contribute to society to receive assistance. Effectively eliminating people sitting at home watching TV and not trying to better their situation in life. This is not targeting people working for minimum wage and having trouble putting food on the table, elderly, disabled or single parents. This is strictly the Abawds population claiming that they can’t find work. I feel like if we can motivate these people to go get work great. If we can get them to use some of their time during the week to help others in need great. I would like to see the free handouts end to the people who don’t deserve them or should be trying to move up the ladder and not get them.

The Commissioner of HHS for Maine, Mary Mayhew has a quote in the article that I feel sums up the solution very well. “You’ve got to incentivize employment, create goals and create time limits on these welfare programs,”

At the root of this issue is a fundamental problem. People have lost a fear of going hungry or homeless when they don’t have a job because the system will take care of them. I believe asking for some volunteer help or that they attend vocational rehab to help themselves out in the long run is not only beneficial to society in the short term, but it benefits the recipient in the long term.

My source article for this post is from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/us/politics/states-tighten-conditions-for-receiving-food-stamps-as-the-economy-improves.html?_r=0

This issue in Maine has been well reported by multiple sources. I urge everyone to go read a few different articles on this issue before taking a side on it. My opinion stems from personal experience.

I realize this is most likely opening a "can of worms" but since I have had such a strong opinion on it I felt this class would be the best place to share it. I am hoping for some constructive debating on this and not heated emotional and political rhetoric that only makes people upset.

Poisoned Chinese factory workers

This story appealed to me because it draws attention to the behavior that leads to people suffering as a direct result of company decisions. The underlying question that kept popping into my mind while I was reading on this issue was “if these people had their friends and family working for them, would they do things the same?”

When people move into management and executive positions within a company, they often find themselves doing things that go against the moral norm in exchange for profit. This situation has been allowed to grow to where it is today as a result of large scale moral misguidance and corruption.

Chinese factories have a reputation for being dangerous. This story takes a deeper look into the lives of the people that have been forever changed by the injuries and illness they have sustained while working in the Chinese technology industry. Decisions made by people that are not only unsafe but also unethical have lined the pockets of some while hurting many in the process.

In the United States we have the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or O.S.H.A.  that oversees the safety and well being of employees when they are working within a facility. However as soon as you leave the borders of our country you no longer have that level of oversight for safety. What happens when we offshore the manufacturing of the things we consume as a society, is manufacturers find a way to cut corners and make it cheaper for the bottom line.  What ends up suffering the most is the treatment of the employees.  This system is in place because people that are not directly affected by a decision in the name of safety will likely choose the cheapest and most profitable path without oversight.

Chinese factories are in the situation of having a large supply of under educated migrant workers lining up for employment at a job that will provide a decent paycheck. They are not the kind of people that ask questions or for the most part understand most of what’s going on around them. Therefore the company has the ability to take advantage of them and it goes largely unnoticed.

This story doesn’t just talk about the working conditions; it also talks about the health care for people who get sick on the job.  The level of corruption between these companies and china’s medical care system is buried in a bureaucratic nightmare which results in the injured and ill employees being as the article states “Put simply, China's tech-factory workers are getting red-taped to death.”

As a society we are faced with the moral dilemma between our ever growing demand for technology and consumer goods, and our desire to not make whole populations suffer at our expense. This shows how our appetite for cheap products has led to large scale human mistreatment all in the name of saving money and cutting cost.

Watch a trailer for coauthor Heather White’s documentary, Who Pays the Price? The Human Cost of Electronics.

My resources for this post is Wired Magazine online

http://www.wired.com/2015/04/inside-chinese-factories/

I highly recommend spending the time to read the story in its entirety. It will certainly open your eyes to what life is like in china behind the red curtain.

Responsible Business in the Last Frontier

Two girls on a mission 

 

This story begins in the small fishing town of Homer in remote Alaska. In a workshop where two girls named the "The Salmon Sisters" spend the long winters.  Two sisters Emma and Claire Laukitis have taken the lessons learned from a unique upbringing combined with a  lifetime of responsible family fishing and have applied it to a budding clothing company. The girls have each branched out and achieved different college education and have returned home to team up together building a company centered on raising awareness for sustainable Alaskan fishing, while at the same time gaining a sense of community that makes life in the 49th state so great. 

On the outside, the Salmon Sisters business is simple. They are producing silkscreened shirts, hoodies and other clothing that is both functional in the environment of Alaska while at the same time unique in their artwork designs. However that is where the simple part of their business plan ends. Woven throughout their business of making stylish clothing is a message that being responsible to our environment is beneficial to everyone both near and far.  The girls have chosen to take their business to another level by embracing their love of the ocean and using that to create a voice for ethical treatment of our resources for generations to come. 

I first learned about the story of these girls when my wife approached me asking that I get her a pair of tights that these girls have designed. They are fleece lined warm winter tights that are stylish while at the same time very "Alaskan".  When our local newspaper the Anchorage Daily News ran the story linked at the end of my blog, I felt that it would be a great addition to the ethical discussion that we will be creating over the next few weeks.

These girls embody the spirit of love and respect for the ocean that life revolves around in fishing communities. “Salmon Sisters has been the perfect offshoot of what we hold near and dear as commercial fishermen,” Claire said. “All fishermen are stewards of this incredible resource, and we want to share that and promote it for future generations.” Through their lifetime of fishing in the family business they have found the beauty in salmon and respect for the fisheries way to make a living. 



The girls own interests in the business don't end with just selling merchandise, They have collaborated with local organizations including The Salmon Project and The Great Land Trust to add their personal touch to help raise awareness and financial assistance  for our local salmon fishery. 

By putting their own financial gain in the background and focusing their business on the responsible way to live, work and play, the Laukitis girls are setting an example for future generations to follow in responsible small business behavior. 

All quotes and background information from this post can be found at the following: 

http://www.adn.com/article/20150405/fishy-business-homers-salmon-sisters-spread-love-alaska-through-art

All images have been borrowed from the Salmon sisters website 

http://aksalmonsisters.com

 I encourage everyone to follow the story to their website and see firsthand how they are running their business and the great products they are selling.