What is social cost? For this web page, social cost refers to the negative affects of society.
Well this product has two major social costs: American Jobs and Laborer's Rights.
American Jobs
With Disney looking for "cheap" labor, many American's lose out on these jobs. Keyhinge Toys was reported by Schweizer & Schweizer in Disney the Mouse Betrayed: Greed, Corruption and Children at Risk, that they have 1,800 workers in their factory. That is 1,800 jobs in America, gone to Vietnam! This American Company, centered around American families, prevents 1,800 people from getting a job in America. If every company that was quoted in the Disney's Sweatshops link has at least 1,000 workers than that would be about 11,000 jobs (just line employees) America would have.
Laborer's Rights
These sweatshops have been reported with unfair wages, hazardous working conditions, and child labor abuse. Schweizer and Schweizer have reported that many of the companies have unfair pay and quotas for employees to meet.
Unfair Pay
Many sweatshops are related to unfair pay. This is one of the biggest issues people should be concerned with. People are trying to work for a living and support their family, but they are limited to working in the only jobs available: sweatshops. This means they are not earning enough money to support themselves or their families. The Too Cute Company owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to its employees (245). It is bad enough to be underpaid, but to not get paid at all is unfair. Haiti has four sweatshops for Disney. These sweatshops have been reported paying 36 gourdes a day, which is equivalent to about $2.40 on average, a day; this means not everyone makes this amount. Another factory, L.V. Myles sets a ridiculous quota for their factory employees. The quota is 1,600 shirts attached with collars by the end of the day. This is about three shirts with collars sewn on in one minute. This standard is unrealistic and unobtainable. With this quota, the average pay per hour is about 12 cents an hour (246). Classic Apparel pays out about 28 cents per hour. Keyhinge Toys pay about 7 cents an hour. Keyhinge also forces the employees to work 9-10 hour days, seven days a week (247). Some Chinese factories had employees working twelve-hour shifts (249). The Eden Group did a mass firing of adult employees so that they would not have to pay "that much out" (250). Victoria Garment Manufacturing Company Limited pays 6 cents an hour in Burma. They make them work 60 hours a week (252).
Working Conditions
The working conditions of a job is one of the most influential one an employee. If the employee gets sick or marked by their job, many things can happen. If they get sick, that will affect them, so they cannot work another job and they would have to pay for the medical expenses. If the employee gets sick, they miss out on another day where they could have earned a little extra money. If the conditions are serious enough, there could be long-term health issues and they may not be able to return to work. Classic Apparel was reported as having one of the most unsanitary working conditions. They had dust and lint in the air, because of the poor ventilation. This led to the many of the employees getting headaches. There were also rats running everywhere and around employees feet. The drinking water was right next to the toilet. Many women went to the hospital because they were getting infections from the water (247). The Keyhinge Toy factory has the managers follow through with discipline by corporal punishment (248). Keyhinge Toys also has had a serious issue with Acetone fumes. A total of 220 workers have fallen ill due to the acetone fumes causing headaches, dizziness, nausea and skin damage. Several young girls had their menstrual cycles affected by this acetone poisoning (248). A factory in Indonesia had outdated and unsafe equipment, exposed wires, and locked fire exits (249).
