An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

The use of unpaid child labor is perhaps the ultimate bad business practice. The Gap was caught in such a relationship in late October. Once it was made public, Gap officials terminated the relationship. That is too late, of course, for the goods that The Gap has already profited from. And it is hardly the point.

American companies have worked hard to move jobs offshore to increase their profits. All too often, it turns out that their profits are being made on the backs of poorly paid laborers working in squalid or unsafe conditions. Business relationships such as these should never be allowed to start, and certainly never to continue. Nor should the press have to catch a company like The Gap in the act to make the company pay attention to human rights.

American corporations have a responsibility to see that worker dignity and safety are not sacrificed in the name of profits. It is the only proper ethical choice to be made. Overseas factories need to be part of the oversight programs by the American companies that contract for products from places like India, China, and Africa. It is obvious that we cannot, as a nation, continue to criticize the human rights violations of other countries while we continue to profit by them by doing Bad Business ourselves.