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Moral considerations in outsourcing to foreign labor

Matthew F. Pierlott (Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA)

International Journal of Social Economics

ISSN: 0306-8293

Article publication date: 1 May 2004

4123

Abstract

This paper argues that the principles of capitalism do not condone the widespread practice of labor exploitation occurring across the globe. Instead, they demand that some countermeasure be enacted to mitigate the structural oppression of laborers in less developed economies. Through heavy use of two scholars, Horace Fairlamb and Robert Goodin, the author concludes that corporations outsourcing their labor to such workers must pay a “sustainable living wage”. Fairlamb's analysis of Adam Smith reveals the potential undervaluation of labor in free markets, and Goodin's ethical theory produces a principle of group responsibility that the author applies to corporations, who are in the best position to remedy the situation.

Keywords

Citation

Pierlott, M.F. (2004), "Moral considerations in outsourcing to foreign labor", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 31 No. 5/6, pp. 582-592. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068290410529407

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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