Levi Strauss Essay Example for Free

Levi Strauss Essay As one attempts to assess the business ethics of Levi Strauss and Nike in this writing assignment, we are again compelled to revisit the critical distinction of conduct that is legal, yet still unethical. In both instances, Levi Strauss and Nike behaved with the parameters of legal conduct, yet few would argue that profiting from exploitive work conditions is an ethical behavior of any socially responsible organization (broad view social responsibility). Obviously, it’s very tempting to just condense this argument to the point of â€Å"bad companies boosting profits from lower labor costs via exploiting foreign workers in sweatshops†. I am going to take a much broader approach here in my assessment, as complete fairness to the two corporations here requires a bit of an indictment of the legal, regulatory, political, and socioeconomic environment that they operate in. So, let’s start there †¦ how is it that both of these large corporations are permitted (and driven) to outsource (with relative impunity) labor to countries with poor labor laws? In order to fairly assess their conduct, one must first examine the system under which they operate. How has corporate America gone down this path? Why do so many large U. S. corporations outsource labor en masse, which costs the U. S. economy so many jobs domestically? Let’s start by looking in the mirror and by that I mean you and I †¦ the U. S. consumer. Our thirst for cheap merchandise made overseas knows no limits. Do any of us look at the country of origin for goods, and if it’s non-U. S. do we even pause for a second to consider boycotting said goods due to loss of American jobs? Or boycott due to the nation of origin’s reputation for worker abuse? Of course we don’t. We want that Japanese high definition television from Wal-Mart that costs $100 less. We want the clothing from China or Indonesia that is 30% cheaper than similar brands made here. So, my first premise in this entire argument is that American consumers are NOT socially responsible in their purchasing habits. This lack of social responsibility on the demand side is a catalyst for Levi Strauss and Nike to seek cheaper labor overseas – for if they do not, their competitors assuredly will and they will be at a competitive disadvantage. Now, let’s assess the legal and regulatory environment under which both entities operate in the United States. Has Congress made it illegal to outsource labor to countries that they know are abusing their labor forces? In general, of course not. Congress maintains a blind eye to the problem, debating it over the years here and there in a politically motivated, half-hearted effort to occasionally placate certain voting segments (labor unions; displaced workers). Do they tougher their stance? Do they for one minute say to themselves, â€Å"this is really wrong, and socially irresponsible†? By inaction Congress is tacitly approving this practice, which of course is what powerful corporate lobbyists want. The profit motive has large U. S. corporations addicted to cheap labor now; Pandora’s Box has been opened and no one has the political will to attempt to close it. So let’s recap so far: we’ve indicted the U. S. consumer and our lawmakers in the legislative branch of the U. S. government (Congress) as major cultivators of the pro-outsourcing environment for which Levi Strauss and Nike must successfully operate under. Next on our list of socially irresponsible contributing parties – the judicial branch of the U.S. government. When the U. S. Supreme Court found in 2010 that the formation of so called â€Å"Super PACs† for campaign donations was legal, this gave corporations new powers under the law to, in effect, buy our government via opulent and obscene campaign spend funneled to candidates. The end result of this ruling is that corporations that profit greatly from outsourced labor are now able to pay for the elections of our Congressmen – and gee, wonder how this economic â€Å"favor† will be repaid when attempts to rein in outsourcing come up in Congress? Let’s move on to our two protagonists in this debate: Levi Strauss and Nike. Now that we’ve got the backdrop well in hand, and a reasonable person would agree that a massive systemic failure in the U. S. has allowed and promoted unchecked outsourcing of jobs, it’s time to discuss these two corporate giants and their respective behaviors here. Do these two corporations have a responsibility to monitor the conduct of the companies they do business within particular, their contractors and suppliers? As a personal believer in the broader view of corporate social  responsibility, I believe that they do. Notwithstanding the fact that all of this outsourcing is legal, and despite the mitigating factors that I’ve argued above that do alleviate these two companies of all of the blame – I still believe that they need to take the higher moral ground. Levi Strauss overall has conducted itself with far greater corporate social responsibility than Nike has, in my judgment. Strauss for many years withdrew from China due to their notoriety as a non-democratic country with abusive labor conditions. Regrettably, it had to re-enter China eventually to keep pace with competitors. Also, witness the way that Strauss treated its displaced U. S. workers as it (with some remorse) eventually had to close all its U. S. plants due to competition from outsourcers. Strauss gave generous severance and retraining dollars to the affected workers. In my estimation, Strauss has had to compromise its socially responsible corporate culture due to pressures from the warped competitive environment that was designed around them. It became a matter of survival for their corporation; their management had to adapt or risk failure and loss of the shareholders’ investments in the company. That is why I authored the overview above – I think it’s highly relevant to assessing Strauss’s conduct here. The system failed Levi Strauss – they wanted to behave under the broad definition of corporate social responsibility, but the demand for cheaper outsourced goods by consumers and the legality of outsourcing jobs (Congressional oversight failure) forced an adaptive change against their moral grain. Nike, however, is no apologist when it comes to their outsourcing. In fact, they are proud of it – even boasting that they pay outsourced workers higher than average wages for their region. To me, this is tantamount to bragging that â€Å"we don’t abuse those workers as badly as others do†. Frankly, that attitude offends my sensibilities and my personal set of ethical standards. I also deem it to be in direct conflict with the broader definition of corporate social responsibility. Lastly, I think that corporations have the obligation to take the ethical high ground and behave in a socially responsible manner (broad definition). That said, however, I do not believe that it’s a fair expectation to demand that high standard if adhering to same places the company’s very existence at risk due to systemic failures beyond their control. Levi Strauss attempted to â€Å"do the right thing†, but poor rules and oversight make competing in a broad ethical manner quite dangerous to its ultimate survival. Strauss’s example should serve as a wakeup call to U. S. consumers and our Congress: systemic change is needed, and it’s needed NOW.

My Memories :: essays research papers

These are some of my memories that I can remember clearly. Some are from a very long time ago and some are quite resent. I have three, some parts of them are bad memories and other parts are that good that I’ll never forget them. One of my earliest memories was when I was about 3 or 4 and lived in a small house in Warrington. It was a hot sunny day and I was out in the garden playing football with my friend Joe. My Mum, and Joe's Mum, were both in the house having dinner together because they had not seen each other for a while. Me and Joe were both seeing who could do the most kick-ups. When it was my turn, I kicked the ball too far and it landed in next doors garden. I walked over to have a look if I could see it. As I was walking over I could see some thing in the bush, I then realized it was an action figure. So I ran to get it, but before I got there, Joe had already beaten me to it. I tried to snatch of him but he kept hold tight, like a dog with a bone. We were fighting and arguing over it for about 2 or 3 minutes. Then all of a sudden he let go and I went flying through the air. I then ended up landing on the concrete out side the back door and smacking my head on the floor. The pain rushed to my head and I started to feel dizzy. It felt like some one had put my head in a vice and tightened it slowly. There was no blood but there was a huge bruise on the back of my head. I started to scream as loud as I could and both of our parents came rushing out of the back door to see what was going on. The brui se lasted for a week or so and I didn’t talk to Joe for a month or so. Another one of my memories was when I was around 10 years old. My Dad had a friend who was doing up an old motor bike out of scrap parts. At the time all I wanted was a motor bike, and I begged my Dan to buy it of his friend. My Dad asked his friend if he would sell the motor bike after he had got it working.

Health Cruises Homework Essay

1. What is the minimum number of passengers Health Cruises must sign up by November 20th to break even? *Fixed costs = $220,000 (Ship rental and crew) + $65,000(initial advertisement expense) +$10,000(administrative expense) = $295000 *Contribution per unit = $1500 -$200 = $1300 *Breakeven point (in units)= 295000/1300 = 226.92 : At least 227 passengers should sign up for Health Cruises by November 20th. 2. Should Health Cruises go ahead with the cruise since 200 people have signed up by November 14th? Why or why not? : Though I concede that Health Cruises do not reach the break-even point and is very likely to make loss at this situation, I suggest them to keep running this trip from a long term perspective. The company should not consider only financial issue in operating business and miss an opportunity to make huge profits and create new spectrum of service. If Health Cruise efficiently proceed this trip and offer fine quality of service to these 200 passengers, this package cruises would go famous through word of mouth and gain effective advertising effect. Also, the company can better understand the operating system of its product and reconstruct its business and financial system to make profit. Therefore, instead of losing enormous amount of fixed costs by cancelling this whole cruise, I believe Health Cruises should present its product regardless of its current financial stat us. 3. The advertising agency has proposed two alternative campaigns to help fill the boat. One will cost $6000 and the other would cost $15,000. Which would you suggest? *Breakeven point including = 295000+6000/1300 = 232 another ads cost $6,000(in units) * Breakeven point including = 295000+15000/1300 = 239 another ads cost $15,000(in units) : I suggest the corporation to choose the campaign that costs $15,000 since, as calculation shown above proves, it has higher possibility of bringing enough number of passengers to exceed breakeven point in units and earn profit. 4. Should Health Cruises consider cutting its prices for this trip? Why or why not? What other factors could impact the go/no-go decision in addition to the break even? : The corporation should not cut its price for this trip because considering the fixed and variable costs its current price which ranges from $1500 to $2200 seems reasonable and at this point where this trip is the first product presenting and only 200 passengers signed up for it, we cannot guarantee that enough number of passengers would come to make profit even if we drop the price. Moreover, Health cruises should consider other internal and external factors to make this trip successful such as other ways to reduce its fixed and variable cost, its competitors’ prices and products and nation’s economic status.

How Convincing Is the View That Sense Experience Is the...

How convincing is the view that sense experience is the source of all knowledge? (30mark) The view that sense experience is the source of all knowledge is an Empiricist one. Rationalism and Empiricism are the two ways in which one can approach questions regarding the obtaining of knowledge. Empiricism would argue that knowledge from reason is trivial, as it doesn’t tell us anything substantial about the world, and the only way we can do that is through experiencing it. Locke was an empiricist who believed all knowledge was gained through sense experience. He referred to the mind at birth as a ‘tabula rasa’, ‘clean slate’, thus demonstrating that we are born without any knowledge, and the only way to gain knowledge is through our†¦show more content†¦However, God is good, thus he wouldn’t do that, therefore it must be the work of a ‘demon’. Therefore according to rationalist Descartes, a deceiving demon could be making us believe every time that two plus two equals four, when it in fact doesn’t, yet we would never be able to prove this through sense experience. When Descartes came to his final conclusion, he stated that there was only one thing he could ever be certain of, the fact that ‘I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time it is expressed by me, or conceived in my mind.’ Thus also demonstrating the existence of synthetic a priori knowledge, knowledge gained without s ense experience. However, and empiricist called Hume also believed all knowledge came from sense experienced, and divided all true propositions into two categories. Hume defined knowledge as true propositions, and that these were either relations of ideas, such as mathematics and logical truths, or matters of fact, such as claims about the world, and a posteriori knowledge. Hume therefore argued that firstly, relations of ideas, although important, are restricted by mathematical and logical principle thus they do not actually add to our knowledge of the world, which is the most important knowledge to us. Secondly, he stated that if we find a claim which falls into neither category, it is to be â€Å"committed to the flames† as is can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion, thus it is meaningless toShow MoreRelated Abortion934 Words   |  4 PagesAbortion In the following article we will argue wheatear abortion should be practice or should not be practice. It is a subject that concerns all of us; especially women since are the ones expose to this harsh procedure. The argument Electoral Politics and Abortion was published in fall of 2003, by Laurie Shrage. During the year of the Publications Argument, many controversies arouse from this delicate subject, creating new groups like pro- choice and pro-life. 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