Quarter 2, Assignment 2

David Riccardo (S. Basler)
The doors shut on the face of a factory worker, and there is no turning back, no escaping the "prison" that they live in each day. Hour after hour, they stand there, fingers working, sweat dripping down their neck. But they cannot stop. The air, filled with dust and not a single window to let sunlight in. They cannot breathe, yet, they cannot stop. Why should they be forced to work in terrible conditions? If we want output, the workers need to be in conditions where they are comfortable, not where they are suffering for over thirteen hours of their day. In fact, in The Law of Comparative Cost, an article which I wrote, I proposed that "people everywhere would benefit most from by concentrating on the production of goods in which the conditions are the most favorable". We already send economic goods overseas, yet the government refuses to move the people to better conditions. Imagine however, how much more production we would have if we moved workers overseas! They could work in much larger buildings with much better conditions. If this were to happen, the workers would most likely be much more useful in supplying our country with the demands that we need. For one, if conditions were better, they would be less likely to be sick or injured, thus, speeding up the means of production. Also, if we shifted work overseas, we could be able to hire twice as many workers, creating more products at an even faster rate. We cannot stand here and watch our citizens suffer before our own eyes. If we want to be able to earn money on our profits, we need to treat our workers the right way.