Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying Cheap

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ross, J. Elliot (John Elliot), 1884-1946.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource : multiple file formats

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg,

Summary:

"Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying Cheap" by J. Elliot Ross is a socio-economic treatise written in the early 20th century. This work addresses the ethical implications of consumer choices in relation to labor conditions, particularly focusing on the responsibilities of consumers toward fair wages for workers. The book explores the interconnectedness of the consuming class and wage-earners, raising critical questions about economic justice and moral obligation. At the start of the text, Ross introduces a poignant comparison between a child purchasing a prize-bag and the young women laboring under poor conditions to produce these items. He uses this analogy to frame the broader issues of exploitation in industry, suggesting that consumers who seek cheap prices are, perhaps unknowingly, complicit in sustaining unjust labor practices. The opening portion not only sets the stage for exploring the obligations consumers have toward the wage-earners but also establishes a critical perspective on the nature of economic responsibilities in modern society. Ross argues that if employers fail to uphold their duties to laborers, the consuming class must consider their own ethical obligations regarding fair labor practices and wages. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Contents:

The point at issue

Obligations of the consuming class

What is a just employer?

Theory of industrial organization

Industrial conditions: wages

Industrial conditions: health

Industrial conditions: morals

What should the individual consumer do?

Credits:

Produced by Caitlin Hesser, Odessa Paige Turner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

Notes:

Reading ease score: 60.8 (8th & 9th grade). Neither easy nor difficult to read.

Release date is 2013-06-26