rescuers lift some miners trapped in south africa

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/rescuers-lift-some-miners-trapped-south-africa-n31516

This article focuses on Some illegal miners and how they ended up being stuck in a gold mine near Johannesburg. Initially the rescuers pulled out 12 miners, and then another 30, who stated that there were supposedly another two hundred bellow. The company exploiting the mine is called gold one, it is a Chinese company. Many of the workers do not want to be reduced in fear of being arrested as soon as they reach the surface. Illegal mining is not rare in South Africa, the Chinese company stated that the workers were not theirs, that apparently they had tried to access the companies sector and the mine collapsed on them while they dug their way in.

I can relate this to the industrial revolution in a sense that there were many workers who were not in optimal conditions. Honestly I believe that the workers do work for the gold one company but this one pays them under the radar in order to save more money on things like safety precautions, taxes, the minimal wage, and other money consuming tasks. The company obviously benefits from these workers since they are probably desperate for the work, and will receive the most minimal pay. This has been going on since the industrial revolution and probably will still happen. The invisible hand did play a role here, by the mine collapsing, and the gold one company being so ironically close, the government or certain organisation will probably open an investigation into it to see if the miners are actually illegally working for gold one. This serves as a punishment since if it is so, the company will have to pay a large fine and suffer other consequences. The idea is that eventually companies will do the correct things so that they will not be punished by the invisible hand, but in my opinion there is a long long way to go.

Nike Sweatshop History: Should Action be Taken

https://sites.google.com/site/americanlaborcrises/labor-crises/nike-sweatshop-action

This article focusses on the inhuman labor conditions in the nike factories. The trend setting brand is recognised world wide and is one of the most successful companies for athletic wear. In order to produce so many products to fulfil the demand they have various factories located world wide, mostly in China, Indonesia and Vietnam since there is such cheap labor. Since the workers there are in urgent need of work they will submit to terrible working conditions, like being exposed to chemicals, sexual, physical and verbal abuse from superiors, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions. Since they are so needy of the little income they get from this job, they cannot speak up for themselves and their rights and tolerate the abuse. Children have also been seen working in these factories, therefor it is considered child labor. nike has set high standards for itself since it is a leading company and is supposed to set high standards, so this behaviour is very disappointing. 

I can relate this article to both topics seen in class so far, the invisible hand and the industry revolution. These two are sort of connected since they both form part of the concept of an economy. The nike sweatshop crisis relates to the industrial revolution since the workers are working for a low wage and are making products in mass quantities, it also shows how the workers are mostly low class that have no employment and are needy of that income. Child labor was also a hey role in the industrial revolution, and it can still be seen now a days since this revolution is basically the reason that we are so modernised now a days. 

It relates to the invisible hand basically in the sense of supply and demand. Since there is high demand for the Nike products the company is forced to create a large supply. The company benefits from the cheapest labour possible, and the quality in nike products is generally good, at least in my experience. So when the company was paying the workers less then the minimum wage and gaining a huge profit out of the finished product the invisible hand punished the company, through manifestations and the media people began to boycott Nike and its sweatshop products, therefore Nike saw itself forced to change the working conditions in those factories. When nike increased the wages and started to improve the working conditions the clients stopped to boycott Nike and it returned to its normality, obviously with the constant observations of the authorities. In conclusion we can say that the industrial revolution is still partly present now a days, and the invisible hand is constantly monitoring the companies to make sure that all of the people benefit from the free economy.