Final answer:
Workers in low-income countries like China and Vietnam work longer hours due to lower labor costs that attract corporations, and these countries have less stringent labor standards and enforcement than the U.S., facilitating cost-effective production for the global market.
Step-by-step explanation:
Workers in China and Vietnam work long hours to send shoes to the U.S. due to the global economic system that heavily relies on labor cost differentials. Countries like China and Vietnam offer lower labor costs which attract multinational corporations seeking to maximize profits by reducing production expenses. This is a result of various factors, including the greater availability of labor in these countries, less stringent labor standards, and working conditions which are not as rigorously enforced as in higher-income countries like the United States.
Efforts to improve profitability led to the outsourcing of shoe production to places where wages are significantly lower. Such regions, sometimes referred to as 'world factories,' can produce vast quantities of goods for the global market. Dongguan, for instance, accounts for a substantial portion of the world's shoe production. This outsourcing contributes to the long working hours as a larger volume of goods is needed to sustain the profit margins desired by these corporations.