There is a price to pay for the cheap clothing consumers buy on a daily basis. The collapse of Rana Plaza, a factory in India, lead to around 1,200 deaths and 2,500 injuries. In this paper, I will expose the long term sacrifices 3rd world sweatshop works make in service of short term 1st world consumer interests. I will argue that this world economic structure is not sustainable long term. When we think of sweatshops, it is played off as no big deal. The reason being, we don’t see the effect it has on people because it is not in our country. What we do see, is the benefits that we, as consumers, receive from third world country sweatshops. Consumers are not willing to give up their cheap clothing when the damages don’t affect them. An interview
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The sacrifices workers are making can range from short term, like heat and sickness, to long term affects, like death. One of the main sacrifices that workers make for our cheap clothing is their own health and safety. The collapse of Rana Plaza lead to a death toll of around 1,000 garment workers (The True Cost). Following the collapse of Rana Plaza companies realized that something needed to change. “H&M, Zara, Walmart, Gap, and other major brands announced they’d fund and oversee factory inspections in Bangladesh” (Vara). According to Vauhini, people figured that if companies were more vigilant then it would prevent incident like this from happening again. Vauhini continue to write that vigilance isn’t enough (Vara). They reason that this isn’t enough is because consumers are always going to want the cheapest prices and for companies to profit they need sweatshops that pay workers low wages and put them in bad conditions. Sarah Labowitz, a co-director of New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights states, “You can’t, on one hand, have lower prices and on the other hand have rising standards”(Vara). If consumers or companies are pushing for better conditions then they have to realize that prices are going to increase. The sad reality of that is, people aren’t willing to pay more to benefit someone else’s
The sacrifices workers are making can range from short term, like heat and sickness, to long term affects, like death. One of the main sacrifices that workers make for our cheap clothing is their own health and safety. The collapse of Rana Plaza lead to a death toll of around 1,000 garment workers (The True Cost). Following the collapse of Rana Plaza companies realized that something needed to change. “H&M, Zara, Walmart, Gap, and other major brands announced they’d fund and oversee factory inspections in Bangladesh” (Vara). According to Vauhini, people figured that if companies were more vigilant then it would prevent incident like this from happening again. Vauhini continue to write that vigilance isn’t enough (Vara). They reason that this isn’t enough is because consumers are always going to want the cheapest prices and for companies to profit they need sweatshops that pay workers low wages and put them in bad conditions. Sarah Labowitz, a co-director of New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights states, “You can’t, on one hand, have lower prices and on the other hand have rising standards”(Vara). If consumers or companies are pushing for better conditions then they have to realize that prices are going to increase. The sad reality of that is, people aren’t willing to pay more to benefit someone else’s