Over 700 Dead In Bangladesh Building Collapse.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/07/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse/index.html

This tragedy just gets worse and worse. 

The next time you hear corporate America say there are too many regulations in the USA…..Just remember this story. 

This story does not happen in America because our regulations prevent it.  Those regulations were fought over (and won) many decades ago.  Our regulations help workers stay safe and have a better life.  Corporate America despises them.  That is why they bellyache every chance they get that we need to get rid of them. 

We used to make clothes in the USA.  Good luck finding a Made in USA label today.  The reason they don’t anymore is because it is cheaper to make them in Bangladesh.  It is cheaper there because stuff like this is allowed to happen.  Corporate America just wants cheap.  If cheap = dangerous that is fine.  The important word is cheap.

The owner of this factory took a 5 story building and built on 3 more floors.  There are no building codes.  No regulations.  Nobody to say…..”Hey you can’t do that”…… This kind of thing does not happen in the USA.  In the USA there are people who will say “you can’t do that”

The police showed up (at this factory) because cracks had formed on the outside of the building.  The police told the owner the building needed to be evacuated but the owner refused.  The owner forced the workers to keep working in the dangerous conditions and the entire building collapsed.  The result is over 700 are now dead…..and counting. 

Is it cheaper to run a business this way?  Sure is……  But it is right?  Who wins?  The unemployed American worker loses.  The foreign worker loses too.  A couple of executives get to pocket massive profits.  Good for them.  Bad for everyone else.

So take a look at where clothes are made.  Then think about the conditions they were made under.  Think about the unemployed Americans.  Remember maintaining the American standard of living is now an unacceptable cost for corporate America.  We are in a race to the bottom.  If they can’t treat employees like animals (In America) they will find a place they can.  When that happens everyone loses. 

Every time we buy one of these products (which today we pretty much have no choice) we are enabling this behavior to continue.