Lauren Edmunds
November 4, 2015
OP Ed Week 8
Blood Money? More Like Blood Shopping Bags
Earlier this morning, a factory in Pakistan collapsed and so far it has left 18 people dead, along with 75 injured and 150 people
trapped, according to Reuters investigator Mubasher Bukhari[1].
This factory made shopping bags that are exported to the United States. This
happens at a time when this level of devastation in not so shocking. This is
just one of a number of similar disasters that left a packed, floor-to-ceiling
factory in complete shambles. In fact, no part of the building was left
standing whatsoever. A rescue operation is taking place, but the 150 possibly
still alive people that are still trapped are losing air and hope by the
second.
As stated earlier, this kind and level of disaster is common
in this part of the world. According to Reuters, in 2012, there was a fire in a
factory in the city of Karachi that left 289 people dead. These numbers are
minor compared to the factory collapse in Bangladesh that left 1,100 people
dead back in 2013. This destruction is normalized in that part of the world,
but can often go completely ignored in the United States. This is a troubling
fact, as most of the time it is our goods that these people died making.
According to Census.gov, the US 2.8 million dollars on
good imported from Pakistan alone from January to September of 2015[2].
This figure is quite large, yet the year is not even out. We clearly rely on
Pakistani factories for our clothing, shoes, and other goods. The people that
create our goods do so under extremely harsh working conditions and for poor
wages. If these were the same conditions for workers in the United States,
there would be country wide outrage. But we are not in Pakistan and we do not
get to see our goods being made. What we do get to see is photos of
destructions and death from factory collapses.
With all of this being said, it is within the scope of
reason to deem the United States as partially responsible for this tragedy. The
United States government understands under what conditions our imports are made
under. We understand that risks of this type of situation is quite high, we
just don’t care. That is why we have allowed and will continue to allow factory
collapses and fires and explosions to carry on. We are holding our stuff at a higher priority than our
fellow man and enough is enough.
The United States is in a position where if we stop
importing goods from the Middle East, then the public could get seriously angry.
While it is an option to demand better working conditions for the workers and
to boycott the imports until that demand is met, domestically that would not be
in the best interest of the US government. As states earlier, horrible working
conditions are not something that is advertised alongside an ad for Target or
Walmart. This is not something that Americans really truly care about, even
though it should be. So, if the government took away our stuff, we wouldn’t
care why, we would just be angry. A better option for the government would be
to possibly put a tax on all imported goods that falls on the shoulders of companies
and brands doing the importing, which are taking goods from sweat shops and the
like.
This would obviously anger all companies that purchase
imported goods, but the most effective part of this strategy would be the fact
that they would be unable to avoid the tax. The business relies on these goods
to turn a profit, so boycotting the purchasing of the goods would be
unrealistic. In the end, the companies would move to buy goods that were
created in a morally acceptable fashion. If not, then the money generated from
the tax can be used to provide aid to the countries with poor factories in
order to build safer work places.
Our clothing, toys, and random stuff is no longer
manufactured with fabric, plastic, glass or other materials. Everything is now
being made with blood, and that is terrifying. What is even more terrifying is
that American society perfectly accepts that notion. We simply don’t care about
the egregious violations of human rights that occur in order to make our stuff.
The time for not caring is over. We need to recognize the harm we are liable
for and make it right.
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