Matt Wuerker for May 13, 2013

I hear that some companies are worried that regulations will be enacted in Bangla Desh, and are exploring the possibility of moving their factories to Texas.

Clever artwork.

Pat Bagley did a cartoon May 3.http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/56254668-82/bagley-cartoon-facebook-lake.html.csp

You can research it yourself, Ms. Lazy. There’s this thing called the internet, and you already spend hours there every day. Hint: google “Walmart Bangladesh” to get started. But to assume that it wasn’t WalMart just because you shop there shows a complete lack of reasoning. WalMart is the absolute champion of the kind of “race-to-the-bottom, oppose regulation and fair-pay at any cost” attitude that cost over 1000 lives in Bangladesh. More to the point, large suppliers like Walmart have a lot of influence in places like Bangladesh, and can insist that conditions improve or they’ll go elsewhere, if they know that consumers care about lives.

The unions didn’t push anyone overseas – the corporations took their ball and went there to undercut competition, take advantage of lax tariffs, and pocket more money at the executive level. If t-shirts were still made here (and some actually are), the price could remain the same. The difference would be the executives would have to work with a 20% profit per shirt, not 90%. Offer more jobs here, and wages go up as companies need to go back to offering incentives to get employees to work for them, thereby producing more disposable income in our country, resulting in people spending and buying more, and these companies still succeeding. Moving overseas is a shortcut and a cop-out. Raise tariffs, penalize the companies who do it, and America is back to being a great country.

I say we should bring back those manufacturing jobs and leave the rest of the world to a future of joblessness and the abject poverty they have traditionally known. Let’s get real cartoonist. The problems are local. It’s a tragedy that those people died, but in general they are glad to have ANY source of income. Don’t come crying to me about the deaths that my clothes caused. They don’t have to make them. Spend your venom where it belongs: local graft, corruption, cronyism, and callous greed by all parties throughout the production and supply chain. I didn’t do it. Complaining to me about it accomplishes nothing.

Does Wuerker have any way of knowing where and under what conditions the clothes he wears are made??

All you have to do is to Google “Clothing made in the USA” and you can find just about anything you would want. Yes, the prices are probably greater than at WallMart, but you are buying better quality while supporting workers here in the USA. I am not a rich man (living on such as a Boeing retirement and social security) but even I can afford the price difference. For instance I found quality polo shirts (I do not like t-shirts, as I do not like any constrictions close to my throat) Union Made in America for $25. As I generally wear my clothing until it self destructs, that is a good price to pay for something that I will have for a very long time. Why not buy from an American company and not worry about contributing to such tragedies as occurred in Bangladesh?

Most things made overseas to “avoid unions and lower prices” only lower COSTS, and INCREASE PROFITS! The price stays the same whether made here or abroad on most items. The word is that Apple computer products would cost 20% more if made in the U.S. totally, and they’re working that direction, though “sharing the work load” on complex products with lots of parts, DOES spread the wealth to other nations as well.

I have a collection of Hanes T-shirts that some are over 22 years old, and still quite wearable, very good quality. I recently bought 6 more that weren’t imprinted with the organizations emblems, for $6.50 each. They used to be made in Mexico, now El Salvador. While not at home, at least they’re keeping money in this hemisphere. The key point here is that the low cost IS a result of not using offshore production just to increase the profit margin. (At least with this company that retails the shirts.)

Most things made overseas to “avoid unions and lower prices” only lower COSTS, and INCREASE PROFITS! The price stays the same whether made here or abroad on most items. The word is that Apple computer products would cost 20% more if made in the U.S. totally, and they’re working that direction, though “sharing the work load” on complex products with lots of parts, DOES spread the wealth to other nations as well.

I have a collection of Hanes T-shirts that some are over 22 years old, and still quite wearable, very good quality. I recently bought 6 more that weren’t imprinted with the organizations emblems, for $6.50 each. They used to be made in Mexico, now El Salvador. While not at home, at least they’re keeping money in this hemisphere. The key point here is that the low cost IS a result of not using offshore production just to increase the profit margin. (At least with this company that retails the shirts.)

WAKE UP and smell reality people.businesses will always try to improve profit,or there is no business, we unionixed decades ago and improved conditions and wages after such things happened here, its starting to happen in china , and will happen elsewhere, we are simply ahead of the rest of the world, but , they will catch up