Matt Wuerker for May 13, 2013
Transcript:
How to Construct a Tragedy in Bangladesh. Structure: Global consumers' indifference to the lives of people who make their clothes. Regulation: Weak oversight mixed with local graft. Foundation: Multinational corporations chase low wages and lax regs to poor countries. Greed. More greed.
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.