General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn Forbes: The worst justification for exploiting overseas workforces. EVER.
Last edited Mon Apr 29, 2013, 06:29 AM - Edit history (1)
Sadly, Bangladesh Simply Cannot Afford Rich World Safety And Working Standards
The horrible disaster in Bangladesh, where hundreds lost their lives as a shoddy building collapsed onto the various workforces, forces us to face an unpleasant truth. Bangladesh simply isnt rich enough to be able to have the same safety and working standards as those we enjoy in the rich countries.
<snip>
To which there are two responses Id make. The first is that this is all a bit colonial really, isnt it? Bangladesh does have a government, they do have laws about who can work where, for how long, how much they should be paid and so on. They also have building codes, building inspectors and all the rest. It really is a colonial attitude to insist that the locals cannot work these things out for themselves and that they must have some set of foreign rules imposed upon them. In a certain light we can even say that it appears racist to some extent. Poor brown people just arent good enough at this governance stuff so we enlightened ones will have to do it for them.
<snip>
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/28/sadly-bangladesh-simply-cannot-afford-rich-world-safety-and-working-standards/
Appropriately, the name of this vile shit stain is Worstall.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)when we haven't just had a massive tragedy due to lack of regulations, then the Forbes types are all "lack of regulations is FREEDOM".
Then in the wake of this tragedy they take a pose that of course regulations are good, but not everyone can afford them. Bullshit. Bangladesh is their ideal, the only reason we're not like Bangladesh is because the Forbes types LOST.
Skittles
(152,966 posts)*DISGUSTING*
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)I hate them too.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)oldest neocolonial excuse in the book.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)Was this person being sarcastic? Sounds like something written by a pampered, privileged freshman in a high end private college...one can even imagine the faux 'cultured' accent....
panzerfaust
(2,818 posts)reformist2
(9,841 posts)In any case, he doesn't mention that it doesn't cost a dime to tell people to stay home because, you know, the building might collapse.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)tries to cover with this little fig leaf, that some of their profits could be invested in the facilities in which their workers are employed? That perhaps paying decent wages to workers would allow them to be able to afford the products they make and could lift the economy as a whole?
I never ever hear a journalist or economist or politician confronting the "takers" on their moral failure to the societies they take from.
timdog44
(1,388 posts)is a contributor to Forbes. This should all be what is necessary to determine his tunnel vision view of the problem. $ to the right side and $ to the left side. Bangladesh did not build these plants and call Walmart or Sears or The Gap and say, "look what we can do". Some punk ass profiteer went there and set this up because he could force these people to work long hours for no money. Without all the social safety factors that should be present. To think that their economy has to evolve on the bodies of the workers is absolutely disgusting. That may have happened in the past, but it is not the way it had to happen. It happened because of the greed of these ass hat corporatists. The fact that these people can sleep at night is an indication of their lack of morals, ethics and compassion.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Though they don't realize it, the pro-sweatshop people in the US today are recycling Marxism 101 by saying that particular development is inevitable and Bangladesh can't "skip steps". The fact that there isn't a blueprint doesn't mean the developing world today can't make one.
marble falls
(56,359 posts)AllyCat
(16,036 posts)Apple and FoxConn are the best thing to happen to China?
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)Small wonder why he contributes to Forbes: he's a neo-lib offshoring apologist to the highest degree, an odious piece of garbage.
Trekologer
(994 posts)The author points out that the only way that lasting working condition improvements and safety reforms will happen is if the population in the country, and especially the workers, demand it. If it is forced by the outside, the factory owners will clean up the places temporarily and trot out some workers who attest to how benevolent the owners are but then go back to how the conditions were before when no one is looking anymore.
cali
(114,904 posts)but they have extremely limited power and the forces of intimidation have targeted them brutally. Secondly, it's not an either/or situation. Forces on the outside can work with people there.
Hundreds and hundreds of people died in fucking agony. Your placid acceptance of this is hard to stomach.
OneGrassRoot
(22,917 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)the author does very sneakily imply that the Bangladeshi people are ok with this lack of safety, and you believed it.
AllyCat
(16,036 posts)the people will still get safety and the jobs will still land there. What better way than to learn from the people who fought this crap for decades and lost many, many lives. We can guide them on how to do it and they can still have their cheap products to sell back to those of us who can barely afford them anymore.
99Forever
(14,524 posts).. this is the direction the USA is being pushed.
Ain't it grand?
Enrique
(27,461 posts)a great point from one of the comments under the article.
Labor conditions only improved because people fought for them. And most importantly, people fought AGAINST them, and such people often write for magazines like Forbes.
I can see why the RWers don't like labor history being taught in schools. It's a lot like Civil Rights, they want people to think these things just happened by themselves. As soon as people learn about these movements, they recognize the movemements' opponents, who are still with us, they are the rightwingers. Now that they have lost, they are pretending they were on the winning side all along and they need to be called out.