Fox News Insensitive Statements On Wal-Mart Factory Fire Shows Laissez Faire Capitalism In Action

[egbertowillies]

A massive fire in the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. garment factory in Bangladesh killed at least 112 people. It turns out this factory sewed merchandise for several American companies. Walmart was one of these customers.

According to Walmart, the factory was no longer authorized to produce merchandise but said the supplier subcontracted the work in violation of their policies. According to the AP

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families and offered $1,250 to each of the families of the dead.

These workers were paid as little as $43.00 (3,500 BDT) a month since the recent institution of a new minimum wage law.

The above are the facts as we know them and as we are told. Everything else is either spin or knowledgeable inference.

The spin from Fox News’ Charles Payne is that this would not happen again. He implies that the complaints against Walmart and the customers of this factory are an affront or attack on capitalism. He says that while it is a tragedy, it is a stretch to call out Walmart on this catastrophe. Of course his signature statement -- “Don’t think the people in Bangladesh who perished didn’t need or want those jobs as well” -- implies that this was a risk of being employed.

(See Video HERE)

One can infer that based on the wages Walmart and other companies are paying for slave labor offshore, at the expense of good paying jobs, is a detriment to the well-being of workers in both the United States and countries overseas, Bangladesh specifically. One can infer that, absent these companies’ quest to squeeze as much profit out of their sub-contractors, offshore factories would be safer and these deaths would not occur. One can infer that if “profit at all cost” was not the sole motivator of many of our corporate titans, these jobs would not have even been in Bangladesh but in the United States.

That would be wishful thinking. After all, our current method of doing business demands that our companies outsource and offshore our jobs in order to remain competitive with other companies that are doing the same. Many of our capitalist yearn for unfettered capitalism. Countries like Bangladesh give them the closest realization of laissez faire capitalism. While here in America we can mourn the dead overseas, as well the unemployed here in the US, there will always be Fox News ready to spin the immoral value of the type of capitalism we have embraced.

[Sunlei]

1. very sad, the same kind of killer garment factory fires happened in America back in the day.

They need Unions to protect their workers.

[freshwest]

2. The way they exploit and discard people reminds me of the AFL-CIO film on the treatment of workers

making garments for Disney in Central America.

Women were locked up inside buildings, not allowed to leave for 72 hours, for almost nothing. Eisner bragged he'd gotten the price of labor to Zero, that is, less than a penny per item. But still they sell for high prices here. This pattern came out of the eighties, the love of making a fortune quickly.

The reason those women were exploited, like the people in Bangladesh, is they live in a society where owners determine life or death with no democratic institution between them. This is what Fox and the GOP are working daily to create here in America.

That is an excellent piece, egbertowillies, thanks for writing it and posting it here for us to learn.

[Iggo]

3. Dead brown people don't matter. Dead poor people don't matter.

These were both.

[yellowcanine]

6. Probably close to 20,000 died as a result of the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984.

And more than 500,000 injured, with nearly 4,000 with severe permanent disabilities.

Seven ex employees of Union Carbide India Limited were sentenced to fines of $2,0000 and jail time of 2 years in 2010, 26 years after the tragedy. Cases against employees of the parent company of UCIL, Union Carbide Corporation are STILL PENDING in Indian courts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

Yes, you are correct. Dead poor brown people do not matter. And white rich people find a way to avoid or delay culpability for crimes which result in dead poor brown people.

[Third Doctor]

4. Listen to anyone around here (red state)and they would sound the same as Fox.

Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2012, 02:36 PM - Edit history (1)

The problem is they work in non union jobs that pays them crap and could give a damn for their safety. It's maddening.

[ROBROX]

5. THE GOP FINDS THE PAST IN OTHER COUNTRIES

This fire happened in a country that had poor wages like this country did 80 years ago. The statement made by fox implies that people work at their own risk is VERY bizarre. There will be many who watch fox who do not understand what was said versus understanding critical thinking processes.

I still find what I require at the thrift store and the profits from my purchase help other people versus going to the rich$