https://blogs.ubc.ca/chuzhao/2013/10/19/trendy-world-of-fast-fashion-low-human-cost-in-textiles-market/

Joe Fresh, Forever 21, and H&M all sell fashionable clothing at relatively cheap prices. However recent news have indicated that this reduction of price was based on the lethal sacrifice of work place safety in the cloth factories in Bangladesh.

The tragedy happened in April of a clothing factory exploded killing thousands of workers had directed the western world’s attention to the working conditions in the southern Asian countries where cheap labors are found.

It is true that, like Zhao says in her post, that we have a fast developing cloth market focused on young buyers with lower income. In such setting the cloth firms must cut down their costs in all means in order to become more competitive. This however, shouldn’t include sacrificing safety of the workers who are already being exploited from working intensively for little wages.

As some suggested to increase the marketing price of the clothes by as little as 6 cents will be sufficient to help this problem by generating large enough profit to enhance the working conditions for the workers in Bangladesh, this might not be the solution when the extra profit would be divided by the owners of the firm and factories and never make it far enough to help the workers. Legislation should be make in the countries the factories are located at regarding minimum wages and factory conditions to protect its own people. When such tragedy happens, western buyers shouldn’t take all the blame, because after all, it’s not the act of choosing cheaper clothes that harmed the workers, but the exploitation of the unethical firm owners and the lack of proper legal enforcement.