I will admit it. One of my guilty pleasures in life is shopping and buying new clothes. In fact, in these last few months, I myself have been going through a phase where all I want to wear is vintage clothing, you know, like the clothes girls wore in the 1950’s and 1960’s? Yup, I have been obsessed with that style. I found the cut of the dresses flattering to my shape and, combine that with a jean jacket and boots, I look cultured.
I’m sure the people who made those clothes thought so, too.
You see, like many Americans, up until last week, I was blissfully unaware of the conditions in which my own clothing was made. That is not to say that I was ignorant, however. I, of course, had heard of slavery and inhumane working conditions, but I was not up to date on such things. I had seen reports of factories on television and, occasionally, caught a reporter stating something about a tragic occurrence involving the factory workers, but I was never interested enough to care.
That was until I read this article at Al Jazeera America.
It was neither humbling nor inspiring. It was, instead, shocking, horrifying, and disturbing. Even worse, I was one of the people perpetrating this abuse of humans. I was one of the girls buying the clothing that these people make for less than two dollars an hour. I was one of the people who turned when I saw something on television that disturbed me. Even worse, I did something that many young people in the United States did: I denied the problem.
The Problem: Someone who makes less in a day than I make in an hour has made every piece of clothing that I own.
The Solution: In order to create a solution, one of the first things we must do is make the issue of factory workers, inhumane conditions, and low income very public. We must advertise that this is a problem. As a first world country, the United States has the capabilities to create their own clothing with the employment of their own citizen. Yet, it is much cheaper to use foreign workers because, often times, their countries do not have the same regulations that the United States has, thus allowing the labor force to create these pieces of clothing to be underpaid, overworked, and employed in dangerous conditions.
Indeed, according to the Huffington Post,
“Many workers suffered from eye disease or loss of vision due to insufficient light. Some developed spinal deformation after bending over the carpets for long periods of time. Workers also experienced muscle pain, headaches, cuts and infections, malnutrition and psychological trauma… The average adult worker was paid between 21 and 24 cents an hour, while children were paid less,” said Goldberg.
If the average adult were paid such a wage in the United States, they would net even be able to provide a decent, fulfilling meal within a week. Not even one. Even more horrifying is the involvement of children in the labor force. Not only are companies targeting impoverished countries, but they are also targeting the children as well to help produces these expensive pieces of material that we both wear and see advertised on television.
The facts are disturbing—and true. Indeed, if we, as a nation, wish to make a difference, we should start with examining who we buy from and how we plan to stop that which has already begun.