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Reflection: The True Cost: Student Institution Affiliation Date

The documentary exposes the harsh realities faced by workers in the garment industry. It shows footage of a building collapse that killed over 1,000 garment workers in Bangladesh. While the fashion industry is valued at trillions, many brands rely on cheap overseas labor under poor conditions to maximize profits. Workers in places like Bangladesh and India face low pay of $2 per day, long hours, overcrowding, and lack of safety protections or air conditioning. Despite their hard work, these "modern slaves" do not share in the wealth promised by capitalism, which primarily benefits corporations and consumers in Western nations.

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Vincent Francis
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190 views4 pages

Reflection: The True Cost: Student Institution Affiliation Date

The documentary exposes the harsh realities faced by workers in the garment industry. It shows footage of a building collapse that killed over 1,000 garment workers in Bangladesh. While the fashion industry is valued at trillions, many brands rely on cheap overseas labor under poor conditions to maximize profits. Workers in places like Bangladesh and India face low pay of $2 per day, long hours, overcrowding, and lack of safety protections or air conditioning. Despite their hard work, these "modern slaves" do not share in the wealth promised by capitalism, which primarily benefits corporations and consumers in Western nations.

Uploaded by

Vincent Francis
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reflection: The True Cost

Student

Institution Affiliation

Date
The True Cost

The clothing industry helps people fulfil one of their basic needs of having clothes. Other

than fulfilling one’s basic needs, the clothing industry also helps people differently across the

world. In developing countries, workers rely on the industry to make ends meet. In developed

nations such as the United States, they are used by big corporations to amass lots of wealth for

their stockholders.

At the beginning of the documentary, I was almost brought to tears when I saw a building

that was full of workers collapse and more than a thousand died. The building was housing a

garment factory and hundreds of employees were at work. Management of the building had

continuously ignored warnings about the safety of the buildings. An industry that is valued at a

trillion dollars in revenue generation annually could not guarantee the safety of the most

important workforce it has.

The documentary sheds light on the reality of big fashion brands that rely on cheap labor.

The most prominent fashion brands in the world are mostly known by their iconic names. Their

main products, clothes, are usually made in third world countries, most of them in Asia and

Africa. These fashion brands rely on these countries for cheap labor. To a business-minded

person, producing anything at the lowest cost possible is important as it ensures that revenues

and profits will be higher. But this form of business relies on the sweat and blood of people who

have no voice in regards to how they are expected to work or how much they are paid.

In Asian, countries such as Bangladesh and India are well known for “sweat shops.”

Sweat shops are a definition of the horrid factories where clothes are mead. The factories are

characterized by poor working conditions. Workers are expected to work for long hours for less
pay. According to the documentary, for instance, workers in Bangladesh are subjected to a pay of

$2 per day. This is the pay these people are expected to meet all their basic needs on. The

factories are also in poor conditions. Workers are overcrowded with no support mechanisms like

air conditioning.

Capitalism is used to encourage people in the western world that they can achieve wealth

and riches if they work hard. If hard work is linked to success, then factory workers in sweat

shops are also supposed to be rich. These workers work extra hard than what some of the high

earners in the United States do. The efforts of these workers can be described as modern-day

slavery. Under slavery, people are expected to work under horrible conditions with very little

pay. From American history, we are often reminded of how African Americans were subjected to

too much labor with poor or no pay. The same is the case with workers who are tasked with the

production of clothes that feed the fashion market. Capitalism is exposed as only benefitting few

in society. Those that engage in too much work might not enjoy the benefits that are promised

under capitalism.

The documentary has exposed me to a different reality about capitalism and how it is

exploitative. Instead of business people in the western world working hard for their success, they

are working smart. Out sourcing labor to countries that offer cheap labor is a move that is meant

to generate more revenue. However, there lies a challenge when the laborers are at risk of dying

while at work. Fashion brands that rely on low cost of labor are well capable of ensuring that

workers in these factories have a conducive environment to work.


Reference

Plot 11. (2020). The True Cost | Documentary | Clothing Industry | Fashion Market | Capitalism |

Modern Slavery. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxhCpLzreCw

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