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> A company doing business in Bangladesh has a fixed amount of money they can spend on compensation + safety + etc. That's not true, the safety expenses should
by jonknee 13y ago
> A company doing business in Bangladesh has a fixed amount of money they can spend on compensation + safety + etc.
That's not true, the safety expenses should be mandated and everyone's prices will increase accordingly. Prices are set according to costs and in the developed world, safety is a required cost. It could happen overnight if the big customers actually required it. Imagine if Walmart suspended billions of dollars worth of contracts until safety standards were met.
- yummyfajitas 13y agoIf prices go up sufficiently then there is no advantage to building a factory in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi workers then become unemployed. Right now, Bangladesh needs wealth more than anything else. Once they have wealth, they can spend it on things like OSHA.
- betterunix 13y agoOr, you know, those countries could have factories that satisfy their markets, and we could have factories that satisfy ours. All without having to kill people in the process or burning dirty fuels shipping goods halfway around the world.
- kamakazizuru 13y agotheres an interesting course called economics 101 - check it out.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- icebraining 13y agoFactories that satisfy their markets won't magically become safe and clean, much like the ones in the now "developed word" during the industrialization phase weren't.
- Dylan16807 13y agoIf they're only satisfying local (poorer) markets, then they have even less money to worry about things like safety.
- city41 13y agoThe problem with that is country borders. If China mandated safety then the factories just move to another country.
- betterunix 13y agoYeah, and the solution is not to only mandate safety standards at your own factories, but to impose a stiff tariff on goods produced in countries without comparable standards (and without meaningful enforcement). Yeah, I know, "free trade," but it is not a fair market if some people are playing by a different set of rules, and we do not want to have a race to the bottom.
- dllthomas 13y agoWhat we need, I think, is international agreement on what those tariffs should be.
- icebraining 13y agoAgreed. Then some factory owners will build robots instead (as they're already doing due to wage rises in China) and wipe out any foreign competition along with jobs. It's for their own good, after all.
- city41 13y agoIt is for their own good. Robots are inevitable, better to push them out now and start addressing what they mean for society than pretend they're never coming.
- icebraining 13y agoIsn't it better if they have time to transition to more services oriented economy first?
- city41 13y agoSure, that would be better. It'd be awesome if they could transition to any type of better economy. But I think given all the circumstances and what is happening, facing and accepting reality is the best way to go. Because the robots are coming, waiting for the country to be ready just isn't going to happen.