While I understand the point you are making, I would argue that the textile industry is a necessary evil for many countries. It's pretty well explained in this

While I understand the point you are making, I would argue that the textile industry is a necessary evil for many countries. It's pretty well explained in this article: >According to the comprehensive “Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers,” a study of 21 countries over 350 years, nearly every nation suffered through its T-shirt phase differently. Argentina’s brutal encomienda system literally worked indigenous laborers to death. The Hapsburg monarchy’s T-shirt phase coincided with its own collapse. Japan’s progress was slowed by a world war; Germany’s was all but destroyed by two. New England’s textile workers had it relatively good; if conditions didn’t improve, they could threaten to leave for the frontier. >All these countries, however, experienced the same broad phenomenon. Lex Heerma van Voss, an editor of the “Ashgate Companion,” told me that the T-shirt phase lasts only as long as there are large populations of farmers with few options. This is known as a “race to the bottom.” Factory owners compete by offering low prices, which are accomplished by paying workers tiny wages. Cutting costs by a few pennies per shirt may sound trivial, but mass-market brands find that even a slight increase in price destroys demand. And those pennies at wholesale become dollars at retail. >But once the factories have absorbed all these desperate farmers, they need to find a new competitive advantage. That usually involves making better products. When the T-shirt phase ends, a “race to the top” usually begins. Factories often shift to finer clothes, like dress shirts, which require skilled workers. This phase often involves the growth of unions and rising wages. It’s typically followed by one in which factory owners, forced to pay more, seek out ever more profitable lines of business. That can mean the move to low-end electronics assembly, then auto plants and maybe even airplane manufacturing. At the high end of the spectrum, you begin to see what the U.S. manufacturing economy is going through now — expensive products, like medical devices, which are often made by machines that are operated by highly skilled workers. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/economic-recovery-made-in-bangladesh.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/economic-recovery... As long as there is no slave work, this is, people are working in these factories "voluntarily", it may be the best option they have. These are people maximizing their utility and deciding to work for USD50-200/month with 6 day weeks and 12 hour days. Yes, it sucks, and I wish they had other options, but I'm not sure that boycotting F21 would work in their favor. As the article sadly states, this seems like a necessary phase.