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The cost of buying cheap...
Graham_Devon
Posts: 58,560 Forumite
Reading the very saddening news of the building collapse in Bangladesh, I'm just wondering if the price of cheap goods is one thats worth paying?
I don't feel I can blame the shoppers for buying from Primark (or any other retailer, oincluding the giants such as the big four supermarkets). As nice as it would be to all buy British or higher quality goods, funds simply don't allow it to happen.
But can business do anything about the human cost of providing cheap goods to the western world?
Or, as many would (quite rightly in some cases) say....is it better that these people are employed by our need for cheap goods, rather than unemployed altogether?
Or...is it up to the governments of these countries to sort their own practices out? It's been said one of advertised reaosns for doing business with Bangladesh is that their workers have few rights....which makes doing business cheaper and easier.
I guess what I'm asking is, do we simply accept that others will suffer in order that we can continue to buy cheap goods in order than the few get extremely rich?
I don't feel I can blame the shoppers for buying from Primark (or any other retailer, oincluding the giants such as the big four supermarkets). As nice as it would be to all buy British or higher quality goods, funds simply don't allow it to happen.
But can business do anything about the human cost of providing cheap goods to the western world?
Or, as many would (quite rightly in some cases) say....is it better that these people are employed by our need for cheap goods, rather than unemployed altogether?
Or...is it up to the governments of these countries to sort their own practices out? It's been said one of advertised reaosns for doing business with Bangladesh is that their workers have few rights....which makes doing business cheaper and easier.
I guess what I'm asking is, do we simply accept that others will suffer in order that we can continue to buy cheap goods in order than the few get extremely rich?
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I work in these countries.
Nothing anyone of you will do is going to make any difference.We love Sarah O Grady0 -
Consumers are fickle - yes they say they'd pay more if workers had better conditions, animals were free range or farmers got more money for milk. Then they turn up at the shops looking for the cheapest T-shirts from Bangladesh, chicken from Brazil and milk from France.0
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I'm sure that if the British were still ruling the world, corporate and local governence would be immeasurably better.
Such tragedies would be largely avoided as would most famines.0 -
There are plenty of Bangladeshis working in dangerous factories and sweat shops to sell goods and services to other Bangladeshis. You probably only heard about this disaster because there is a tenuous connection to Primark.
I havent got any experience of Bangladesh but I have a whole lot of direct experience with India. There are more 'well off by Western standards' people in India, than there are in Europe; yet the (huge) working class in India face pretty hopeless conditions.
What India needs, and I doubt Bangladesh is any different, is for these well off people to actually start taking some responsibility for their country; which means actually starting to pay some tax for a change; and to start challenging the assumption that lower class people are there to serve them and nothing else.
It makes me really annoyed whenever I hear all this nonsense about the UK giving aid to the Indian government.
The Indian government doesn't need aid, if anything what it needs is Indian leaders who were a bit less interested in graf and pre-ordering the latest BMW (with all the extras), and a bit more interested in diverting some of the billions of dollars a year rich Indians spend insulating themselves from the poor ones, into schools and basic infrastructure.0 -
ruggedtoast wrote: »What India needs, and I doubt Bangladesh is any different, is for these well off people to actually start taking some responsibility for their country; which means actually starting to pay some tax for a change; and to start challenging the assumption that lower class people are there to serve them and nothing else.
It makes me really annoyed whenever I hear all this nonsense about the UK giving aid to the Indian government.
The Indian government doesn't need aid, if anything what it needs is Indian leaders who were a bit less interested in graf and pre-ordering the latest BMW (with all the extras), and a bit more interested in diverting some of the billions of dollars a year rich Indians spend insulating themselves from the poor ones, into schools and basic infrastructure.
Some parallels with western economies there, just several more rungs up the ladder."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0 -
grizzly1911 wrote: »Some parallels with western economies there, just several more rungs up the ladder.
To some degree, but the only other country I have been to in the West which comes close is the US.
Where people just completely ignore the poverty and destitution, step over the piles of garbage and homeless to get into their brand new Rav 4 and drive off on roads that have potholes you could lose a child down.
Of course India isn't as bad as the US as you get the impression that they are at least on the beginning of a continuum that will end up in a decent welfare state, whereas the US I seriously doubt will ever get there. And is also seriously terrifying if you head into the wrong area, whereas the vast majority of Indians arent in any way aggressive or angry no matter how poor they are.0 -
Consumers are fickle - yes they say they'd pay more if workers had better conditions, animals were free range or farmers got more money for milk. Then they turn up at the shops looking for the cheapest T-shirts from Bangladesh, chicken from Brazil and milk from France.
I dunno about that- free range eggs seem to outnumber the old type on supermarket shelves now. All Tate & Lyle sugar is now Fair Trade I think. There are certain causes which quietly reach critical mass and then become the norm. Fashion is still some way behind food, but I don't think it's impossible that there will be a change of opinion one day.
I prefer to buy good name clothes from charity shops these days; a far more pleasant experience than the frightening jumble sale that is Primark.They are an EYESORES!!!!0 -
Graham_Devon wrote: »
I'm just wondering if the price of cheap goods is one thats worth paying?
One of my hot buttons is regularly triggered when I read people on here calling for the Gov't to increase wages and yet on another thread bragging about thier bargain hunting that effectively keeps wages lower.0 -
bragging about thier bargain hunting that effectively keeps wages lower.
As their own wages and disposable income are being pushed lower they need to find the bargains.
The fact that we, as a whole, have been able to "benefit" from cheap supply, has kept, the relative feeling of prosperity in our own country going for much longer than would otherwise have been the case."If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....
"big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham0
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