$38/mo

"Well, at least I don't make 38 bucks a month and work in a building that could collapse." This was my reply to one of the umpteen dozen people who said, "How are you?" to me today. Was it insensative? Was it a commentary on how lucky I am to be in Canada? Was it a guilty condemnation of Canada because we buy a portion of the clothes that were sweated over in that death trap in Bangladesh? Was it just my way of trying to raise consciousness about a news story that REALLY matters to us all? Or was I just being a smartass? Hard to say really what happens when words go from my brain to my mouth and bypass any editing for political correctness. That happens from time to time.

The cause was just pure disgust over this story out of Savar, a suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It's not newsworthy when some jagoff capitalist buys a five story building and illegally, (because it's unsafe), adds three more floors to it. Did he even pay a fine for that or just grease a local politician? Oh, wait a minute, he IS a local politician! It's not a headline when some jagoff capitalist pays his workers $38/mo., and I'm sure this ain't 9-5 Mon-Fri. I've read the average textile worker in Bangladesh puts in a 14-hour day. IF they get weekends off that works out to 13.5 cents an hour! But they don't. Friday, the Muslim holiday, is the one day off every week workers must receive by law. But often they don't. 11.3 cents an hour IF they get every Friday off!

It's not interesting to us when some jagoff capitalist subjects his workers to horrible working conditions for their $38/mo. It's not journalistically viable that these sweatshop owners were only able to start their enterprises at the behest of wealthy corporations who, let's face it, can't afford to pay anyone much more than a dollar a day to make their product. It's not news that half a year earlier a fire at a textiles factory in another suburb of Dhaka in Bangladesh killed 112 workers and there were promises made, (but not kept), throughout the industry to improve working conditions. We don't read about the factories like this that are reportedly monitored for environmental and labour laws regularly outsourcing half of their work to the "shadow factories" that aren't. None of this makes the news until over 300 people are crushed in a building that was condemned the day before it collapsed, and the owner was informed, but chose to let all the slaves work in all the factories in his building anyway.

And because this was capitalism, not terrorism, this jagoff building owner, (and probably the jagoff factory owners too), is watching his big screen plasma right now saying, "That poor Boston bomber boy! HE's in deeep shit!" They should give every dime they have to the families of the victims but they'll probably receive a little fine and never see the inside of a jail cell.

Bangladesh reportedly has the lowest labour costs in the world and a minimum wage of, you guessed it, $38/month. Even in a poor country where things are cheap like, (fake well), Bangladesh, I'm sure it's not going to be easy to pay the bills on that salary. So we should buy a lot of Bangladesh-produced goods so that conditions can improve! Right? Or are we supposed to just boycott anything with a "Made in Bangladesh" label on it? But then more and more people in Bangladesh will lose the crappy jobs they have now, won't they?

Folks, don't listen to the people who say it is partially our fault for buying a cheap, Bangladesh-made shirt at Walmart. We're only human. Hey, we're not making $38/mo. but we are gonna buy the $10 shirt, not the $50 one. Even if the quality is a bit lower, we're pretty sure it's not 5 times worse than the other shirt, aren't we? And it really doesn't matter how we adjust our spending when we hear this story, the people who buy the shirts and the slaves who make the shirts are the only people who will absorb any losses. If we buy more the factory workers will still get $38/mo. and the factory owners, distributors, shop owners etc. will make more dough. If we boycott products made in Bangladesh, they'll put "Made in Somewhere Else" tickets on the shirts or the eventual retailers will stop dealing with Bangladesh and move on to the country like China or Viet Nam with the next cheapest labour, AND RECEIVE A HERO'S WELCOME!

To be clear, if we boycott the companies who sell the shirts that were being made in the sweatshops in the building that collapsed in Bangladesh, those companies won't suffer, the slaves who work in the sweatshops will. Because even making 11.3 cents and hour is better than nothing. Walmart apparently wasn't connected in this instance but they are the largest customer for Bangladesh-manufactured textiles. And, talk about cheaply attained glory, they are revered for it.

But I read a little article at http://www.globallabourrights.org/reports?id=0042  It's about an NBC Dateline investigative report done in 2005 on the textile industry in Bangladesh with particular attention paid to Walmart. I urge you to read the whole thing. I will try to sum up what Walmart does in Bangladesh, or at least what they were doing in 2005. The article states that things will get worse in the future with wages going down as the cost of living goes up. The people at NBC Dateline knew what they were talking about.

The video showed young women being forced to work 14-hour days sewing garments in Bangladesh factories for 13-17 cents an hour so they were right that wages would decrease. The premise of the report was interesting. Dateline got a long sleeve, large, denim shirt union made, (United Food and Commercial Workers), in Chicago. Materials cost $5, labour was $7.47, and laundry was an extra 75 cents. Total price: $13.22. I have read that the usual markup on clothing like this is 120%, (which I still think is outrageous), so that would make the retail price $31.72. Yet Walmart was able to sell a shirt of slightly lesser quality that had been made in Bangladesh for $11.67. How could they do this? That's what Dateline found out.

They went to Bangladesh and asked how much it would cost to get that same shirt made and got a quote of $4.70. With a 120% markup that's $11.28. Bingo! Um, right? Isn't that how Walmart does it? Well, not quite. That would almost be considered un-corportate-like.

The $4.70 was a quote based on an order of 25000 shirts. With sheer volume Walmart could easily get a quote of $3-$3.25. In that case their price represents a 260-290% markup. It boggles my mind trying to conceive of the kind of mentality that is behind such a markup. If I buy a bunch of chocolate bars for a buck each and a total douchbag who I can't stand wants to buy one from me I am not going to say, "Gimme tree fitty." And he is probably not going to pay.

If Walmart were to pay an extra 20 cents per shirt, their markup would still be an astronomical 238-265%, (that's $8.22-$8.47 per shirt!), and they gave that extra 20 cents to the workers, their salaries would rise to a whopping 39 cents an hour! This would get them out of squalor, starvation and misery and up to poverty! But Walmart NEEDS that extra 20 cents being the struggling company that they are.

The part where I grabbed the trash can in my office and threw up 6 bucks worth of fish and chips I had had for lunch was when I read this,

"We strongly believe that our business—and the wages and benefits we provide, have helped improve the lives of many thousands of workers in many parts of the world."

That's what Walmart "believes." That must be why they demanded exporters to cut prices 12% in 2005. They also demanded that Bangladeshi contractors, (like the sweatshop owners), pay for any duty costs imposed by importing nations. You, me and Walmart all KNOW this was deflected straight onto the workers in the sweatshops. Hence 2013 - 11.3 cents an hour instead of the lofty 13-17 cents in 2005.

But when you bargain with Walmart it's "take it or leave it." Otherwise they'll buy somewhere else, which unbelievably would be worse for the people of Bangladesh. To give you a better idea of the pure evil at work here the article includes the fact that while many other companies signed an agreement to allow 3 months of paid maternity leave for pregnant employees, Walmart flatly refused.

Remember this story the next time you walk into Walmart and see an 11 dollar shirt and think, "Wow! How can they sell it for that? It must be what they call one of them 'loss leaders' to bring folks into the store." I don't think Walmart EVER has loss leaders, or things they sell for a loss to attract customers. The Waltons probably don't know what that means. But this story is not about Walmart or Bangladesh. It's about the whole world. This is how things work. And it has to change. We need to institute global measures here like a minimum minimum wage that's a helluva lot more than 38 bucks a month. Any scumbag corporation that doesn't comply, how about corporate trade embargos. If it works on a country, it'll work on a company. And for the love of God and humanity, we need strictly enforced human rights laws for the entire world!

When I lived in a small town in Korea called Yangju, I met two Bangladeshi men. We just chatted briefly as we met on the street. I ended up seeing one, the other or both quite a lot while I lived in Yangju and I remember two things about these guys: they were extremely freindly and happy, and they always called me "brother." I don't know if it was because I forgot their names or if I kind of liked it but I started calling them "brother" too when I saw them. If only we could truly act like brothers to everyone!

I mentioned last post that we live in a fear-based world. Our greed-based global economy is part of that. Greed is fear. "I am scared that someone else might get what I believe I am entitled to." Master Yoda said, "The fear of loss is a path to the dark side." He also said, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." And my favourite, "Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." More than anything else it is the greed-based, corporate thinking that is the dark side of our world force and it is the cause of most, if not ALL of our suffering.

Leastaways, that's what Yoda and I reckon.