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Fashion in its lens of the true cost Based on the documentary “The True Cost” Sharon Hsu our $4.99 purchase at H&M affects how ast fashion profits through mass much factory workers get paid. Most production. Every other week, companies people working in these factories are like H&M release new styles. This not Ystuck in a cycle. They work at these factories Fonly put factories on a tight schedule but also hoping to provide for their family, yet the low requires new factories be built daily to meet the pay is not enough to cover expenses, let alone demands. Unfortunately, rushing to build new to save up. Parents cannot afford education for factories lead to poor structures. The problems their children, forcing the next generation to of unsafe factories were neglected until 2013. continue to obtain a job in a factory at a young On the morning of April 24, 2013 in Dhaka, age. Shima Akhter is among the 3.5 million Bangladesh, the garment workers working in garment workers in Bangladesh who is affected Rana Plaza went into work like any other day. by our purchases. Akhter moved to Dhaka, The only difference was, workers noticed the Bangladesh when she was 12 and soon began deep cracks on the walls of the building. The her job in a garment factory to help support her worried workers reported the cracks and begged s the weekend comes along, you realize we track the traces of our purchases, we discover family. According to management to fix you have an event to attend in a few the magnitude of our impact. The $4.99 T-shirt “The War on Want”, the problem before hours. You dig through the closet and attracts consumers and incentivizes them to garment workers in sending them into Atry on multiple outfits but nothing feels right. buy more products more frequently. For fast Bangladesh earn about work. If management In the spur of the moment, you head over to fashion companies, their profits have continue $29 a month. Although reconstruct the the mall and begin shopping for a last-minute to skyrocket. In fact, the founder of Zara the living cost in building, production outfit. An hour later, you walk out of your local briefly took the title of “World’s richest man” Bangladesh is low, it would be severely H&M store with a $4.99 T-shirt and a pair of in 2017. The low price point seemingly benefits still takes around $53 delayed so instead, $9.99 jeans. Ten years ago, the spontaneous consumers and businesses but in reality, the to provide for a family. they forced the purchasing of a new wardrobe would have been price cannot sustain everyone in the supply Aside from low pay, workers in. Some impossible. Our fashion habits has changed chain. In order to profit, fast fashion companies workers like Shima time before 9 am, the significantly due to the rise of companies like have to lower the cost of their production and Akhter also endure ceilings collapsed, H&M, Zara and Forever 21. A new era for the cut down money spent on the factories and long hours, around 14-16 hours of work a day. the floors vanished and workers fell from this fashion industry called fast fashion has emerged. materials. Factories, in order to compete, are Since 85% of the garment workers are women, five-story-tall building. The building took less Fast fashion brands compete by pushing new “forced to” operate with limited budget. Due this schedule forces mothers to separate from than 90 seconds to collapse but it took away the styles and sales weekly, allowing consumers to to the rise of wages and stricter labor rules, their children. Due to the circumstances, Akhter lives of 1,134 people. Rana Plaza alarmed many buy stylish clothing at a low price and a rapid companies outsource production to developing made the hard decision of sending her daughter people as it revealed the inhumane conditions of pace. This transformation seems beneficial but countries. Globalization helped businesses but to relatives in another town. Throughout the these factories. Not many workers survived the the true costs behind fast fashion far exceed our “created the opportunity for companies to take years, Akhter fought for better pay at her incident but those who lived, carried expensive imaginations. The purchases we make here in advantage of the system”. Since factories operate factory by assembling a union but as soon as medical bills, had amputated body parts or the US affects factory workers and their families on a low budget, management are forced to management found out, Akhter was gruesomely severe damage. These survivors continues to in Bangladesh and India, the farmers in Texas, lower the wages of their factory workers, cut beaten. Factories discourage union activities to suffer both physically and mentally. The fast the designers in Europe, the environment in corners with the factories’ conditions and obtain keep the workers under tight control. However, companies responsible were far away from the Africa, and we as US consumers. Fast fashion lower quality materials. In the US, companies without unions pushing for better working incident so the impact on them was minimal. takes a heavy toll on the livelihoods of all people cannot get away with poor working conditions conditions, companies will always put profits around the world. but in a small town in India, laws are not strictly first. s part of the global chain, our actions enforced. Companies can “get away with just Aappear small and insignificant. However, if about anything”. However, Rana Plaza had the world noticing these poor working conditions. The years before Rana Plaza, about 71 workers died each year in building fires or collapses. In the year since, it is about 17 people annually. People began the take action on holding fast fashion brands accountable. For ex- ample. two major brands agreed to pay million of dollars in December and January after failing to compel suppliers to fix their factories. This is a small victory for factory workers but there are more hidden dangers. arment factories often contain chemicals. eyond the factory, fast fashion also contaminates These chemicals are used to dye fabrics and the soil. Cotton produces the fiber essential polish leathers. In order to keep up the pace for to what we wear. In order to heavy produce Bcotton, “the land is almost reconsidered as a factory”. Gfast fashion, factories do not handle heavy chemicals properly. Kanpur, India is one of the major places Companies turn to chemicals like pesticides to increase that exports leather. The production. Monsanto factories here offer cheap is one of the leading and mass production companies that creates for leather. However, “agricultural advancements” without taking the through products like proper time and care pesticide. Monsanto sells to handle chemicals, farmers modified seeds toxins affect the health that supposedly require less of factory workers and pesticide and give higher the people around town. results. This results in a Chromium, one of the “seed monopoly”. Farmers heavy chemicals required purchase the modified seeds to treat the leather, gets in the beginning hoping to released into the water. use less pesticides. When These toxins pollute the the results are not shown, farming water, drinking farmers turn to stronger water and one of the pesticides. Monsanto, important holy rivers- also owning monopoly in Ganga. Fast fashion not pesticides continue to profit only impacts the lives of from the poor farmers. Year their factory workers but after year, insects become also the innocent people resistant to pesticides and living near the factories. the land degrades from the People of Kanpur face chemical use. Worst of all, dermal problems, from skin rashes to numbness in farmers and their families see negative effects to their the limbs. Ironically, derma problems are considered health from these chemicals. Around the cotton farms a small issue. A huge population of people in Kanpur in India, doctors have discovered problems like cancer, suffer from Jaundice. Though this condition is severe mental retardation, physical disabilities. Many treatable, most families have to spend their low wages health problems are birth defects. “Most of the people on large medical bills. just accepts their children’s death, they can only wait for the children’s death,” doctors explained. Innocent people suffer from the consequences and are paid too little to have adequate health care. roblems in India seem far away, but health concerns are also happening in the United States. Texas planted approximately 13.1 million acres of cotton in 2018. A Texas cotton farmer lost hen you purchase the $4.99 T-shirt, you don’t have to think twice. It is cheap and stylish. her husband in 2005. Her late husband suffered from “glioblastoma multiforme”, a brain tumor The next time you have another event, you purchase another shirt. Time after time, our Pthat is commonly found in men working on the agricultural field. She described how easy it was to find consumption of these cheap clothing pushes fast fashion companies to increase their a doctor to operate on the brain tumor, as they “do so many of them”. Though she could not prove Wproduction. In order to keep lowering the price and maximizing the profit, the conditions only worsen. directly that the chemicals used in cotton farming led to her husband’s death, “there was just too many The workers will continue to be paid in a unreasonable wage, forced to work in a dangerous environment. linkages”. In fact, Monsanto recently lost a lawsuit to a US school groundskeeper who argued that The farmers and their families will continue to suffer from sickness.

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