You know those Old Navy commercials that disappointingly feature Amy Poehler or Julia Louis-Dreyfus losing their sh*t over some $15 cropped pants or $10 dresses? Well, this week’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver takes on why this type of clothing is so cheap nowadays, and the answer might surprise you. LOL just kidding, no it won’t! It’s because they’re made in sweatshops. Everything is still made in sweatshops, and the problem is only getting worse, with clothing retailer CEOs now making more than the heads of oil companies.
And of course, we as a society are only getting better at ignoring it. Oliver points out the media hypocrisy that even the Today show (which employs Kathie Lee Gifford, who once testified before congress about her own brand’s use of sweatshops) can report about a sweatshop collapse in Bangladesh killing hundreds one day, to not even skipping a beat to cooing about the low price of childrens’ fashions the next… fashions that were literally made in sweatshops like the ones they previously reported on.
Clothing is getting so cheap that, in 2013, Americans purchased 64 garments per person on average, and H&M — that once boasted a dress for under $5 — can have clothing go from sketch to rack in three weeks. As Americans, it’s about damn time we start paying attention to where our clothing comes from. Please, before Amy Schumer gets wrapped into one of those dumb commercials.
