The True Cost

The film “The True Cost” directed by Andrew Morgan, goes into great detail on the global world of fast fashion, and how it affects the global apparel industry. The countries in which the clothes are produced, there are significant issues with labour regulations, all to accommodate North America’s demand for fast fashion consumerism. The global North consumers demand for fast fashion have effects globally, leaving workers underpaid and exploited. Through management methods and outsourcing, firms search for the lowest costs for the consumer, without concern about the consequences for workers. Relocating the garment industry to the global South can arguably be the downfall of workers as they are sacrificing their lives for their job. Throughout

The working conditions in the global South are fragile, as workers have little to no rights in the workplace, and are treated by management like slaves. Scientific management methods are brought into the workplace; managers watch over the workers to ensure productivity of the workers. Workers attempted to start a union and ultimately were beat by the managers for the attempt of unionizing. Management inflicts many rules often persuaded by owners, to ensure the product is sold with the least production costs. Relocating also leads to environment issues in the global South, leaving many workers facing possible disease due to chemicals, poor working conditions, and dangerous pollution. Relocating also means, sending production to a place with low labour law. Firms are more concerned with profit than the safety of their workers, therefore sending the industry to the global South means workers have little say in the workplace. Benjamin Powell argues in the film that these poor conditions will eventually lead to better days for the workers in the global South as these hard times will help inflict better labour regulations in the future (Morgan, 2015). A possible benefit to moving the garment industry to the global South, is a way of creating jobs in developing countries, but workers are not making enough to support themselves. Both positives and negatives of relocating,

More education should inform more people globally to understand to ongoing issues with the garment industry to evoke global change. Consumers should be informed as to why prices of apparel should not be at the inexpensive cost that it is now, because of the underlying reasons of how the company gets the clothing to that price. Inexpensive, fast fashion from stores like H&M, Forever 21, and Joe Fresh may seem most budget friendly but are not environmentally or sustainable globally. The demand for fast fashion should be brought to political action to help make a global change for the endangered workers of the garment industry. Overall, “The True Cost” does an outstanding job at pointing out the impacts of consumers and their fast fashion choices. Demonstrating the work that goes into making their clothes and why the workers are the ones paying the