[Colonel Kangaroo]

The pope seems to think that there's a higher morality than that of the marketplace and bottom line. Ayn Rand would not be pleased.

[count-your-change]

As usual in such discussions is the question of why anyone would work for such low wages as is the simple answer: Because the alternative is worse.

[James C. Bennett]

Bangladesh, without those jobs, starves. It's history proves it.

Let's revisit old times, right here in the West:

http://www2.needham.k12.ma.us/nhs/cur/Baker_00/2002_p7/ak_p7/childlabor.html

[Zajko]

I felt that what he was saying was more along the lines that morality and the marketplace are not (and should not) be mutually exclusive. One phrase used in the article is ‘capitalism without a conscience’ - and if that phrase doesn’t fit this tragedy, where well over 1,000 (far more than the 400 stated in the article) died, I’m not sure what does.

Saying that a business run for profit could and should also be run in a decent, moral way, isn’t, I don’t think, in any way anti-capitalist. On the contrary, capitalism, being fundamentally more ‘moral’ than socialism, should be taking the ‘high ground’ on issues such as this.

There IS something wrong with packing 3500 women and young kids into a totally unsafe structure and working them until the building collapses on top of them - from both a moral perspective (clearly) and also a capitalistic one (such an event obviously doesn’t make the business owner any money).

[jacknhoo]

Kind of reminds me of the Tea Party - capitalism without God.
Fiscal conservatism with social Liberalism.

[jacknhoo]

Morality matters.

[central_va]

There are plenty of once great textile factories all over the south that could handle all of our needs that sit empty. As a matter of fact most of them were non union.

Funny thing to tear down a factory and put up a WalMart to sell Chinese garments. Ironic.

[markomalley]

The pope seems to think that there's a higher morality than that of the marketplace and bottom line. Ayn Rand would not be pleased.

I'll take your word for it on Ayn Rand. I don't pretend to be an expert on her.

Having said that, there are two immutable principles that I have learned in my life:

• If you don't maintain your machines, they will eventually break.
• If you don't treat your employees like human beings, they will eventually break.
• Either scenario might end up breaking you.

[IbJensen]

The Novus Ordo Catholic Church needs to realize that it’s mission handed from Jesus Christ to Peter was to save souls and keep out of politics. Politics is indeed the road to perdition.

This new Argentinian pope is no different that his predecessors who turned a blind eye while the Church reinvented itself into a pretzel-shaped multi-mission entity. Today, tragically, the ‘Catholic’ church varies from country to country, but the realization that an entire new religion was formed over the past 50 plus years has yet to sink in to most.

[Hardastarboard]

Ayn Rand would not be pleased.

Actually, I'm not pleased either. This is an economically illiterate statement by His Holiness. If you want to talk about Godless economic systems, let's look at a certain economic system that systematically killed 100 million people in the 20th Century. You all know the one I'm talking about. It's the one whose ideology underpins the modern Democrat Party. Yes, I said it out loud.

As usual in such discussions is the question of why anyone would work for such low wages as is the simple answer: Because the alternative is worse.

count-your-change is of course correct, and the post after his as well - to us, these jobs are nightmares. To Bangladesh, they're the difference between extremely hard work in dangerous conditions, or outright starvation. These jobs are the first rung up on the ladder, as anyone with more than 10 cents worth of economic education knows (which pretty much excludes the entire Democrat Party, and especially Paul Krugman).

[ravenwolf]

Godless Capitalism?

Every one knows that it was socialism that brought in globalism and the so called free trade which was for the express purpose of shutting down the industry in the U.S.

Socialism is Godless, not capitalism.

Capitalism is merely a thing of nature, it is what people have been involved in since the beginning of time, one person is good at making axes, another is good at making knives, lets trade so we will both have the best of everything.

Safety laws have nothing to do with God, it just comes with common sense, most people have the sense to change jobs, if they find the people they are working for are too stingy to make things reasonably safe they will go to some place where working conditions are better.

The law makers picked up on it and started making safety laws here in the united states and many other countries.

Socialism comes in and uses the regulations in the U.S to destroy the American industry, because they know that the Americans with all of the safety laws, plus rules on top of rules, regulation on top of more regulations which costs more than what any company can sell it for after paying for the help to do it simply can not stay in business.

The pope has the right idea but, but the goal of the anti God society has nothing to do with safety, their goal is to destroy the place where freedom started, the united states of America.

[left that other site]

These horrid conditions would not exist in these countries if we bought garments made in the USA.

But of course, if there were no market for the products, the evil factories in these third world countries would close, and then we Americans would be excoriated for not supporting Third World industry, and putting millions of people out of work.

Here is my hierarchy of purchasing:

1. NOTHING “MADE IN CHINA”
2. NOTHING “Made in Pakistan”
3. Nothing “Made in Bangladesh”
4. Nothing made in any muslim country under Sharia Law (The exception is gas for my car...I can’t tell where their oil comes from, but I try to buy gas at Hess or Valero, where they are less likely to be buying direct from Saudi Arabia.)
5. Nothing from countries that obviously hate America.

6. Luckily, most of our advances in medicine, science, technology, etc, come from Israel, so I can still use those things.
However, my clothes are wearing out and it is very difficult to find new clothing made in the USA, so I will have to get out my old sewing machine!

I buy a lot of things at yard sales, so, while it may have been originally from one of those nations, MY money isn’t going to them.

I really LIKE Pope Francis, and believe he is a good and learned man. However, the tragedy in Bangladesh is a direct result of the corruption and greed of the people THERE, who are most probably muslim and don’t care what he has to say about it. To blame capitalism for the disaster is not even scratching the surface of the spiritual cesspool that exists in our world.

Just my humble opinion, don’t mean to offend my Catholic Brothers and Sisters.

[RegulatorCountry]

We're talking about Bangladesh, here, a nation prone to famine, starvation and untimely death from countless other causes, both natural and man-made.

The industry of garment manufacture has been flowing into that country because of cost benefit to those manufacturers. Workers are readily found because of the opportunity that these manufacturers represent, that does not exist elsewhere. Thus, these workers are helped to avoid starvation and many of the other frequent calamities that have beset Bangladesh for a very long time. It is a fair exchange, not coerced to my knowledge, that has been to the benefit and betterment of both parties.

Part of the reason Bangladesh is desirable from a cost standpoint is the lack of regulation overall, and the ignoring of those fairly primitive and basic regulations that do exist. This leads to such things as buildings that collapse. The same or similar has occurred in China and in fact has occurred in every nation seeking to transition into a more industrial economy.

The scale of this entirely avoidable catastrophe Is horrific, and made all the more horrifying because this could have easily been avoided, but was not. Those responsible should be punished and severely. That is not to say, however, that the lot of Bangladeshis in general has not been improved by the presence of such industry.

It has.

[Stepan12]

Pat Buchanan attacking Capitalism? That guy puts the Socialism into National Socialism.