Reply #19: everything made overseas, and most of what's made here is in a sweatshop..

[bettyellen]

so unless you're going naked, or paying someone a lot to make your clothes custom.
it's pretty much unavoidable.
but most larger companies have greatly improved their factory compliance programs in the past ten years. so conditions are much better across the board, but there's still alot of exploitation in the third world, especially in poorer areas where people have no alternatives. there is always market pressure to open factories where goods can be manufactured for less, so they do. new factories go where people are desperate to make a living and will allow themselves to be exploited. usually it is a step up for these people from sustenance farming. it ain't pretty. africa would be huge in manufacturing now if they could just build the infrastructure to ship things in a timely manner. why? because it's filled with starving desperate people who would take thse jobs. that's the way it works.
even in the best rated asian factories people work six long days a week, get cheated out of overtime, and live in a dormitory. and that's not just the garment industry, either.
americans just do not want to pay the real price of labor for clothing.