The loss of lives and the hundreds injured is so tragic. But that blast footage is one of the most insane "real" videos I've ever seen, and that's one helluva big hole left in the ground.
Yea that was one huge explosion. Whenever I hear of China fires and disasters like this and when I see their people wearing face masks then all I can think about is how their cheap manufacturing processes are destroying their environment.
There is a huge cost to their cheap labor and manufacturing. Its just that here in the US we don't realize the extent of the damage they are doing to their own environment. You cannot blame the US consumer because we were tricked into thinking their cheap goods were magically appearing cheaper just because of cheap labor overseas. Some of that is true but what we were fooled about is they cut costs in many other areas.
They cut costs by not having safety protocols. They pollute their own air and water. They have horrendous working conditions and their people are not allowed to protest for the most part so businesses were allowed to destroy their own environment. All for the cheap dollar.
We have become better educated and we now can witness the damage and the real cost of doing business with overseas companies just to keep costs down.
We can do our part to help them by boycotting goods and other means. But the biggest problem they have is no real democracy so their own people cannot protest and change what is happening.
Its all very sad. And it does affect us too. Think of the Japan Nuclear disaster with the Psunami. Then we eat the fish caught from the oceans. We are not immune from the effects of allowing poor conditions.
Think of the dog food scandals where US dogs died from kidney failure due to tainted chemicals in dog food. And the list goes on and on.
Boycotting as much as possible to get manufacturers to begin to change to either US based or to change to be safe over there is about the only best answer a consumer can do for the time being. Which is very hard to do when Walmart sells 90% of stuff from these types of countries and when a family is needing to watch their money, it is very hard not to shop there.
No easy answers. Very Sad.
ETA: 1 possible solution to help. The NAFTA free-trade agreement was not a fair agreement. It was the worst thing to ever pass because it allowed companies to go overseas to get a bargain. It should be FAIR. Which means if companies choose to go overseas then there should be no free tickets. Taxes should be levied to allow the US to be competitive.
Lets make that FAIR and then we could see some real changes for the better.
Other countries could still compete. But it would be on an equal playing field.
Right now it is not fair at all. There are huge benefits when companies goes overseas to get less taxes. That is the part that needs a fixing. Lets make it EQUAL and FAIR.
Then the market will dictate that all companies compete fairly and equal and things would slowly change for the better and more jobs would stay here in US.
And the safety and quality of china manufacturers would have to improve to stay competitive. I think it would really help this sort of thing.