Last Week Tonight host John Oliver explained why you should feel bad about buying cheap clothes.
"For the consumer, low prices are fantastic," Oliver acknowledged on Sunday's show, pointing to the rise of inexpensive, fashionable clothes from outlets like H&M and Gap.
But as Oliver points out, these prices are kept low in large part because 98 percent of clothes are made overseas, particularly in countries like Bangladesh and India with cheap labor. Multiple investigations have found, for example, that Gap has relied on child labor in the past to produce clothes. Other reports have linked clothes shipped to Walmart to factories with inadequate safety protocols.
In their defense, clothing outlets have said they've made efforts to crack down on abusive practices over the years. But Oliver argues that these efforts — not just at Gap and Walmart, but at other clothing outlets — are clearly falling short, given the many investigations finding links between clothing stores and abusive labor practices.
"This is going to keep happening as long as we let it," Oliver said. "So we need to show clothing brands not just that we care, but why they should."
Oliver's plan to do this: he bought the CEOs of major clothing outlets free lunch — but didn't tell them where the lunch came from. If that's reason enough not to eat the food, Oliver said, "I don't know what to tell you other than, 'Now do you understand the importance of supply-chain management?'"
Watch the full video above.
