[Ghoulish Delight]

Because it's cheap.

Several decades ago, this country made the decision (rightly) to improve health and safety standards in all industries while (less rightly) not insisting on similar progress from our trading partners. As a direct result, the cost of goods here has obviously outpaced imported goods, which we've happily consumed, dumping trillions of dollars into economies based on poor industrial standards. That money has allowed those countries to catch, and in many ways surpass, the United States in industrial productivity while maintaining their low standards of health and safety. Meanwhile, the gulf in costs has increased exponentially, and now we are completely locked in to continuing to rely on them for cheap goods else our economy faces collapse.

I'm at a loss as to how to recover from this trap we've set for ourselves. The United States completely blew it. We once had the leverage around the world to promote social change through economics. Third world countries once relied on our business to thrive to a far greater degree than we relied on them. And while it remains true that many smaller nations still rely on our business, we have become to mutually reliant upon them to really leverage that. And all the while we've supported corruption and slave-like labor.

Bleh.