The other day in class, we watched clips of what it is like to work overseas for massive corporations like Walmart.  These videos specifically looked at working conditions in Bangladesh,  and all I could think of was United States capitalism.  United States capitalism is a strange beast, one that allows Americans to shop cheap, while those who create those products are kept from even the most basic things that most of us take for granted. Americans whine all the time about an 8 hour work day, but what if they themselves were forced to slave away for 15 to 20 hours a day, seven times a week? Some say that the American dream is made possible through plenty of hard work and grit, but is the American dream actually made possible by those slaving away overseas? We could not live the way we do without someone else struggling to make ends meet, so even though global capitalism makes it possible for us at home to live in luxury, I believe it is ruining developing countries by working young people to death in factories that are not suitable to sustain general wellbeing. In a society that places profits and personal gain over the lives of those that work hard to give Americans rock-bottom prices, one might ask if a change needs to be made or not. If massive corporations like Walmart could simply take a break on their profits, they could invest in overseas production, make factories safer and cleaner to keep people healthy, and pay the damn workers a little more than what they are currently, and the U.S. could keep their prices low and improve the lives of millions of workers who make the entire operation possible. Why hasn't this happened already? Because of profits, and capitalism.