the dark satanic mills

Karl Marx was a German economist whose who made it his life's work, not to found communism. Revolutionaries did that. His life's work was to study and explain (in 6 monumental chapters of "Das Kapital") how capitalism works, and its limitations. Very few people have ever read it. Fewer understand it.

He wrote a chapter when he was living in Manchester when the term "Dark Satanic Mill" was first coined in an English hymn . What were such horrible workplaces like?

Hogath's painting "Gin Lane" depicts the squalor and despair of toil without end. What saved England and capitalism was the formation of labour unions that forced mill and mine owners to pay decent wages. Thus workers could afford the goods and services we take for granted today in our debt and consumer-driven Western nations.

But capitalism is wily and (in America) it sacks unionised workers and 'off-shores' millions of jobs to low-wage lands like Mexico, China and Bangladesh. In Texas, I saw jobs advertised at $6 an hour. You can't feed a family on that. So instead of paying a living wage, bosses pass the buck to US taxpayers who pay for 46 million jobless or low-paid paupers to get Food Stamps to prevent Third-World type food riots.

While on Third World paupers and riots. Garment workers rioted in Bangladesh after a Dark Satanic Factory (that makes brand-name garments for rich Western nations) collapsed after bosses forced workers, with whips, to keep working after big cracks appeared in the building. See picture below.

Clothing manufacturing in Bangladesh: Around 4,500 Dark Satanic factories produce clothes for many of the world's major brands. But wages are as low as $37 a month, with some employees working 10-15 hours per day. Some Western retailers are getting worried about their reputation. I wonder why?