Recent factory fires killed more than 400 workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Unsafe conditions, like locked exits and barred windows, made the death tolls much higher. In the United States, more than a century of activism and legislation has drastically improved factory safety at home, but so much of our clothing is now manufactured overseas where workers do not have the same protections. American consumers benefit from lower prices, but at what cost? Should you care about the health and safety of the people who make your clothing? In the Room for Debate feature "The Human Cost of Cheap Clothing," knowledgeable outside contributors debate what should be done about the issue. Scott Nova and Liana Foxvog, two of the panelists, write: Workers are dying in preventable factory fires because the world's leading retailers - from Wal-Mart to Gap to H&M - make their clothes in countries where labor laws are not enforced and demand that their contract factories slash production costs to the bone. Factories meet the apparel companies' relentless demands for lower prices by ignoring workers' rights and safety. In Bangladesh, the world's second-largest apparel producer, this has led to a series of horrific fires. Apparel companies claim they are regularly inspecting their factories and ensuring that they are safe, yet every deadly fire in recent years has happened at a factory that had been subject to numerous such inspections. It is impossible to imagine a more dismal record of failure. Are you willing to pay higher prices for your clothing to improve working conditions in places like Bangladesh and Pakistan? What else would you be willing to do to improve worker safety in the factories that manufacture your clothing? What responsibility do you think clothing brands and United States retailers have to ensure that the workers who make their products are safe?