I think this is another example of how we need international regulations for global commerce to be better for humanity. A similar example is corporate tax, where if the US increases it even a small amount, companies will just find loopholes to get the revenue taxed in a cheaper country.

I suspect that even if we didn't have any of these labor regulations, shipping companies might still struggle to hire American workers because workers expect a higher standard from their employers. The problem isn't that we have regulations -- sure, some might be inefficient and ineffective, but there are lots of very important ones as well. The problem is that entities in other countries can exploit workers much worse. And for locations where where you might not have a lot of options, it's gonna be hard to say no.

Our consumerist economy has never really reckoned with the fact that our cheap products are only possible because the countries which manufacture and ship those products to us have cheap costs of living and (often) very poor labor conditions. As that changes and countries get more expensive to live and labor regulations improve, it'll be more expensive to manufacture and ship things.

This is obviously good for humanity overall, but it does mean that we'll pay more for products. It's not worth sacrificing human life just because America wants cheaper video game consoles, for example.

That's the defeatist attitude they want you to have. Same reason they argue against taxing the rich or closing tax loopholes. The world's largest superpower has tools if we had the will, unfortunately lobbyists own our government.

That's 100 ships with better conditions than there would be otherwise. For me, that by itself is enough of a point (though there's more).