There are those that would argue that when we buy things made in economically depressed countries by people working under sweatshop conditions, that we are helping the downtrodden by funnelling our money in their direction instead of giving it to people in privileged countries. But it only takes a little investigation into the living conditions of the people involved compared to those of their pre-globalization forbears who didn’t have such jobs to see that the current state of affairs is anything but an improvement. Trying to convince ourselves we’re helping those people is obviously a pretty self-serving rationalization.

I still ask a lot of the same questions you are asking, and the bottom line is that I’m not OK with the effect U.S. consumerism is having on the world (and us), so I have to at least try to do something different. It could have a positive effect or it could just decrease my feeling that I’m implicated in this system that I hate. I can’t tell for sure.

Of course, for me it’s pretty much a moot point anyway. I would buy used clothes anyway because they’re cheap. I would buy produce that’s local and/or organic (in that order) whenever possible anyway, because it’s better for you, and you often get better quality, freshness and taste. I would avoid shopping at places like the Gap anyway because stuff from those places often falls apart quickly and I don’t like running into three different people in the course of my day who are wearing the same shirt as me (actually happened to me once wearing a Gap shirt). Etc., etc. etc. On the rare occasions when I spend extra money for a more “ethical” product, I usually get a correspondingly higher level of quality anyway.

I don’t know. I don’t even really buy into the idea of purchasing or not purchasing items as social action. I just buy what I want to buy. I have a hard time being concerned about people halfway around the globe who have no real, practical relationship to me. What am I responsible for? Do I need to get mobilized every time there is a natural disaster or wide-scale suffering? Is it better to buy socks made my an indonesian women who works 10 hrs a day and uses the salary to buy essentials for her family or to buy more expensive socks made domestically by American workers who use the money to help pay for their cable bill? I dont think many people realize how incredibly privileged we are to even be able to have concern for textile workers in the third world. Who do you think they’re most concerne for? Would they be better off without our money flowing in, even if only through their minute salaries?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1375499,00.html

I like the part about looking like a hippie and the bit about making a pot out of a stick and a sock.