My clothing has more frequent flier miles than I do...
I recently watched China Blue, an independent film made in China, about the clothing production industry (blue jeans, in this case) and the lives of the workers. Afterward, I wanted to run out of the room naked and screaming. Screaming because our globalized trade system is fucked up, and naked because I felt horribly guilty for wearing clothing that was likely produced in some developing country by an underage or very young worker who made less than 1/20 what I paid for the product.
I was doing a load of laundry tonight and I decided to look at the labels of all my clothing and see how much of it was actually made in the US. In no particular order, here are my findings:
Honduras, Cambodia, Japan, Russia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Brunei, Vietnam, Mexico. El Salvador, South Africa, Indonesia, USA, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Italy, Jordan, Bangladesh, and of course, China.
If that's not testimony to the globalized industry, I don't know what is.
It amazes me that one of the richest countries in the world ships nearly all their industry to developing nations where stuff can be made more cheaply at the expense of the workers all to save a buck on our end of the deal. Of all nations, we can afford to pay an extra couple bucks for a fairly-manufatured piece of clothing or other merchandise. But most people aren't willing to shell out the cash because they want to hoard as much as possible for themselves so they can spend it on themselves and their stuff. But the thing is, we don't need all that stuff. If people would buy one or two pair of blue jeans instead of seven or eight, they could totally afford the minimally higher cost of fair trade denim. Hell, we can afford it anyway!! In fact, some of that stuff is less expensive than the trendy sweatshop shit that people buy.
I tried to justify my lack of fair trade clothing purchases in that I buy so much from thrift stores: if I'm not buying new merchandise, there's not as much demand so there is less stress on the other end of the system. But the factories keep cranking out products because that's the way things work. So the clothing is being produced regardless of whether or not I'm buying it.
Bleck.
I was doing a load of laundry tonight and I decided to look at the labels of all my clothing and see how much of it was actually made in the US. In no particular order, here are my findings:
Honduras, Cambodia, Japan, Russia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Brunei, Vietnam, Mexico. El Salvador, South Africa, Indonesia, USA, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Italy, Jordan, Bangladesh, and of course, China.
If that's not testimony to the globalized industry, I don't know what is.
It amazes me that one of the richest countries in the world ships nearly all their industry to developing nations where stuff can be made more cheaply at the expense of the workers all to save a buck on our end of the deal. Of all nations, we can afford to pay an extra couple bucks for a fairly-manufatured piece of clothing or other merchandise. But most people aren't willing to shell out the cash because they want to hoard as much as possible for themselves so they can spend it on themselves and their stuff. But the thing is, we don't need all that stuff. If people would buy one or two pair of blue jeans instead of seven or eight, they could totally afford the minimally higher cost of fair trade denim. Hell, we can afford it anyway!! In fact, some of that stuff is less expensive than the trendy sweatshop shit that people buy.
I tried to justify my lack of fair trade clothing purchases in that I buy so much from thrift stores: if I'm not buying new merchandise, there's not as much demand so there is less stress on the other end of the system. But the factories keep cranking out products because that's the way things work. So the clothing is being produced regardless of whether or not I'm buying it.
Bleck.