Are we paying attention?

The Cost of “Cheap”

“Live as most people in the world live, preoccupied with survival...Value warmth. Prize shelter. Praise the miracle of flowing water.”

                           Barbara Brown Taylor (An Altar in the World)

The collapse of the 9-story garment factory in Bangladesh last month and the fire in a Cambodian factory just this week, brought home once again the very human cost of cheap labor. It would be easy to blame the companies who moved their industries overseas for slack oversight. Even easier to blame governments that allow their people, mostly women, to work in unsafe conditions. But the real problem is that we have come to expect “cheap” as the norm. That is why our industries moved in the first place.

I don't take myself out of this equation. I literally gasp at the prices on clothing in high end retailers, and walk out of stores without buying anything. And there are no easy solutions. The people of Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Cambodia, and all the other developing countries where our clothes are made, need the jobs our companies provide just to feed themselves. The women in those factories make less in a month than most Americans spend for one meal in a restaurant.

It's easy to suggest that our companies move those textile jobs back stateside, but that is unlikely to happen unless we all agree that paying more is worth it. We could boycott the companies—Walmart, H & M, Gap, etc—until they clean up their factories and make them safe for workers, but that would have no impact unless we all stop shopping for a year. That's not going to happen either. We can express our outrage but unless there is action to back it up, we may as well spit in the wind.

I don't have answers for these problems. I can only choose what I will do in response. I will buy my clothes second-hand at thrift and consignment stores. That is where I can reasonably expect to buy cheaply and perhaps help someone else in the process. There are certain brands I like to wear; I will check to see where those clothes are made and whether the working conditions are safe. If I find they are not, I will stop buying clothes from that retailer, used or otherwise. I will buy American made whenever possible even though it costs more. What about you? What's your response?

                                          In the spirit,

                                             Jane