Hmm... Sweatshops... abortions... the quest for the "moral" shoe

[Godefridus]

Hi everyone,

Internet literature on evil corporations is sketchy and filled with anti-Catholic prejudices. All I want is to be able to buy a good pair of walking shoes that doesn’t pump lifeblood into either the sweatshops of Indonesia or the abortion mills of the home front.

But, you know, with corps pretty much all being evil, that’s a hard order to fill.

Any hyper-aware shoppers here who can point me in the right direction?

 

[Mercy_Alvarenga]

I lived in Central America for nine and a half months. My mother-in-law is a sweatshop worker, so is my brother-in-law. Often, people who work in so-called sweatshops make much better money than anybody else in the surrounding community.
In Guatemala, for example, all the full-time factory workers I knew made more money than school teachers, restaurant workers, or cashiers. And I knew many of them. Most of my neighbors worked in the maquilas (sweatshops). They were envied. My husband was a restaurant worker at one point, and was making less than half of what a sweatshop worker would make, working longer hours and in poorer conditions.

Their paycheck sounds like a tiny bit of money by US standards, but in a country with a 30% unemployment rate, a clothing factory can be a blessing.

I wish I had the article still so I could point you to it, but I once read about a sweatshop in Indonesia that was closed because children had been working in it and Americans staged protests. A couple years later some reporters went back to find out what happened to the children who had been working in the sweatshop. Many had become prostitutes…

I don’t worry at all about where my clothing comes from. Your concern is sweet and noble, but honestly I really think my time was better spent volunteering in the communities I was concerned about rather than worrying about where my shoes come from. A good way to cut down on that kind of thing is to live simply and buy fewer clothing items, period.

But I’m probably not who you wanted to hear from since I’ve never been a hyper-aware shopper myself =)

 

[gardenswithkids]

I used to be a hyper-aware shopper, avoiding things made in a certain country, and shoes were the hardest things to find. Many other items I simply could choose to forego because they were wants and not needs, but shoes were different. I still pay attention to wants versus needs when shopping and reduce my consumerism overall, but I no longer pay close attention to where an item originates. Instead I have taken to the habit of praying for the people who make the stuff I use and supporting underdevoloped countries through missions. ( I still avoid a store that I know funds pro-abortion groups.) I hope you can find the shoes you want. If you do end up buying them from a cheaper source that uses sweatshops, remember you can send the extra money you were willing to spend to a Catholic mission in an underdeveloped country.

 

[deb1]

Mercy Alvarenga:

I wish I had the article still so I could point you to it, but I once read about a sweatshop in Indonesia that was closed because children had been working in it and Americans staged protests. A couple years later some reporters went back to find out what happened to the children who had been working in the sweatshop. Many had become prostitutes…
QUOTE]

I, too, read that closing sweatshops in Indonesia forced some children into prostitution. The sad part is that there were no protest against the Indonesian sex industry. In fact, the study wasn’t really well covered in our news.

I think that there is a tendency in more privelaged countries to feel guilty about our wealth. We say that we want to help others but in actuality we only want to relieve our own guilt. Because of this, some advocate doing things that really do not help those less privleged. LIke not buying items from sweatshops. We are only making ourselves feel better and might, in some instances, be doing more harm then good. Maybe the best thing to do is to give the money that you save buying cheaper shoes to charities that help others.

I applaud you though for being social conscious.