No Mail Receptacle
I want to develop policy. Not just any policy, though. THE policy. The policy that will override all others. The policy that will make sure your hair stays thick and bouncy, that will feed the full and starve the hungry, that will create a genre of world cinema and help your grandmother keep her real teeth.
How's Return to Sender Thursday goin' for ya? Mine's fine.
I never promised you a rose garden. Nor that I wouldn't talk politics on this blog. I'm sticking to both of those.
I just attended an interesting talk on Fair Trade here at the school. While I enjoyed much of what the presenters said, it made me think about why I shop at the Gap, why I don't care who made my clothes and why I only drink good beer.
I shop where I do and buy what I do because of two factors, both aesthetic. I like how they look and I like how they feel. I want to maintain a certain style and in order to do that I spend a lot of money and I have to look the other way when it comes to how the clothes were made.
When I can get a pair of low-rise, boot-cut jeans that actually come in my size from a fair trade organization, I'll start shopping there. But I refuse to buy a t-shirt that's made of burlap and says, "I support the workers." Because honestly, I don't.
I know this isn't going to make me very popular, but I'm of the opinion that one can work just about anywhere. If you don't like you're job, find another one. I bitch about my job all the time to Bava, but if I were serious, I'd quit and find another. Why don't I? Because I'm lazy. If I REALLY wanted that higher paying job I would go to business school immediately. But, I'm not. Because I'm lazy.
Sometimes, you don't have the opportunity to be lazy. If you work in a smoky restaurant and don't want to get cancer, quit. If you don't like your working conditions at all, quit. That's what I did at both Mervyn's and Suncoast. I didn't like the working conditions, so I quit. Yeah, I suffered a little bit both times, but it was worth it.
At the end of the lunch discussion, I asked about whether the third world countries are supporting the free trade movement themselves.
The answer was no. Across the board.
They said that the main reason is that fair trade is a workers movement. No factory owner in a third world country is going to support a cut in his profits in order to pay his workers more. Then they might start making enough money to leave. The other reason is the government. Many times the governments of third world countries are extremely unstable and any organization of people scares the government. In Africa there are a lot of countries that shut down fair trade businesses that try to start by calling them revolutionary.
I'm all for fair trade. If I was living in a third world country I would want more than thirty cents/hour. But since I live in the US of A, I'm not gonna go out of my way to buy goods that I don't think are visually appealing or comfortable or that I don't need. The local fair trade store sells a lot of drums, african masks and hats. I have no need for any of those things. Wish I could guys, but until you start having a sale on Yamaha fair trade center channel speakers, you're not high on my list of priorities.
Anyway, I'll come back with more humor tomorrow.
--WHYDOESHEALWAYSHAVETODOTHAT?--
How's Return to Sender Thursday goin' for ya? Mine's fine.
I never promised you a rose garden. Nor that I wouldn't talk politics on this blog. I'm sticking to both of those.
I just attended an interesting talk on Fair Trade here at the school. While I enjoyed much of what the presenters said, it made me think about why I shop at the Gap, why I don't care who made my clothes and why I only drink good beer.
I shop where I do and buy what I do because of two factors, both aesthetic. I like how they look and I like how they feel. I want to maintain a certain style and in order to do that I spend a lot of money and I have to look the other way when it comes to how the clothes were made.
When I can get a pair of low-rise, boot-cut jeans that actually come in my size from a fair trade organization, I'll start shopping there. But I refuse to buy a t-shirt that's made of burlap and says, "I support the workers." Because honestly, I don't.
I know this isn't going to make me very popular, but I'm of the opinion that one can work just about anywhere. If you don't like you're job, find another one. I bitch about my job all the time to Bava, but if I were serious, I'd quit and find another. Why don't I? Because I'm lazy. If I REALLY wanted that higher paying job I would go to business school immediately. But, I'm not. Because I'm lazy.
Sometimes, you don't have the opportunity to be lazy. If you work in a smoky restaurant and don't want to get cancer, quit. If you don't like your working conditions at all, quit. That's what I did at both Mervyn's and Suncoast. I didn't like the working conditions, so I quit. Yeah, I suffered a little bit both times, but it was worth it.
At the end of the lunch discussion, I asked about whether the third world countries are supporting the free trade movement themselves.
The answer was no. Across the board.
They said that the main reason is that fair trade is a workers movement. No factory owner in a third world country is going to support a cut in his profits in order to pay his workers more. Then they might start making enough money to leave. The other reason is the government. Many times the governments of third world countries are extremely unstable and any organization of people scares the government. In Africa there are a lot of countries that shut down fair trade businesses that try to start by calling them revolutionary.
I'm all for fair trade. If I was living in a third world country I would want more than thirty cents/hour. But since I live in the US of A, I'm not gonna go out of my way to buy goods that I don't think are visually appealing or comfortable or that I don't need. The local fair trade store sells a lot of drums, african masks and hats. I have no need for any of those things. Wish I could guys, but until you start having a sale on Yamaha fair trade center channel speakers, you're not high on my list of priorities.
Anyway, I'll come back with more humor tomorrow.
--WHYDOESHEALWAYSHAVETODOTHAT?--
