THE GOOD YOU DO
Are you automatically irked when you buy an item of clothing and find it was made in some foreign country?
If you have a violent reaction which likens the situation to “treason” you are, perhaps and average American. Major retailers have sincerely tried to offer only “Made in the U.S.A.” items. They have quickly been made to realize it cannot be done. Our manufacturing abilities are a thing of the past and the usual expression we hear so often is that “they have been sent overseas.”
A more truthful statement might be that we, over the years, we have, literally, by allowing the production costs of such manufactured goods to climb to unprecedented heights in the name of some transient blends of warmed-over economic theory and left-overs of resident fevers of political correctness.
We used the expressions such as : “...over there they have thousands of natives who are paid pennies to do .....the slave labor....” We go to great trouble to establish the idea that native workers are being paid very low wages without any regard to what local wages scales may be .I have not the slightest idea how much – or how little the native worker in far-off Nepal was paid for sewing up the shorts I happen to be wearing as I sit here typing these views. I don't know what the minimum or average wage might be in Nepal, but if it bother you that you must buy finished goods from such areas, you need to modify your thinking a bit to be more at ease.
Those “pennies” we speak of might well be the only income that native worker will see this week or month. Those petty coins will go to help feed that man an d his family. You a re giving him or her a chance to live as a human being. You are providing for their welfare though you need. What better type of international relief” could we possible participate in than to provide employment for individuals in a poor country?
` Let's be honest about such “giving” in past years. There was a time when our churches gave generously to such projects but we see less money dedicated to direct assistance both in religiously oriented and government relief plans as well. When we “give”a needy person a job making our clothing, as an example, we provide work for millions of needy people around the world. We often refuse to see that we have abandoned certain work areas, and we also, tragically, have had a growing feeling of being ashamed of doing manual labor and of teaching our children to do so as well.. I happen to live in and area where Latinos - both legal and illegal - have quickly filled jobs local jobs local residents would no longer accept in the poultry-processing and fruit-growing businesses.
Instead of moaning so often about feigned fears of financial failure because “our jobs are being shipped overseas.” You might find it better for everyone if you honestly try to see it as good we are doing.
You have a part in it, too. Put on your new work shirt made in - somewhere far away - and reflect upon what your “pennies” may have had on lives in that area.
A.L.M November 8, 2004 [c562wds]
