Ripples

I realize I've been on and on about consumption choices lately, but I think it's incredibly important and I've started straying from my sphere of like-minded bloggery goodness and I'm baffled by the lack of scope displayed in so many me-centric posts and comments.  So I'd just like to say again, "Your choices affect others."  Say it with me, one more time,

"Your choices affect others."

The cloth for your clothing was grown and processed by someone.  Your clothes were made and shipped and sold by someone.  Your food was grown and picked and shipped by someone.  If you're not veg*n - your food used to be someone.  And it was raised, slaughtered, butchered, packaged, shipped, and sold by someone.  The same goes for your shoes, your music, your books, your toys, your knickknacks and pots and pans . . . . your everything.  Our choices have far-reaching consequences. 

So when someone comments on a post asking if people buy organic produce by asking, "Like, does it really matter if your banana, whose peel you're throwing away, is organic?" I say, yes.  Yes, it does.

You can certainly argue that a sweatshop job is better than no job, or that migrant farm work is still work.  However, the results of the United Farm Workers Take Our Jobs campaign seem to speak for themselves.  With national unemployment still at nearly 10%, the UFW has not been overwhelmed with applications.  Maybe because a bad job is a bad job?  With a net worth of $8.2 billion , Phillip Knight (the CEO of Nike) is the 52nd richest man in the world  He could probably afford to make sure his workers are paid a decent wage.

And that's the thing - yes a job and a wage is better than nothing.  But this working for pennies an hour, without any rights or privileges, no sick time, no vacation, no bathroom breaks, in horrible, poisonous conditions . . . it's making other people incredibly wealthy.  The choice isn't a terrible job or no job.  That's a false dichotomy.  There exists the third option of  . . . a good job. 

We are complicit in this and we, as consumers, can help to effect change.  Every little bit helps.  We can throw stones and make ripples.  Enough of us can make waves.