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Recent Christianity Today article on "Fair Trade"


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http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/june/fair-trade-in-unfair-world.html?paging=off

 

It's not the same "Fair Trade" company that Emma promotes...but it talks about the same basic concept. It even mentions the tragedy about a year ago in Bangladesh.

 

For me personally, I feel somewhat convicted by this...because I normally try to buy the cheapest things possible to save money. However, I know this probably ends up supporting these terrible working conditions. I've looked at things like the People Tree website...but there weren't many things in stock in my size. Plus there is sometimes a big price gap. I often get my shoes at Payless and my shirts at Walmart. For example, my last pair of sneakers cost me $10 brand new. They were probably made n a sweatshop. I wouldn't mind paying $20 for the shoes if I knew they were made by people in better conditions...but I just can't see spending more than $50 on a pair of shoes.

 

I guess if I absolutely had to, I could pay the $50. But I just wish there was a website for thrifty trade conscious shopping.

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http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2014/june/fair-trade-in-unfair-world.html?paging=off

 

It's not the same "Fair Trade" company that Emma promotes...but it talks about the same basic concept. It even mentions the tragedy about a year ago in Bangladesh.

 

For me personally, I feel somewhat convicted by this...because I normally try to buy the cheapest things possible to save money. However, I know this probably ends up supporting these terrible working conditions. I've looked at things like the People Tree website...but there weren't many things in stock in my size. Plus there is sometimes a big price gap. I often get my shoes at Payless and my shirts at Walmart. For example, my last pair of sneakers cost me $10 brand new. They were probably made n a sweatshop. I wouldn't mind paying $20 for the shoes if I knew they were made by people in better conditions...but I just can't see spending more than $50 on a pair of shoes.

 

I guess if I absolutely had to, I could pay the $50. But I just wish there was a website for thrifty trade conscious shopping.

as i see it, diversity is an issue, they need to cover all sizes, and then u could save up to buy smh that you will wear a long time, coz its higher quality but pricey.

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That is one thing I feel about fair trade too-cost. But then I think about the conditions the people are working in and I tell myself it is worth buying and spending a bit extra. As a teacher that is not always easy to do so I pick and choose my items carefully. My best friend got me into it when she was working for a Fair Trade commission and really opened my eyes to a lot. That's why I thought it was so cool of Emma to do People Tree fair trade things.

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That is one thing I feel about fair trade too-cost. But then I think about the conditions the people are working in and I tell myself it is worth buying and spending a bit extra. As a teacher that is not always easy to do so I pick and choose my items carefully. My best friend got me into it when she was working for a Fair Trade commission and really opened my eyes to a lot. That's why I thought it was so cool of Emma to do People Tree fair trade things.

a LOT OF people have morals, but most of 'em can't afford it.

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I could not agree more with you on this Elena. I think a lot of people in our society would love to buy organic foods and fair trade clothing but just can't afford it.

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Fair trade is for the privileged, plain and simple. It used to bother me a lot when Emma would talk about people in our age group buying fair trade items like it's no big deal and it's what we should be doing, because it's easy for her to say. She can drop several hundred dollars on a single item, no problem. However, the rest of us live in reality and this is not always possible. I think this is one of the reasons her People Tree line didn't actually do super well-- it was targeted toward young people, and the majority of young people do not have the income to devote to buying exclusively fair trade.

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Perhaps not "super well", but her People Tree lines sold well. What Emma was trying to accomplish was raise awareness of Fair Trade fashions. Yes, they are more expensive, but if more people buy Fair Trade items, the price will decrease, though it'll never match walmart prices.

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Perhaps not "super well", but her People Tree lines sold well. What Emma was trying to accomplish was raise awareness of Fair Trade fashions. Yes, they are more expensive, but if more people buy Fair Trade items, the price will decrease, though it'll never match walmart prices.

well yes, what emma wanted to do was pretty clear but she didn't mention that us young people live on minimum wages and an item from her collection is unattainable.

 

Fair trade is for the privileged, plain and simple. It used to bother me a lot when Emma would talk about people in our age group buying fair trade items like it's no big deal and it's what we should be doing, because it's easy for her to say. She can drop several hundred dollars on a single item, no problem. However, the rest of us live in reality and this is not always possible. I think this is one of the reasons her People Tree line didn't actually do super well-- it was targeted toward young people, and the majority of young people do not have the income to devote to buying exclusively fair trade.

yeah, I agree, i some time go on peopletree to look at the models and I think to myself wow 70 pounds(which is almost 100 euros) for a cardigan, wow. i was all like, yeah I would LOVE all my wardrobe to be converted to fair trade, but will she sponsor me? at least till I'm a millionaire myself?

 

I could not agree more with you on this Elena. I think a lot of people in our society would love to buy organic foods and fair trade clothing but just can't afford it.

Someone who has to sustain themselves(all bills, house expenses, personal expenses, maybe even children) could not even dream of buying

such an item of fair trade even if they wanted to. SURE if that someone is well off and has a high salary and there's no worry for all above.

Edited by Elena
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Perhaps not "super well", but her People Tree lines sold well. What Emma was trying to accomplish was raise awareness of Fair Trade fashions. Yes, they are more expensive, but if more people buy Fair Trade items, the price will decrease, though it'll never match walmart prices.

 

They sold well, but they still had to discount quite a lot of the line at the end. And it was pretty fairly discounted; I was toying with the idea of buying some of it at the time. The company might be ethical, but the markup for their product is still considerable. To be able to discount things at that rate shows that either the line didn't do as well as expected (and they needed to get it out the door), or that they were still able to make a profit off the discounted items, and perhaps could have given more money to the workers who made the clothes. 

 

I like fair trade things. I shop at independent grocery stores that sell a lot of fair trade. But I recognize that I am in a good position to do so, and the fact is that the majority of people can't. It's important to be critical of where the things we consume come from, but it's equally important to be critical about things like environmentalism, fair trade, organic food, etc which are presented as the "right" thing to do, and the "right" way to live, but are not accessible to a very large, dare I say majority, of the population. 

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There are some companies that are managing to pay their employees at least a basic wage that make fairly affordable products.  

 

Element Electronics makes Televisions in the United States.  They are fairly competitive in price with other major brands.

 

I've heard that Sears Guardsman tires are actually Cooper tires made in the U.S. re-branded for Sears...and they are very affordable automobile tires.  (This might not be true...it might be just a sales line...but that's what I've been told).

 

Both of these brands are rather affordable, and they must be paying their workers at least U.S. minimum wage.

 

To me, though, I don't care if it's made in the US where I live or somewhere else...I just wish there was a place where you could look to find an item made at a factory where the workers were paid at least enough to have a chance in life.  Whether it's made in Bangladesh, the US, UK, Europe, South America, China, etc.

 

Because the second problem, other than people not having the finances...is people having the time to research if all the things they buy are being made fairly...from their bananas to their shoes, etc.

 

It would be neat to have a website where you could go and look for what you want...and it would list some companies or brands that paid people fairly and had links to their products, so you would know the price, and then have information on what stores carry those products, or how they could be ordered online....so at least one could make at effort to see if a reasonably made item was affordable.

 

The ultimate would be to have it all embedded and categorized into an app (similar to Amazon or Ebay)...where you could just shop and buy fairly made stuff...from electronics, to instruments, clothing, furniture, etc...or at least when one was at the store, one could bring it up to see if any of the items they are looking at are more fairly made.

 

There are companies out there...if all that information could be categorized and put into one place, I think it would be more accessible to more people.  Because in addition to people not having resources, many just don't have the time to do all of the research.  Does that make sense?

 

...In other words, I'm not only cheap, I'm also lazy   :(

Edited by jim
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