Sometime in the past year I started using the term “social justice” and “localist” in non-ironic fashion. I’m not sure how that happened, and I’m trying to put together the steps.
- First you acknowledge a moral component to your economic actions. Example: If someone treated their employees poorly, shopping at their store would enable them to continue.
- Then you realize that component is still there even when you don’t know about it. Ex: Target may source their garments from a factory where employees are forced to live in unsafe housing nearby, we just don’t know about it.
- You realize how difficult it would be under our current system to make these sorts of determinations, and it bothers you. It feels, by example, like as an entire culture we are handing our money to people and saying, “We don’t care how you do it, get us what we want at the cheapest price possible.”
- You also realize that this hurts the poorest the most. The only unskilled labor still available is in the service sector, since we moved all our manufacturing out of sight and out of mind.
I’m still working on this, but I thought I’d post what I had so far.
Well put, Austin. That is an organized compilation of what is going on. Another thing, maybe sometimes the argument is aesthetic. By that I mean we don’t really know where any of our clothes are made or under what conditions. This ought not to be the case (I suppose), but if we have to shelve that consideration, what are we left with? To get back to something Frank asked, we buy some of our clothes at J. Crew. They are not the cheapest place to buy, but I actually like that. They last longer and look better than clothes from cheaper places. Buying cheap is a virtue today. Why not buy pretty? Why not buy better? Your Sayers quote says the same thing.
I can now attest to what you’re saying about clothes in an objective, quantifiable way – well made or good looking clothes retain their value much better than fashion’s midlist and mass market. Specifically, J. Crew, Banana Republic, Orvis, Pendleton, etc… These are the clothes that get snatched up in the store.