Made in "Your Country Here" ; Is it important to you?

[kandrathe]

And now, after centuries of profiting and draining african and asian countries, we in the west start complaining about the playing field not being level. Although I of course fully agree with you in the fact that it would be great if other countries would have the same labour laws, environmental policies etc. that we have, we are not the ones with much reason to complain.

Development is a double edged sword. I can't help regret the loss of tribal and cultural identity, then again, where are the Maygars Thracians, and Picts? Even with my own cultural identity, I've had to go back and re-learn my language, history and culture. We can look at the negative impact and exploitation, and on the other hand, better medicine, better education, and modernization of their society. Albeit, often done to them in a European image.

If we didn't have these sources of cheap labour that are making stuff we daily use for us, we would indeed have more work at home, but we would have less time for our jobs such as fill in your weird modern job name-manager which actually make a lot more money.

And, what would they do? Go back to the herds, and hope this year isn't another drought? I'm not opposed to their products and their economy thriving. Whenever I travel, I'm thrilled to purchase the products from that society. I guess what I'm opposed to is where European and American multi-national companies relocate operations specifically to exploit differences in environmental and labor laws -- that is what makes the playing field uneven for our workers (societies). The result must be a transfer of wealth from the consumers to the producers. We will get poorer, and they will get richer -- and the owners of the multi-nationals will get very, very rich by leveraging the inequity.

And talking about level playing field; you are lucky you live in Canada with 3.41 other Canadians per square kilometer of land full of oil, gold, timber etc......especially in times of crises such as food shortages etc. You are much richer because e.g. your land prices (for building a house for example) are probably 10 times cheaper than in Holland.....that is if you want to live close to a big city.....otherwise it is probably 1000 times cheaper.

You could emigrate. I think Canada would have you. But, you might be one of the 3.41 Canadians living on the ice where it's dark most of the winter. For agriculture comparison, Canada has 4.87 tilled acres per person, the US has 2.96, and The Netherlands has .29 -- yet, you still export food. Probably the prices you are seeing relate to the hidden cost of petrochemicals used to grow, and move it.

I think buying local for environmental reasons (the farmers market example of deebye) is a good reason but living in a western country and buying local to keep jobs at home sounds selfish to me. (and already mentioned by a few others probably also doesn't make a lot of sense).

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to skew my buying behavior in their direction, the local mini-mart closed and the property is for sale. I must now go a few miles out of my way to get to the nearest market. Some new entrepreneur may decide to re-open a mini-mart (making me happy), or bull doze it and put in some other business that may be more successful (making me sad). I think what Shadow and I are describing may actually be more unselfish. The neighbor right next to me, has been self employed laying carpet for his entire career. I would never think of using anyone else when I have the need, even if they were much cheaper (and they are not). In the end, we both win, and we both feel better about being good neighbors.

Let's imagine though, that very near us there was a company that made computers which were priced 10% higher. They do design and make the steel cases, which are very stylish. Yes, they ship in some of the main components, but try to source much of it domestically. They are known for choosing reliable components and offer a good free 1 year warranty. As an individual, yes, I would consider them -- and if I could make the case to choose them, even with the higher cost, I would. If the cost gets too out of whack, then no. As a business person, no, I need to ethically make the best (utilitarian) decision for the business without the same passions.