The "cost" of a Christmas present, think about it, how much the present really "costs", not the money out of your pocketbook or charged to your credit card, but the cost that went into making that present and the injustice involved in corporate bureacracy. Case in point, you buy a $10 toy at Wal-Mart (yes I am going there) and you think, wow what a great deal, now I have more money to spend and perpetuate this cycle. Yet we never really think about the human cost involved in that $10 toy. Made in China-found on at least 70% of the gifts that will be opened in most households this Christmas day. What we often fail to realize that that $10 toy may have been made by someone that makes dozens of toys each day, yet is only compensated $10 a day, or less, leaving the rest of the profits for the corporate bureaucracy. Not to mention the support of Wal-mart and the taking away of profits from local businesses. Who said that NAFTA was a good thing? Talk about a backlash, factories are closing, corporations are "outsourcing". Outsourcing-fancy word for using cheap labor to make a product or provide a service so that they can keep charging the same to customers for products and services, paying their workers a less than living wage, and pocketing a bigger profit. What this boils down to is think before you buy, handmade crafts by a local artisan or products bought at a fair trade value and resold, support for a local business, and buying products that are Made in the USA are all ways that you can have a more socially responsible Christmas. Not to mention you will feel better about supporting the local community, local individuals and keeping the $$$ out of the fatcats of corporate bureacracy, sending the message that if they must outsource, a fair wage should be paid to the workers involved. That's one way to get the jobs back in America.
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