Made in China, but by whom?

Could it really be considered good stewardship to plunk down $120 for a pair of shoes NOT made in China?

I am one of those people who has "many more little feet to shoe" and I have finally gotten smart and started purchasing gently used footware at thirft shops, children's resale shops and garage sales. Therefore, in my mind, I'm not the one supporting the "made in China" stuff. My money goes into the pocket of someone in this country, most likely someone living right in my home town, or perhaps even in my own neighborhood or on my own street.

I suppose you could find those Christmas tree lights in resale shops as well...lots of people clear out perfectly good stuff in order to rid themselves of clutter. But if it bothers one's conscious enough, why not just go without? I mean, lights aren't absolutely necessary for a pretty Christmas tree, right? :-)

Dear Valerie,

What a thoughtful and interesting suggestion. This is the kind of thing we need--synergistic thinking to oppose a very real and very present evil. But we need to think of ways as well that allow us to convey to China the message that we are glad to have such imported goods, we simply cannot tolerate the way in which they are made for us. Surely not every industry in China is lao-gai.

Anyway, thank you!

shalom,

Steven

A suggestion has always been to increase the terrifs. Since China forces abortions on millions of women and is probably the greatest violator of human and ethical rights in the world today, I feel it is really important for the US to stop pandering to China. If we increase terrifs on China imports that would do the trick.

Heck we sanctioned Iraq for much less than what China has done. Why not sanction China? Oh, yes I forgot being the good old US of A it is all about the almight dollar.

Forgot to add there was a news program on Christians in China, and how they are being arrested and torchered today. There has been recently a huge crackdown on home Church groups. Many Catholics practice their faith in the home since they can not belong to the state run Catholic Church which has been declared in schism by Rome.

Lately many of our fellow Catholics have disappeared into thin air. How the same Catholics who supported war in Iraq, even when the pope condemned it, do not support sanctions of China I do not understand. Before the US led invasion of Iraq Catholics were free to practice there religion, also abortion was illegal. Yet, in China, a country loved by the US, abortions are forced on women and Christians are tortured.

I know Pat Buchanan was advocating tariffs, but I think it was more out of a desire to protect US industry than out of human rights concerns.

Valerie -- I guess it would depend on what kind of resources one was stewarding. If a family had the money for the $120 shoes and had taken care of their charitable obligations, that might be a good investment, particularly if they could hand the shoes down once they were outgrown. (For myself, I'd rather have two pairs of comfortable, good-quality shoes than a closet full of cheapies -- they feel better, look better, and last longer.) As I was typing, the little voice inside my head was hissing "Christmas lights are not a necessity -- one could always do without." But I was too embarrassed at the time to admit that is was just then occurring to me.

That's a good thought on looking for "gently used" footwear. I've never had much luck with that, myself.

We try to avoid firsthand made-in-China products, and were trying more strenuously for some time. It wasn't as hard as I thought -- I think we made it through the "Christmas" shopping season w/o any lapses except that we forgot to check the Christmas tree stand, and I wonder if we'd have stood firm on that if we couldn't put our already-purchased tree on anything! My mother even sent down some of her lights that she didn't need. One of my more egregious lapses was getting some religious infant books for a nephew being baptized in a Protestant church -- I really really wanted to get something "religious" to commemorate the occasion, but didn't plan enough ahead to find something suitable that didn't scream "Catholic." It's usually a matter of budgeting both time and money when we just buy the China-made thing firsthand. Shoes are tough when you wear a hard-to-find size even shopping brand new, upscale stores. But in general we even check books, which we know can usually be found secondhand or checked out of the library, and rarely need to have ASAP. Same with toys, there's no way my son needs a particular item. My husband recently paid more for a non-China-made charcoal grill when we were hoping to get one of those big bargains we'd been seeing advertised, but I'm fine with $60 versus $30 for something you can still find at Home Depot and won't need to replace for a looong time, I imagine.

Okay, now I need to click the links to see if there is more to this than "don't buy firsthand stuff stamped 'made in China.'"

Shoes are really a problem in general. I have never been able to put the made in China ones on me or any family members because they are too narrow for our duck feet - so we have to budget very carefully for shoes anyhow. In my opinion, most babies don't need shoes most of the time anyhow - socks, bootees, keep feet warm when needed. But then I lived in Southern California when the children were little and have never had to deal with snow boots etc for children.
There is a local cobbler who makes handmade shoes to individual patterns. Prices start at $350, but I have been seriously tempted.
I find that I rejoice if I can find shoes for myself that fit (never mind the moral dimensions) for less that $60.
Do you think that we should try to learn simple cobbling skills for our children? I know that I made moccasins as a child from kits by Tandy Leather.

I love Peony's title: "Made in China, but by whom?" That's the difficulty. Be a lot easier if the tag said "made in the Laogai gulag".

I'm much less sanguine than I used to about punishing governments by punishing the people. The sanctions on Iraq turned out to be a miserable failure. Millions of children died as a direct result and the government (Hussein) lived fat and happy. Our lack of trade with North Korea has not only not affected the government but made it worse. Sixty Minutes did a story on how over one million people died of famine there over the past decade.

I don't know what the answer is, but I am going to try to avoid the "Made in China" tag since forced labor is an abomination.

My husband keeps saying that if you buy from some sort of "closeout" store that has really low prices because they're just getting rid of leftovers from manufacturers or other stores, that you're not supporting trade with China because they've already given up on those products as losers. I don't know the first thing about commerce, economics or whatever, just throwing it out there -- at this time I still avoid the "Made in China" Super Deals from places like Big Lots.

Not to be a contrarian, but forced labor is not intrinsically evil, provided the people in that situation were put into it justly. I will even go so far as to have no problem with putting members of dangerous cults (Falun Gong, the Scientologists of the East) and terrorists or other criminals into forced labor. Certainly, it must be humane, but the problem is not forced labor, rather unjust forced labor, for instance, depriving people of their God-given duty to be Catholic in union with the Pope.

I am concerned that the term "forced labor" is becoming some sort of thing that is incorrectly viewed as an intrinsic evil. The lines need to drawn around the nature of the forced labor and the alleged crime that the forced labor is supposed to cure.

Certainly much of Chinese forced labor is grossly unjust, but let's not get carried away. China is doing us a great service by warning of the dangers of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa. Instead of reacting with knee-jerk Liberalism (big L), we should heed their warning.

I never supported sanctions in Iraq, largely because Pope John II condemned them and has been extremly critical of what the US has done in Iraq ever since the first Gulf War.

I merely suggested sanctions because unfortunately so many Catholics dissented from Rome on the issue of Iraq and did support both sanctions and the war. I am pointing out the inconsistancy of these Catholics who wanted us to bomb a nation and its children because of the relitavely small crimes of its government when compared to the hideous crimes of China. Notice the current evil adminitration is so busy pandering to China yet called us to send out children to Iraq when it suited their interests.

I for one was always much more concerned about China, which kills and tortures my fellow Catholics, forces abortions on women and kills hundreds of millions of babies every year in abortion. Could you immagine living in a country which would force an abortion on you if you had more than one child?

Abortion was illegal in Iraq before we went there to "liberate it", I wonder if one of the "freedoms" we are bringing there is the freedom for the people of Iraq to kill their babies. I just honestly wish more Catholics would listen to the Church and the Pope even if it is hard for them.

(Sigh)