My thoughts exactly. I used to work in a card shop where I made $5.35 an hour. It was an upscale card shop in an upscale part of town, so I was surprised that I was paid so little. All a customer had to do was waltz in and buy two cards and my wages for the hour were paid. So just because an item costs more doesn’t mean the employee will ever see any of it, and wages are not necessarily higher in the city.

Maybe you (and many other people, including myself) are rationalizing somewhat, but frankly, I find that being a martyr for causes is time consuming, expensive, and annoying. If stores provide me with an alternative product that actually results in workers getting treated better and paid better in exchange for the higher prices I pay, I’ll gladly pay them. But if I have to go out of my way to do it and have no idea if my extra money will ever find its way to workers in Guatemala, then I’m going to keep shopping at Target. I’d rather take the extra money and donate it to a good cause I trust.

Etsy is fantastic, by the way.

Don’t know many poor people, do ya Debbie?

I’m afraid you ARE rationalizing, at least about some of the underpaid employees. Most poor people would rather have a decent job than to receive charity. And if people refused to buy from companies that paid indecent wages, those companies would go out of business.

Even though I know this, I also still buy low-priced things. The frugal side of me and the nice side of me are constantly battling. I hate that companies do everything in their power to make sure we don’t know how products magically appear in stores for us. And they do that because mostly we don’t want to know. I hate that I get used to certain things, and then later find out that I have contributed to hurting people. No one should have let me get used to evil habits!

Oh it was a sad, sad day when I learned about chocolate. Most chocolate is a product of raping the earth and the workers. But I love it! I want it!

So I go back and forth. Sometimes I pay extra for a free-trade item (http://www.fairtradefederation.org/) (always for chocolate–when I remember–chocolate is in so many lovely things!) and sometimes I go to Walmart.

I like to tell myself that buying things used also is mostly harmless, although by doing so I may help make a market for people who have bought things with sad histories.

(Thanks, pretty cheap jewelry, for your other ideas. It seems like shopping at farmer’s markets and other markets would also be a good idea.)

The purchase of handmade goods is a surefire way to know your effect of buying (go to http://www.etsy.com for a huge handmade internet marketplace). The growth of the local produce points to another way folks are making their buying power heard (we personally grow alot of our own).