shootingstar
05-01-2009, 06:28 PM
For non-food items- I don't think too hard whether or not I'm buying something from a company that has a good fair employee treatment record, meets occupational health and safety laws, fair wages, etc.
If I knew that company engaged in child labour, then would tend to avoid. But tough to know all sources of your goods bought.
As for garment sweat shops: Some of my relatives have been employed in such situations. They did do sewing at similar situations.. I remember 1 cousin's wife complained to me the fatigue in her neck, eyesight, etc. I saw the pile of stuff at her home. She was not part of unionized workforce.
But her wages did contribute to family income...in addition to her husbands', a cook in a Chinese restaurant for their 2 children (now 2 university adults).
It is disappointing that the garment industry in Canada has been outsourced in a major way to outside of Canada --amongst some other things.
Of course, it would be nice to buy goods from Canada to support my home country's economy but it's not realistic for me unless I have lots of time (to shop compare) and more income to pay more.
Buying Canadian --is done most in terms of financial investments. Standalone stocks bought, are Canadian companies with international operations. But have avoided some Canadian firms with dubious operations in Sudan, etc. Foreign investments are lesser and bundled in a catch basket as indexed funds, mutuals, etc. So no 1 foreign company is favoured.
It's just my lazy approach to ethical (?) shopping/investing...which is pretty haphazard and not totally informed about the company/source.
If I knew that company engaged in child labour, then would tend to avoid. But tough to know all sources of your goods bought.
As for garment sweat shops: Some of my relatives have been employed in such situations. They did do sewing at similar situations.. I remember 1 cousin's wife complained to me the fatigue in her neck, eyesight, etc. I saw the pile of stuff at her home. She was not part of unionized workforce.
But her wages did contribute to family income...in addition to her husbands', a cook in a Chinese restaurant for their 2 children (now 2 university adults).
It is disappointing that the garment industry in Canada has been outsourced in a major way to outside of Canada --amongst some other things.
Of course, it would be nice to buy goods from Canada to support my home country's economy but it's not realistic for me unless I have lots of time (to shop compare) and more income to pay more.
Buying Canadian --is done most in terms of financial investments. Standalone stocks bought, are Canadian companies with international operations. But have avoided some Canadian firms with dubious operations in Sudan, etc. Foreign investments are lesser and bundled in a catch basket as indexed funds, mutuals, etc. So no 1 foreign company is favoured.
It's just my lazy approach to ethical (?) shopping/investing...which is pretty haphazard and not totally informed about the company/source.