Lucia

de Vernai

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April 15, 2008

Sure, Boycott China, If You Want to Walk Around Naked

Not shopping at Wal-Mart is inconvenient and costly, but just as I was weaning myself off Sam’s Choice animal crackers, it turns out that avoiding the only place that will sell you The Breakfast Club for $5 is not enough. The liberal yuppie peer pressure has moved on to boycotting all products made in China.

Would you like me to stop breathing to not pollute the environment while I’m at it too? Actually, don’t answer that. The new pet project of the J.Crew-clad Inquisition has the right foundation – China’s record of human rights abuses in prisons and in the workplace is grounds for boycott. But the economic reality, and growing guilt most Americans are experiencing, makes the call for a boycott of the country’s biggest trade partner fall on deaf ears.

No large U.S. retailer is willing (read: stupid enough) to not carry Chinese products. In the year following their 2004 joining of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and consequent release from quotas, the volume of Chinese clothing exports increased over 500 percent, and prices dropped almost 50 percent. If that’s just numbers to you, do this experiment: Check the perimeter to see if your boss is out of the way, duck in your cubicle and start checking your tags. Even if the leather on your shoes comes from Italy, the sole is Chinese. Your shirt? Yes, Made in China. Your underpants? Ditto.

So the choice is clear: You either have no conscience or no underwear. Or no blender or no iPod or no toys to distract your kids with. Not that you can’t start phasing items out. Start shopping at retailers that use only domestic labor, like American Apparel. A mere $14 is not a lot to ask for a pair of Organic Baby Rib briefs. Yeah, they bunch, but take one for humanity, eh?

Between buying organic shampoo, soy milk and constantly replacing those flimsy cloth bags with environmental slogans meant to discourage the use of plastic sold by the register, I spend almost twice what I used to at the supermarket. Those who insist that “conscientious living” must include immediate sacrifices on every front are unrealistic, unsympathetic and most likely don’t have student and car loans to balance with an outrageous mortgage rate.

Global awareness is crucial in a global economy, but boycotting China may mean trouble for our own economy. Before we reject one source, having a viable plan B sounds like the responsible thing to do.

Those pushing for change in China’s labor and human rights practices could be a success if the proposed change were as sympathetic to the buyer’s sentiments as it is to the producers. The socio-environmental consciousness trend that has caught on with churches, network television and junk food manufacturers puts enough pressure on us.

Every time we turn on the air conditioning, get in our minivans or let our child drink something that’s 5 percent juice from concentrate, it’s as if we’re failing as citizens of the Earth, parents or whatever your relationship to air conditioning is. Feeling guilty and wearing uncomfortable (albeit organic) underwear? I don’t think so.           

Fortune cookies . . . made in Japan.

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