NationStates Jolt Archive

Is there any point?

Thanks to the power of globalisation, chances are, the 'foreign' car you're driving, or the 'foreign' beverage you're drinking, were produced in your own country, by your own fellow citizens.

There are numerous exceptions of course - in the motor industry, cars are only assembled in the US and UK, their components being imported from factories overseas. Wine is not made locally under license the way beer is made.

But still. Jingoistic purchases seem pretty silly to me. Is there really any point in choosing a domestic brand over a foreign one when the country of origin is the same?

It is funny that after all the fuss over Rover and the 'death of British cars' the British motor industry is actually booming, just under foreign companies.

I hate the Chinese government, but I wouldn't dream of paying extra for non-Chinese alternatives.
I have no morals, you see.

I hate the Chinese government, but I wouldn't dream of paying extra for non-Chinese alternatives.
I have no morals, you see.

The market has no morality :p

I hate the Chinese government, but I wouldn't dream of paying extra for non-Chinese alternatives.
I have no morals, you see.
Even if a country regularly sacrificed virgins to Bale, I’d still buy their shit.

In 1988 Lee Iacoca was the chairman of Chrystler Corp. and his big thing was to "buy American." So, I bought one of Mr. Iacoca's "American" Plymouth Reliant stationwagons. It had a Japanese engine in it and was assembled in Canada. So much for buy American. :mad:

The market has no morality :p
Hmmm...nor do the Chinese:

Human rights, China analysts point out, play no role in Beijing's investments. Michael Green, who handled Asian affairs on Mr Bush's National Security Council until December, recalled a discussion with a Chinese official on doing business in Sudan.

"He said, 'Look, we don't care about internal issues like genocide, we only care about the oil because we need the resources'."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/23/wchina23.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/23/ixnewstop.html

Off-topic, but I have seen no evidence the US cares about civil rights in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria. Actually I respect the Chinese and others more, because they are honest about their amorality.

Anyway...the topic beckons.

i agree that theres not all that much sense in buying american blindly

but i think there may be a point in buying locally. supporting your neighbors is good for the community.

Off-topic, but I have seen no evidence the US cares about civil rights in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria. Actually I respect the Chinese and others more, because they are honest about their amorality.

Anyway...the topic beckons.
True. A point was made about China, so I thought I'd throw that in.

I don't personally go for 'jingoistic' purchases. I like to buy as local as possible, to 'buy' as few air miles as possible when I buy food etc. For example, faced with a choice of locally produced apple juice, or fair trade apple juice from South Africa (a choice I'm often presented with in my students' union shop), I will always buy the locally produced stuff.

In a world where buying from a Japanese company could mean you're getting your product from Alabama, and where buying from an American company could mean you're getting your product from Saipan, I don't see the need to "buy American", or British, or French.

I try to buy from countries with horrible human rights records, the taste of suffering makes my coffee taste so much better, and those little fingers make such excellently comfortable shoes.

It's all just nationalist scheming anyways.

Buy BMW! ;)

Actually I respect the Chinese and others more, because they are honest about their amorality.


No, they don't. They also put up their version of human rights statement every year and pretend to be moralistic. Every govt pretends so...they only vary in the degrees of pretense...

Buy *insert country* really doesn't mean much anymore.

My big lesson was listening to that hypocrite Lee Iacocca and he buy american bs.

I bought a daytona and found that the engine was pretty much japan, the turbo was german and the breaking system was french.....

Off-topic, but I have seen no evidence the US cares about civil rights in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria. Actually I respect the Chinese and others more, because they are honest about their amorality.

Anyway...the topic beckons.

Considering the President, doesn't that statement fall under the "Duh" category?

I'm on the fence about globalization. I think it's happening and inevitable, but I also think it's being mishandled by transnational corporations. So there are ways in which it matters where products come from and ways in which it doesn't.

When it comes to politicizing purchases, all I personally care about is how much the workers got paid. So, for instance, when it comes to buying clothing, I look for "no sweat" brands, and I also try to stay educated about working conditions in various countries and which major brands have good reputations or bad reputations and let that influence my decisions.

If a foreign company is manufacturing cars or appliances, etc, in the US, and paying decent US wages for it, then buying from them does support my local economy. But if they were building them in another country and paying decent US wages for it, I'd be just as happy buying from them then, too.

For everything else, I just look for the best -- local tomatoes and imported beer, master artisan makers wherever they happen to be.

Is there any point?

Thanks to the power of globalisation, chances are, the 'foreign' car you're driving, or the 'foreign' beverage you're drinking, were produced in your own country, by your own fellow citizens.

There are numerous exceptions of course - in the motor industry, cars are only assembled in the US and UK, their components being imported from factories overseas. Wine is not made locally under license the way beer is made.

But still. Jingoistic purchases seem pretty silly to me. Is there really any point in choosing a domestic brand over a foreign one when the country of origin is the same?

Yes, there is a point.

I refuse to buy anything made in a Communist country outright, as I am against slavery. The human rights abuses in North Korea, China and Viet Nam make Abu Gharib look like a country club outing.

Further, by buying goods from your own country, you are giving work to your own countrymen and therefore aiding your own prosperity.

For example: the US government passed on the Sikorsky helicopter for the next Presidential helicopter AND on another chopper for the next gunship.
Because of this, jobs will *leave* our town and instead go to Germany, Italy and Mexico. Every manufacturing job supports about a dozen service industry jobs. Worse, the local subcontractor also suffer, so it will depress the whole area.

As for country of origin: okay, maybe my Chrysler is made from Canadian and Mexican parts as well as US ones. That's fine... because they are both countries with civil rights and are in a trade alliance (NAFTA) with the US.

Every job can be outsourced. Anything can be made anywhere.
By not buying local, the job you export may eventually be your own.

Buy *insert country* really doesn't mean much anymore.

Read somewhere that there is a particular Toyota/Honda model which carries more American parts (parts manufactured in America by Americans) than a similar model by Ford (because they imported parts for that model from elsewhere).

So, now which is the American car ?:p

The market is a amoral, yes, that is it's beauty. To buy something, anything for moral reasons, leads one to the impossible task of parsing the morality of each actor's actions in that web of interaction called the division of labor.

Buy locally? Define locally! In town? In county? In state? In country? In continent? What if your locality doesn't produce the thing you need, which is true 99.9% percent of the time? Where do you draw the line?

As long as you remember to boycott Israeli goods, I don't care.

Read somewhere that there is a particular Toyota/Honda model which carries more American parts (parts manufactured in America by Americans) than a similar model by Ford (because they imported parts for that model from elsewhere).

So, now which is the American car ?:p

I'm an American. When I vacation in (say) Prague, I could stay at a Hilton. That's an American hotel, since the profits go back to the states, even though they mostly employ local labor.

Who assembled the Toyota/Honda/whatever? American laborers? Fine. American parts? Fine. (But, were they made by an American company, or an American subsidiary of Toyota/Honda)?
The profits? Right back to Japan. Thus a Japanese car.

The market is a amoral, yes, that is it's beauty. To buy something, anything for moral reasons, leads one to the impossible task of parsing the morality of each actor's actions in that web of interaction called the division of labor.

Buy locally? Define locally! In town? In county? In state? In country? In continent? What if your locality doesn't produce the thing you need, which is true 99.9% percent of the time? Where do you draw the line?

If it's available and you can.
Right now, I cannot buy an American made DVD player. No, I'm not happy about that.
However, I can buy American made cars, paintbrushes, and laptops (though some components are foreign in all of these).

It really depends on the situation.

Tbh, since globalisation, all western countries are the same thing anyway.
I'd probably chuck Japan and Australia in with them too.

Food miles. The shorter the distance your apple etc. has travelled, the less energy has been expended on getting it to you. Same applies particularly if you eat meat, since fruit doesn't suffer if it spends hours in transportation to the apple abattoir, wheareas a cow or something does.

Who assembled the Toyota/Honda/whatever? American laborers? Fine. American parts? Fine. (But, were they made by an American company, or an American subsidiary of Toyota/Honda)?
The profits? Right back to Japan. Thus a Japanese car.

But the particular Ford car uses more non American parts which would mean that those jobs/money/whatever is going elsewhere no?

The point is that with MNC's and criss crossing supply lines, it is increasingly blurry to define something as American or whatever.

Let's take Oracle. The North America consulting division has an India operations centre and their consulting team for implementations regularly have many Indian IT people on their team. This makes them cost competitive which helps them beat others (including other Indian consulting companies) and helps them post more profit etc etc.

So, would you argue that Oracle should stop using the India operations because it takes away American jobs? But wait, if the project is not done in a cost competitive way...it may lead to the company which is implementing it to become inefficient and lose out to companies from elsewhere..

Oh there's a solution for that...isolationism...let's stop trading with other countries...oh wait...US benefits more from trading with othes..

Is there any point?

Thanks to the power of globalisation, chances are, the 'foreign' car you're driving, or the 'foreign' beverage you're drinking, were produced in your own country, by your own fellow citizens.

There are numerous exceptions of course - in the motor industry, cars are only assembled in the US and UK, their components being imported from factories overseas. Wine is not made locally under license the way beer is made.

But still. Jingoistic purchases seem pretty silly to me. Is there really any point in choosing a domestic brand over a foreign one when the country of origin is the same?

I would think that the point is that you support and hold up American labor. It is true that some products like cars are often assembled here even though they are foreign-owned, but most aren't, and there is a fairly significant difference between a product manufactured in France and Germany and assembled in the US and one that was built and assembled in China: one likely involved ununionized labor with young women working 12-hour days, and the other didn't. By supporting the one that didn't, you promote fair-wage behavior on the part of corporations.

Is there any point?

Thanks to the power of globalisation, chances are, the 'foreign' car you're driving, or the 'foreign' beverage you're drinking, were produced in your own country, by your own fellow citizens.

There are numerous exceptions of course - in the motor industry, cars are only assembled in the US and UK, their components being imported from factories overseas. Wine is not made locally under license the way beer is made.

But still. Jingoistic purchases seem pretty silly to me. Is there really any point in choosing a domestic brand over a foreign one when the country of origin is the same?


Well, usually you can refer to the "made in" or "product of" label on a good to determine whether or not it is produced domestically.

Also, even if foriegn companies produce their good domestically, the company's profits are directed back to its home country.

I'm not sure your post is really all that accurate, to be honest.

But the particular Ford car uses more non American parts which would mean that those jobs/money/whatever is going elsewhere no?

The point is that with MNC's and criss crossing supply lines, it is increasingly blurry to define something as American or whatever.

Blurry, sure. But not impossible. Consider the helpdesks that have moved to India. The work is over there, the profits (savings) are over here. Is India really benefitting from this scenario? Well, on a jobs level, yes. In terms of aiding the Indian economy? Not really. Lots of the brightest being wasted in dead end, high stress jobs, with most of the profit leaving the country.

Let's take Oracle. The North America consulting division has an India operations centre and their consulting team for implementations regularly have many Indian IT people on their team. This makes them cost competitive which helps them beat others (including other Indian consulting companies) and helps them post more profit etc etc.

So, would you argue that Oracle should stop using the India operations because it takes away American jobs? But wait, if the project is not done in a cost competitive way...it may lead to the company which is implementing it to become inefficient and lose out to companies from elsewhere..

Oh there's a solution for that...isolationism...let's stop trading with other countries...oh wait...US benefits more from trading with othes..

The US does indeed benefit from international trade, no doubt about it. But by the same token, the playing field is hardly even. The Chinese currency doesn't float and is artifically low. Trade barriers are raised (yes, it does go both ways... by and against the US).

I just wonder what will happen once India starts outsourcing to (say) Kenya in 10-15 years. ;)

I'm not saying that the US should go isolationist, nor that there isn't a high amount of interrelations in goods these days. (Heck, by first bicycle 25 years ago had parts from 7 different countries.)

However, I would implore people to buy locally and shun goods from countries that shoot, enprision, and torture their own people.

People already seem to be talking about buying locally as opposed to British or American or whatever. Buying locally is great idea for cutting down on polution and our oil dependency culture. And locally applies not only to the world market, but within your country too. Supermarket food spends ages traveling up and down the road network. If I buy cadbury's chocolate from my local supermarket then that chocolate will have traveled from the factory to the distribution centre (which is miles away) to the supermarket. This is despite the fact that supermarket is only about a mile from the factory.

But yeah... I was on the train last week and it went past the Coors 'brewery' (if you can call it that). It's so depressing to think we actually make that piss in locally. :(

But yeah... I was on the train last week and it went past the Coors 'brewery' (if you can call it that). It's so depressing to think we actually make that piss in locally. :(

I found it quite funny that while I was last in London I was drinking Tetley, Guinness (extra cold), and any other English beer I could find, whereas all these London young urban professionals (with their briefcases, umbrellas and quaint suits!) where quaffing down Michelob & Michelob Light!!

I may be the exception here. I have morals in this regard:

-I buy books from independant stores

-I shop at independant stores

- I choose to eat predominantly British food stuffs.

- I wear British clothing brands.

I found it quite funny that while I was last in London I was drinking Tetley, Guinness (extra cold), and any other English beer I could find, whereas all these London young urban professionals (with their briefcases, umbrellas and quaint suits!) where quaffing down Michelob & Michelob Light!!Guinness? English? I think you should edit your post before some Irish drunk beats you into a bloody pulp. I'll edit this post as well so no one will ever know. Tetley and Guinness are the ones you remember? Did you not get to try any real ales like London Pride?

Hmm... well you see I haven't hear of Michelob, so they're were probably drinking it to be the elitist business snobs that they are. :p

I may be the exception here. I have morals in this regard:

-I buy books from independant stores

-I shop at independant stores

- I choose to eat predominantly British food stuffs.

- I wear British clothing brands.Sighs, I wish I could be in your shoes. My local food shop is over 10 minutes walk away and a Tesco's and there's only one independent cinema in the whole Birmingham, and their selection isn't always the most informed of choices. Only one independent cinema for the 2,284,093 people of the West Midlands conurbation? It sucks!

i live in a very conservative and elderly part of engand where distrust of the EU is felt. i saw a car with a 'OUT of EU' sign in the back ... the amusing thing was that it was a citreon. hohoho i mean buy a jap or american car if ure anti eu. its like having a ban handguns sing on the side of ure hunting rifle¬!!!

Guinness? English? I think you should edit your post before some Irish drunk beats you into a bloody pulp. I'll edit this post as well so no one will ever know. Tetley and Guinness are the ones you remember? Did you not get to try any real ales like London Pride?

Hmm... well you see I haven't hear of Michelob, so they're were probably drinking it to be the elitist business snobs that they are. :p

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Guinness was an English brew. It's just that I didn't want to mention the Kronenburg (sp?), which I had.. after all, that's French. :)
I probably did, but I hate to report that Prague kicks the cr*p out of London as far as beer diversity and quality go.

I saw this happen in several bars, but remember I'm a tourist in London, so was mostly around Pimlico and down to St. Pauls. Maybe they were snobs, maybe not... I can't really say.

i live in a very conservative and elderly part of engand where distrust of the EU is felt. i saw a car with a 'OUT of EU' sign in the back ... the amusing thing was that it was a citreon. hohoho i mean buy a jap or american car if ure anti eu. its like having a ban handguns sing on the side of ure hunting rifle¬!!!

I think his cousin lives here in Connecticut. There is a Honda SUV with a sticker on it here in the rail garage every morning that says "Don't buy Chinese!".

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Guinness was an English brew.
It doesn't really matter, since it's owned by an evil death corporation now.

It doesn't hurt your economy to buy goods from another country. If you buy something from Japan then Japan is going to use the money to buy something from your country. When you buy something from another country you are supporting your own country's export industries. When you think about this it must be true. No country is going to import stufff without exporting it. Otherwise that would mean they are giving away stuff for free, which isn't going to happen. Countries can "borrow" money and run a trade deficit, but you are not doing that when you buy something from otherseas.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Guinness was an English brew. It's just that I didn't want to mention the Kronenburg (sp?), which I had.. after all, that's French. :)
I probably did, but I hate to report that Prague kicks the cr*p out of London as far as beer diversity and quality go.

I saw this happen in several bars, but remember I'm a tourist in London, so was mostly around Pimlico and down to St. Pauls. Maybe they were snobs, maybe not... I can't really say.You're probably right. Most London pubs probably have a crap selection beers, all of which are probably largers as well.

Kronenbourg is now owned by Scottish and Newcastle and has a new brewery for 1664 in Scotland, so it was probably a completely british beer you were drinking ;)

The market has no morality :p
Really? I wouldn't make such assumptions. Perhaps the market just has a different morality to other people. Think about it.

Off-topic, but I have seen no evidence the US cares about civil rights in Saudi Arabia or Nigeria. Actually I respect the Chinese and others more, because they are honest about their amorality.

Neither country does, but China's human rights violations are worse than America's, so I still respect China less.

I'm on the fence about globalization. I think it's happening and inevitable, but I also think it's being mishandled by transnational corporations. So there are ways in which it matters where products come from and ways in which it doesn't.

When it comes to politicizing purchases, all I personally care about is how much the workers got paid. So, for instance, when it comes to buying clothing, I look for "no sweat" brands, and I also try to stay educated about working conditions in various countries and which major brands have good reputations or bad reputations and let that influence my decisions.
I think that the working conditions are more important than the pay. Consider also that if you refuse to buy stuff because it may have come from a sweatshop, then those workers will get nothing. Even having a sweatshop job is better than having no job at all.

I'm in favour of the EU and US introducing import laws by which all imports must have been manufactured under good working conditions. Unfortunately, big business owns the governments in the west, so that won't happen.

I'm holding out for trade unionism to break into the developing world.

As long as you remember to boycott Israeli goods, I don't care.
Why?

And what does Israel produce?

Guinness? English? I think you should edit your post before some Irish drunk beats you into a bloody pulp.
I was going to correct him, but the Guinness he drank in London was probably brewed in England.

In terms of cars, yes. American cars are fugly.

Blurry, sure. But not impossible. Consider the helpdesks that have moved to India. The work is over there, the profits (savings) are over here. Is India really benefitting from this scenario? Well, on a jobs level, yes. In terms of aiding the Indian economy? Not really. Lots of the brightest being wasted in dead end, high stress jobs, with most of the profit leaving the country.

Well, I don't think that call centres are going to propell Indian economy either....but they do have their market amongst people who are willing to do that and are not skilled/interested in other things.

It is a free country and if young people want to do that as a job, what do I care. They make a honest living and that's all I care about.

They make a pittance (somewhere like 20000 Rupees a month which is like 500 dollars) compared to an American/westerner on the same job, but it is still a tidy sum and that 20000 Rs can get him a decent living and if he plans carefully he can do lots of stuff with that money.

The call centre industry may not be something to brag about, but it sure does help the economy by getting young people jobs and not on the streets rioting or something.


I just wonder what will happen once India starts outsourcing to (say) Kenya in 10-15 years. ;)

There is already some outsourcing (sub contracting rather) from tier I cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad etc to tier II cities like Pune, Calcutta etc and to even low-wage countries like Pakistan etc.

Watch this funny bit on this subject

http://www.callcentermovie.com/

However, I would implore people to buy locally and shun goods from countries that shoot, enprision, and torture their own people.

I do that too. I boycott certain countries even if I have to go to some lengths to get a goods/service. Nothing wrong with that. But arguing for "isolationism" because some other country (that has more or less the same policies on human rights, economic policies and such) can do it better and is "taking over" is something I don't agree with.

Why? And what does Israel produce?

Israel produces hate. Not always directly but... lol



England produces Strongbow.
England is good in my books.

I was going to correct him, but the Guinness he drank in London was probably brewed in England.Really? I thought the London Guinness brewery closed last year... oh... wait... he probably visited the UK before the brewery closed. My apologies.

Israel produces hate.

And cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products. According to the CIA factbook.

And cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products. According to the CIA factbook.

*psssh*
Yeah, but what DOES the CIA know?
lol

I was being *slightly* sarcastic, either way.

(as a sidenote - weren't they [the CIA] responsible for the information leading to the WMD fiasco in Iraq? Maybe they're attributing more to Israel then we think, hah!)

I really don't care who makes it as long as I enjoy it. I will buy a car because I like it's specs and package, not because it was made in a certain country. The same thing goes for anything, I buy it because I like it, because while I am patriotic I'm not so patriotic that I'm going to waste my money on meaningless crap that I'll never enjoy/use.

I may be the exception here. I have morals in this regard:

-I buy books from independant stores

-I shop at independant stores


Hard to do here. The independents have been pretty well wiped out by the chains.


- I choose to eat predominantly British food stuffs.

Sorry to hear that. :p


- I wear British clothing brands.

I don't think there is any american brands anymore. Everything is China now.

And cut diamonds, high-technology equipment, and agricultural products. According to the CIA factbook.


Found a great set of Diamond earings in Jeruselem once. Wife still loves them.....

Yes, I do boycott Israeli products - it is the sole exception I make when it comes to shopping. I find that there is always fruit in supermarkets with Israel as the country of origin. I am far happier buying an equivalent product from Spain for example, which aside from being less offensive to my politics, is also far closer.

Ironic that in spite of the views put forward in this thread, even I make an ideological exception. No-one is immune from hypocrasy. :rolleyes:

I am also not so sure that a foreign-owned company is more likely to take its profits elsewhere than a domestic company - at least as far as multinationals are concerned. It seems to me that wherever a company is large enough to have a dedicated corporate finance division, the money flows through accounting rules along the path of least resistance. Thus the home of the company and the locations of its bases of operations are not particularly relevant as the cash moves offshore, being locally reinvested according to the results of ongoing reviews.

Ironic that in spite of the views put forward in this thread, even I make an ideological exception. No-one is immune from hypocrasy. :rolleyes:Eh? Not sure what you mean there.

while I am patriotic I'm not so patriotic that I'm going to waste my money on meaningless crap that I'll never enjoy/use

Don't worry. Buying stuff from other countries is not unpatriotic as every dollar spent on imports has to come back as exports. Buying foreign goods supports your country's export industries. In fact, if you pay more to buy your own coutry's goods when you could have bought a cheaper foreign product of equal or greater quality, then you are hurting a citizen of your own country. Yourself.

Don't worry. Buying stuff from other countries is not unpatriotic as every dollar spent on imports has to come back as exports. Buying foreign goods supports your country's export industries. In fact, if you pay more to buy your own coutry's goods when you could have bought a cheaper foreign product of equal or greater quality, then you are hurting a citizen of your own country. Yourself.You are aware of something called a 'trade deficit'? The USA currently has an annual trade deficit of $800 billion. That is - it imports $800 billion worth of goods more than it exports per year. For reference the USA imports total $1.727 trillion, and exports total $927 billion.

Buy genuine Pretanian Baskets from Pretania Wood Smoke:D

You are aware of something called a 'trade deficit'? The USA currently has an annual trade deficit of $800 billion. That is - it imports $800 billion worth of goods more than it exports per year. For reference the USA imports total $1.727 trillion, and exports total $927 billion.

The U.S. is selling treasury bills and U.S. owned assets to fund this. Peronally I don't think this is a good idea. I think it would be better if the U.S. exported more bulldozers and computer progams rather than paper I.O.U.s, and I think it would be better if the U.S. had a higher rate of savings rather than borrowing so much money. If you decide to pay for your purchases by borrowing money from overseas then you are contributing to this problem. If you vote for a government that runs huge deficits then you are contributing to this problem. Simply buying a sweater from China does not cause this problem.

Eh? Not sure what you mean there.
I was responding to a couple of earlier comments about boycotting a certain nation's products, and how it is reconciled with not adhering to a policy of buying one's own nation's products. If that makes sense. Well, Fass will understand anyway.

In terms of cars, yes. American cars are fugly.

Yeah... looks awful...
http://imgmoto.trojmiasto.pl/moto/tapety2/chrysler/chrysler_crossfire_02_800x600.jpg
Chrysler Crossfire

Yeah... looks awful...
You're right, that's awful. :eek:

I don't think there is any american brands anymore. Everything is China now.

You have to hunt a little.
Carhartt is still made in the US for most items, including jeans.
Vanson leathers are US made.

You're right, that's awful. :eek:

There is no accounting for taste. :p

You have to hunt a little.
Carhartt is still made in the US for most items, including jeans.
Vanson leathers are US made.
American Apparel says all its stuff is made in the USA by union workers, too. But you can't always trust the "made in" label. There are lock-down sweat shops operating in NYC and California, among other places in the US. If you really worry about it, you have to check out the individual brands to see where they get their stuff made. No Sweat lists approved makers, and the US and various states' Labor Departments sometimes have information about complaints against companies, too. I only politicize a few of my purchases this way. Clothing, obviously, because there's just so much exploitation in it, and because my grandmother was a proud member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union ever since WW2 (remember Triangle Shirt Waist). I also try not to buy foods that are produced by excessively cruel means (I think foie gras should be banned), or excessive exploitation (like over fishing), or unsafe methods (don't ask how that burger patty got made unless you really want to become a vegetarian).

Other than that, as I say, I try to buy the best, and that usually ends up supporting independent makers/sellers, both local and imported.

As long as you remember to boycott Israeli goods, I don't care.


Why?

I'm noticing plastic things made in Israel lately.

Today I bought Turkish figs and Spanish oranges instead of the Israeli ones on offer. Cheaper too, since the additional transports costs are stupid. :)

And not bothered by the fact that my car isn't British.