Celebrating SimplicitySample

The Real Cost of Things

I assume that most of us don’t use extortion or theft to acquire our material possessions. However, I also assume that most of us feel pride if we manage to improve our lot in life through hard work and sound financial planning.

Let me suggest a way that most of us do actually take pride in “stolen” goods without even realizing it: we buy cheap clothing that is often made in other countries by poor people who work in miserable conditions. I realize that it is important to find ways to clothe our families well yet inexpensively, especially when children often seem to outgrow their clothes before you can get them home from the store. But we need to realize that in many cases we have stolen health and fair wages from others in order to do so.

I have become increasingly aware of how expensive such clothes really are in terms of the pollution of the factories to other nations’ water and land, as well as the toll on life and health these factories exact from their workers. This is one of those issues most of us would rather not think about because we feel we can do little or nothing about the problem; all it does is increase our guilt load.

We have the option to not buy clothing and shoes from companies that exploit their workers (check the Internet for current information on this issue; you can start by searching for “exploitation of garment workers” using a search engine such as Google). This might be a difficult option for some of us. But all of us can pray for the people who made our clothes. Look at the tag of the garment to see where it was made, then pray for those who made that item and for the country they live in. Pray for God’s goodness, justice and mercy in their lives. Pray that your heart will not be set on increasing your own wealth at the expense of others.

From Spiritual Disciplines Devotional by Valerie E. Hess.