Shopping is a choice

Editorial

There are basic necessities of life: food, clothing and shelter. Most of us are fortunate enough not to have to choose between eating a daily meal and buying a new pair of shoes. Most of us have the luxury of choosing to reduce our consumption or to buy organic in order to "save the planet." We also have the choice of shopping "ethically" and buying fair-trade products in an effort to promote social justice around the world. We have these choices. But from the sounds of it, especially at this festive time of the year, you would think that there are massive corporate guns pointed at our heads forcing us to buy child-slavery-produced, carbon-loaded, landfill-busting and otherwise evil and wasteful consumer goods.

There are many things in life over which we have no control, but whether to buy the latest iProduct for our children or the latest gas-guzzler as our family vehicle do not fall into this category. The whining that goes on about consumerism and its associated ill effects is becoming tiresome. Despite barrages of enticing advertisements and other corporate "trickery," we do, in the end, have minds and wills, which, if we choose to use them, are quite powerful things.

By this point, most people should be familiar with the phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle." They should also know that there are some people in the world who are exploited by others – but that, at the same time, one person's exploitation may prove to be another's salvation. For instance, as distasteful to us "first worlders" as a $1/day worked may be, that could be the beginning of someone's or some country's crawl out of abject poverty or worse. That is not to say that such a situation is good or bad – that is for each of us to decide ourselves, according to our own values and beliefs. It is to say, however, that most of us have this knowledge and if we buy products from places with low labor or environmental standards, then some of the possible reasons we may have for doing so are that we believe it's the right thing to do, that we don't care, that we're hypocrites or wilfully ignorant or that we truly have no choice, i.e. if every nickel is vital to our continued survival, then we may have to shop at one of those big-box, "exploitive" stores to get the best price.

With respect to this last reason, there are intended and unintended consequences to our every action. We may believe strongly in the community value of mom-and-pop stores, but not "impersonal," "corrupt" or "soul-destroying" corporations. Ignoring the questions of what happens and how our attitudes change when mom and pop become successful and begin selling franchises, we should realize that we may actually be harming several people in the community and in the larger world when we ban big-box stores from our neighborhoods: there will be fewer jobs, higher prices, etc. Again, this may be the right choice for many people: there may be a park saved, higher local real estate values, etc. But one thing is certain – no one course of action has unmitigated benefits and no one path has the absolute moral high ground.

Anything that we do in life, even the most thoughtful endeavor, is not uniformly beneficial to "the people" or the planet. The best we can do is to be as true to our values as possible, educate ourselves about our options, consider our actions carefully – and be slow in judging others (as they may not be nefarious, just different from you).

But back to Chanukah gift shopping. As this issue of the Jewish Independent shows, there are many routes we can take to buying a present that reflects our – or the recipient's – beliefs. If you want to support a certain charity, buy fair-trade products or organic foods and drinks, you can do that. You do have a choice. As much pressure as there may be to keep up with the Joneses, you really don't have to. As much as your children want things and more things, you really don't have to buy them. That being said, if you do want to go global and purchase your gifts from the biggest of the big businesses of corporate America, by all means, do so. And if you don't wish to exchange gifts at all this year, then all the power to you. Just stop with the powerless, victimhood shpiel.

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