A little of what the Thompson's are up to.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Up for discussion


I may be the only person this bothers, every time I buy my kids clothes and I remove the tags I always end up seeing this - made in ..................... and it always brings to my mind some 8 yr old girl in some impoverished 3rd world country sewing my kids clothes and getting paid about a penny an hour to do it. Where in the world is Macau anyway? Any thoughts?

7 comments:

Gina and Jon said...

Well this is what google has to say about the place of Macau:
Geography
Area: 28.2 square kilometers total, with 8.9 sq. km. on a peninsula connected to China and the southern islands of Taipa (6.5 sq. km.), Coloane (7.6 sq. km.), and Co Tai (5.2 sq. km., reclaimed land between Taipa and Coloane) linked by bridge and causeway.

Terrain: Coastline is flat, inland is hilly and rocky.

Climate: Tropical monsoon; cool and humid in winter, hot and rainy from spring through summer.

Claire Thompson said...

Actually, my bad, I meant thoughts on the whole child sewing my child's clothes etc etc, or maybe you were just being funny...

brookeisacrazylady said...

i think if you learn that you are buying something that is made by a slave-child in a 3rd world country you cannot buy it...but how do we know. and i make no effort to found out if the $3.99 shirts from target that i love are made unethically. on one hand i think its kind of like organic. like, if i could only buy my kids exclusively organic i would, but i'm on a stay at home mom's budget and have to go with whats cheap. good ethical question claire.

we need to talk to someone who knows more about this. i'm a bit ignorant on the subject. like do these companies benefit the economy of the 3rd world countries or not? and what is the solution for getting these kids out of these situations?

Beth said...

I don't know about other companies? I think Target is pretty legit. I know the Gap has had some sketchy things come up in their past. This would be a good question to put out on Tales from the Crib, Claire? Maybe you should do a Guest Post?? Email it to me if you want and I can try to get it on the blog. There are always some know-it-all on there that seem to have all the answers :)

anniemcq said...

That's a question that haunts me too, Claire. Maybe it's just being up here in Portland, where folks are very "green", but I have taken to buying from resale places, just to "recycle". I figure with kid stuff, it can't have been worn THAT much, since they grow so fast, and kids don't have body odor, so that isn't a problem in getting used stuff.

Gina and Jon said...

I was just being funny!!

Amber said...

A penny a day is better than nothing! If there is an 8-yr old sewing Naartije clothes she was probably worse off before she got the job. Hmmm... maybe I should teach Haylee how to sew!