Week One: Conspicuous Consumption and Utter Confusion
January 22, 2009
I have to say, over the week that I’ve been recording everything I consume, there was no revolutionary moment that made me realize how wasteful I am or inspired me to change my ways. I figured that I consume pretty responsibly for a college student; I pack my lunch each day, I don’t eat enormous amounts of Easy Mac or Top Ramen, I buy organic when I can. Sure, it would be better for my community, the environment, and the world if I got a membership to the Moscow Co-op for all my grocery needs, or bought in bulk at WinCo, but without a car, and with a monthly budget of $200 for food, that’s just not possible right now. To say the least, I was feeling pretty confident about my consumption.
That is, until I looked at my closet. It began this morning, when I realized I could no longer shut one of the drawers on my dresser, where I kept all my t-shirts. And this is a large drawer. Then I recalled how I recently had to buy more hangers, as my two ten-packs just weren’t doing the job. And then I looked at my shoes. I still can’t bring myself to count how many pairs I own.
I’ll finally admit it: I’m an addict. I’m addicted to cheap clothes, or “fast fashion”. Forever 21 is my Mecca. Every other week, after scouring the F21 website, I type in my debit card number, and a week later a package arrives in front of my apartment. I like to think of it as a little gift from the UPS guy. (Who comes to my apartment so often he recognized me at Safeway.) It takes less than two minutes, there’s no hassle of a dressing room or sales clerks, I don’t even have to open my wallet (I have my card numbers memorized). It’s fast, easy, impersonal, and almost guilt-free. Almost. Except for the huge effect on my bank account. After working two jobs this summer, sixty hours a week, somehow I got to the point where I’m so worried I won’t be able to pay my electricity bill that I stopped turning my heat on.
I’m lucky enough to have excess income so I can spend it on things I want, rather than need, and yet I’m incredibly reckless with my money. According to the Daily Mail, the people in Bangladesh who make my fast fashion clothes earn about five dollars a week, and most likely don’t save up to spend it on that oh-so-cute fringed mini-dress. They probably just barely support their families. So I should stop spending money supporting corporations that take advantage of the foreign poor, right?
Turns out it’s not that simple. Kelsey Timmerman, author of Where Am I Wearing? A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People That Make Our Clothes, explains that factory jobs are often the best option for people in Bangladesh. According to Timmerman, “there are other, way worse jobs in Bangladesh…all we’re doing by boycotting is removing our guilt.”
It flat out sucks that the best job someone could get in a country like Bangladesh is in a sweatshop. The people that worked to put this shirt on my back live in a country whose government has failed to protect them from the complete desolation of poverty. They are the by-products of a screwed up world that depends on necessary evils to keep turning. So how can we stop it? How could I fix this huge mess? Because right now the only idea in my head is to fly to Bangladesh and start a revolution.
So, bottom line time. I get it. I feel horrible about it, I feel guilty, I feel responsible. You’ve raised our awareness, but what good are we doing? How can we pull millions of people out of poverty? I get that I’m lucky, I get that this is an outrage. So tell me what to do to fix it.
I actually worked on an anti-sweatshop campaign here at WSU last year, and came upon that sentiment last year: that boycotting didn’t do any good, that they could not do “any better” than the jobs in the sweatshops. So why make their lives worse?
To that idea, I say that we were the ones responsible for those jobs in the first place. By far most of the companies who started this practice were American companies (Nike, anyone?) looking to sate our appetites. We, as those with purchasing power, have a huge effect on the process because of it. By restricting what we buy to companies that manufacture in America – they exist! – or who make sure to use ethical practices, you are making an impact with your money! I love Old Navy, and indulged in a few “staple” tops this year. But I also bought boots from Keene, a socially responsible company, and shirts from American Apparel, a company with its factories in California. It might not be perfect, but it’s the best I can do as a college student! You should check out those companies and see if you like anything they offer; even just a smidge of your business would help send the message to those companies that you appreciate what they are doing!
Clothing is something that I too have WAY too much of. I think I could probably donate more than half of my wardrobe and not really even notice. My abundance seems to most manifest itself in the form of free tshirts. It is probably the most common incentive to hand out on a college campus for events, promotion etc. I have an entire drawer full of these “free” shirts. Even as a consumer concerned with where things I purchase come from, I am still filling my closet with clothing that probably came fromt the cheapest manufactuing and printing possible, and probably leaves the most damaging wake in it’s path.