OT Do you care were the products you buy are made

[narf poit chez BOOM]

raising the standard of living world-wide and introducing democracy will benifit the world.

[Kamog]

Last year 30% of the worlds population took the step up from poverty, 17.7 billions now have the same living standard as the "west".

17.7 billion doesn't sound right because that's more than the population of the whole world.

[Fyron]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
raising the standard of living world-wide and introducing democracy will benifit the world.

So apparently you agree with the Bush Jr. adminstration's current reasons for the Iraq war.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

reason's? sort of. methods? not really. results? debatable.

[Puke]

quality and craftsmanship. while politics amuse me, and i certainly have my share of views on them, i dont let them effect my day-to-day life. which is probably why my world view disgusts so many people.

but back to quality and craftsmanship, there are some regional and national determinations for that. Asia tends to have crap for metal. Some good craftsmen and companies to buy tools from, but you better do your research and make sure that their metal is imported.

A handfull of European countries produce fine clothing. Lots of places produce quality and durable casual-wear, but i sure as heck wouldn't buy suits from "lots of places."

All told, im a big supporter of the global economy. it has its down sides, but I like it both as an idea, and in practice (realizing full well its a very different animal in theory and in practice [assuming that you take theory to equal propoganda, it could be argued that theory and practice are actually identical])

what i REALLY hate, are people who use nested parenthetical statements in forum Posts. jackasses.

[dogscoff]

I tend to boycott companies rather than countries- for example, I won't shop at Asda (Walmart-owned) or buy Nestle products or get petrol from Shell. I don't touch Mcdonald's any more, and if I did smoke I'd have real trouble finding someone I was prepared to buy tobacco from. It's kind of haphazard since I don't go and inform myself on every single supplier's ethical history, so I'm probably taking money away from one bastard corporation and just feeding it into another, but it gives me that lovely smug feeling and where possible I do aim for companies that go out of their way to be good.

I always buy free range and biodegradable, and I do like to go for locally produced stuff (especially food) for environmental reasons, but then at the same time I'm also kind of rebelling against the blind stupidity of "Buy British Beef", so I'll sometimes buy foriegn meat just to be awkward. People here seem to think that British meat must be BSE free because... well... because it has our flag stamped on the packet. Morons. The BSE outbreak here was handled extremely badly, and seemed to rely on rallying patriotism rather than, say, getting rid of the disease. I hope you yanks deal with it better than we did. We're now looking at yet another food scare with salmon and- guess what- it all stems from the fact that these animals are being fed ground-up offal from members of their own species. When we we learn that forcing cannibalism on these creatures might cut costs but in the long run it isn't doing anyone any favours?

I'd like to boycott US products until GWB is out of office because of the Iraq war, but if I did that I'd have to boycott UK products until Blair was out of office as well, but since I live in the UK that would be difficult. That said I never buy american beer but that's only because it's crap.

[ January 14, 2004, 07:38: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

[Puke]

carefull about sweeping generalizations there. There are some very good beers brewed here, though probably not the sort that are likely to be sold on your side of the pond.

Try looking for imported micro-brews, or check out some brew pubs the next time you go traveling.

[General Woundwort]

Originally posted by rextorres:
I think from political stand point China is a lot more noxious than France.

Not to mention rumors I've heard of the Chinese using political/criminal prisoners as slave labor in their factories. I'm getting to be really wary (not to mention weary) of all the things I see labeled "Made in China" in the stores. But there's so damn much of the stuff it's getting difficult to avoid.

Sadly Ironic Case in Point - I got a mug from a friend of mine as a gift. Typical post-9/11 stuff - American flag on the background, large script lettering "God Bless America". The label on the bottom? "Made in China".

[narf poit chez BOOM]

china is clearly the next big threat. 'when china wakes up, the world will tremble' - Napoleon.

[primitive]

Originally posted by General Woundwort:
Not to mention rumors I've heard of the Chinese using political/criminal prisoners as slave labor in their factories. I'm getting to be really wary (not to mention weary) of all the things I see labeled "Made in China" in the stores. But there's so damn much of the stuff it's getting difficult to avoid.

Just a little comment General W.
The work system of many American penal facilities is also labelled as Slave labour by many human rights organisations.