What Cost?
January 5th, 2007 by Sonja

She picked up her coffee and looked around her bakery and smiled. She said, “If something is too cheap that means someone is paying the cost somewhere. Maybe it is the environment or maybe it is someone else down the line.”

Great minds think alike … this is my theory as well. I was enthralled by the article in which it was stated. Lead there by the inimitable, Brother Maynard, the article is actually the transcript of a Canadian radio show. But this bakery may just be incentive to travel to Winnipeg sometime soon.


4 Responses  
  • Ton O' writes:
    January 5th, 20071:27 pmat

    How ’bout this:

    I buy everything for you, then you pay me double for it! That way you get to feel good and I get extra money. I’ll even remove the “Made in China” tags and the “100% Single-Estate, Guatemalan Coffee Beans” label if it will help.

           
  • aBhantiarna Solas writes:
    January 5th, 20072:13 pmat

    Ton O\’ \”B.S.\” 😉 … did you even read the article? Go read it … It fits into your 4 year plan pretty nicely if you think about it.

           
  • Ton O' writes:
    January 5th, 20072:24 pmat

    Okay, sure. I read the article. Fine. Cut out the middle man, that is ALWAYS a good fiscal idea. Sell at inflated prices to self-mollifying rich people who want to feel like they are doing something good: that is always a good idea.

    I like this strategy. It’s what I was planning to do anyway.

    But what this has to do with poor workers in other countries, I’m not sure. Is it saying that instead of giving these people in China, Thailand, India, wherever a job (albeit a “bad” one), we should buy everything local and screw those foreigners?

           
  • aBhantiarna Solas writes:
    January 5th, 20072:35 pmat

    Uhh … yeah … I’m a closet xenophobe.

    No. Just kidding. But go back to my original point. Which is that things that are sold too cheaply to me, have the true cost paid for by someone somewhere along the line.

    So. Let’s say that we stop buying pieces o’crap made in China (for example) that constructed using slave labor techniques. Then what will happen? Hmmm, I dont know. Will those companies just lie down, fold up and die. I don’t think so. They’ll find a market. If the market demands that they treat their employees well, and create a decent product … then they will.

    If we rich people create a market for expensive Fair Trade lots of other things besides coffee and chocolate. And demand that there are controls that show that the producers are being paid a fair and living wage and being treated humanely, then, well … I think we’ve accomplished something.

    But, for the time being, I’m going to buy local as much as possible to make a statement. Not that just me says anything to anybody. But if we all did, maybe somebody would start listenting.

           


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