Many products produced by giant multinationals in impoverished countries are cheap as a result. Take most of the products at your local Wal-Mart or other relatively cheap department or big box store. Price, it seems to me, was the original motivation for moving production to foreign countries. Most poor people, because they cannot afford anything else, buy these products. For these people I have much sympathy.

Of course not all similarly produced products are cheap. Many companies, despite their exploitative practices, sell products for outrageous prices. They have managed to use branding and fashion sense to inflate their prices. Sheeple (sheep-like people), often people with ample resources, mindless and insecure, buy these expensive products of exploitation at the huge profit of those responsible for the exploitation. For these people I have very little sympathy.

Most manufacturers of products that are locally produced and/or produced with sensitivity and awareness of environmental and social justice issues, are forced by an economy dominated by multinationals, and governments, to raise their prices, often just to survive. I understand that. This will not change until there are more environmentally and socially conscious companies in the marketplace, and/or until governments begin to legislate change, forcing change. It is difficult for anyone to compete with the multinationals, so more are slow to come. And government will not likely force change as long as it is profitable for them — supporting exploitation is profitable.

We the public, since we have all been rendered consumers, are ultimately responsible for forcing change. We are, to borrow an idea from Chomsky, the world's second superpower. We need to make choices in our consumption, choices that will starve companies that exploit the environment and people, and profit those who care about the environment and about people. The poorer masses simply cannot afford, in most cases, to make many of those choices. Of the poor I expect only small steps. Those with more disposable income have a much greater potential for making choices that force change. Of these I expect giant steps. Of those who have more, more must be expected.