Our Obsession with a "Good Deal"

Who doesn't love a deal? I spend probably too much time on Facebook marketplace, scouring the Island for good second hand items. I occasionally purchase books or games or craft supplies from Amazon when I can't find them locally. I get all the same ads that everyone else does for cheap clothing and consumer goods from China. And if I work hard enough I can convince myself that I deserve to save a bit of cash as a hard-working, well-meaning person who is noticing a tighter pocketbook and a higher grocery bill. 

Let me interrupt this little celebration of good deals with a seemingly unrelated story. 

The Uyghur people are a minority population in China, mostly of Muslim faith. They have their own language and culture and while they have existed in the north western region of China, Xinjiang, they identify more closely with more central Asian nations.  

China doesn't like the Uyghurs. There have been several human rights groups identify drastic crimes against humanity, including sterilizing Uyghur women, separating children from their families, attempting to break cultural traditions and putting more than 1 MILLION Uyghur people in "re-education camps".

Satellite images show rapid construction of camps in Xinjiang, the home region of Uyghur people. Photo from LA Times.https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-06-15/temu-sells-products-linked-to-forced-labor-in-china

The camps are not just housing and detention. Those who have escaped have reported physical, mental and sexual torture. But there are also factories in the camps. The factories produce clothing and consumer goods made for fast fashion retailers like Temu. 

Xinjiang is a major cotton-growing region, but primarily harvested by forced labour. The US even banned cotton from Xinjiang due to human rights abuses related to the labour conditions of harvest in the region but the Chinese companies have figured out various ways to ship smaller amounts (but many of them) to avoid triggering the $800 threshold that requires border protection and investigation. 

Most human rights organizations say that it is not a difficult assumption to make that between the cotton harvest and the slave labour in the factories, China is using the Uyghur people to manufacture the cheaply made goods coming from retailers like Temu. 

So back to a good deal. If we are a global people and what affects us, affects everyone, how good does our cheap deal look now? If we're dismayed at the state of our population, our mental health crisis, our opioid epidemic, our housing crisis and our 'cost of living', does 'saving money' by supporting companies like Temu, really help us as humans?  Does getting that cheap knock off sweater from Shein that will last one season, really elevate our energy in the world, as a human sharing the planet with other humans? 

Not to mention all of the creators on Etsy whose beautiful hand crafted goods are being stolen and remade in China by these "re-education camps" using fabrics that are not safe to wear anyway (so just imagine the conditions in which they're made).

I know, I know, everything is expensive now and we donate to charities and we pray for world peace, what difference can our few purchases really make? Aren't there organizations and government agencies responsible for managing these problems? 

Yes. But also we are responsible for managing how we spend our precious dollars and understanding where our money goes and how the things we buy are produced, grown, flown and shipped. We need to stop chasing the race to the bottom on all fronts.  Cheaper food!! Cheaper clothes!! Cheaper building supplies!! Cheaper furniture!! Cheaper cars!!  We have immense privilege as North Americans that most of us are justifying squandering away in favour of filling our lives with cheap shit at the cost of other people's lives.  

Stop supporting Temu. Our dollars will talk louder than any slow government can.