Divestment

I promised you a few posts ago that we'd discuss divestment and what it means, but got a little hung up on other things and forgot, so here we go...

Divestment means to draw away from or stop adhering to a specific course.  To divest from the government we simply pay more attention to where we spend our money.  Those of you on severely limited incomes might find this more difficult and that is what they want.

Companies like WalMart provide items at significant discounts, but they also promote slave labour, sweat shops and child labour.  They carry knock-off products that fool you into thinking you are buying name brand and they push other business out of the market.  The products they carry are sub-standard even when they carry name brands - they actually pressure companies like Levis to reduce their prices to insane levels forcing the company to use cheaper methods of production and lowering quality.

If you have a choice of spending your money at a big-name store (think multi-national) or a small independent merchant/craftsman or tailor opt for the personal touch of the local business.  If you can't afford the price-tag associated with those little boutiques then opt instead to go to a thrift store or consignment shop instead.  At the very least do a bit of research into the business conducted by the companies you spend your money with, ensure that you condone the way that they do business.  If you are vegetarian, stop using Clairol since many of their products are tested on or use animal products.  If you love kids then stop buying Reebok whose shoes are made in sweatshops.

Divestment is voting with your dollar, and if all you care about is getting the cheapest deal then you'll get it by the least ethical methods.  If you don't like Monsanto, stop buying McCain and Kraft, if you don't like the way cosmetics companies advertise to little girls then stop buying make-up.  It isn't easy, it is hard to tell your kid that you can't buy them the shoes they want because the company is corrupt, they don't understand anything beyond being "cool", but you will have taught them a valuable lesson and when they grow up and see it for themselves they will thank you.

Millions of dollars a year is spent telling you what you should want, need, eat or wear.  The companies that provide these things to you don't care about your health unless you do, they don't care about value unless you do and the only way you will ever get them to stand up and pay attention is to stop giving them the profits the seek unless they conduct business in a way that makes you happy.  If adding chemicals to your food so it lasts longer and which cause addiction-symptoms to make you come back for more is all they have to do to keep you paying them then what motivation do they have to make a better product?

Think about it.