Friday, October 26, 2007

Why Buy Vintage ??

Mmmm, because when you buy something that was made a long time ago,with materials that have been already harvested and finished......and with a good chance the shop was union....or not...
Well, the best reason is that when you buy something vintage, you are not exploiting todays workers and the environment !
in other words, the damage has been done.....
We can't change the past, but we can fashion the future !!

I have been railing against buying from 3rd world countries...like China for nearly 2 decades....
and now that we are bombarded with recalls of nasty merchandise and toys and toothpaste we need to find a better way ....Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean, Boy Scouts products have been recalled...........
and do you want to know who makes your "distressed furniture" imported from China? Do you want to know the conditions that exist where they make the toys we buy for our kids?
It doesn't have to be disgusting !

Click here for a shocking expose on conditions in China
From the SLC Tribune:

Charles Kernaghan, the director of the National Labor Committee, told Dorgan about factories with forced 70-hour work weeks, where overtime wages are withheld. Workers sleep in "primitive dorms," with a dozen people in each room on metal bunk beds. They have substandard food, no hot water and take home 46 cents an hour.
Kernaghan held up a Barbie produced under these conditions. The labor cost the factory 19 cents. The U.S. company paid $9 to ship it here and then charged the consumer $30 for the doll.
"There is enough money here to make toys safe and to treat the workers in China with dignity and respect," he said.

Sure -- shop funkoma vintage and the other used and vintage shops in T*Town...
Look where the thing was made......if it was made in Europe or the US there is a very good chance
that there were environmental laws and worker safety laws and decent wages laws in place when/where your widget was made.........
It's not a perfect world...but there is something Good to be done about this !

I'll post Over there on the right side under the TACOMA Stuff !
of great places to shop right here in T*Town...places that offer good old-fashioned stuff made safely & fairly, and things that you can feel good about buying and owning.....
It's not just about Being Green......it's about being a moral person !

Sent this to Scott Fontaine at the TNT

Am I the only one who is Pi**ed?

About Ladenburg etal owning stock in a company while promoting it to taxpayers to fund it?
Sometimes I wonder !
Hi Scott --
Every one is so pi**y about Crime In The Streets !!! Meth Capital of The Universe !!! yet our elected officials and their pals are lining their pockets (not too effectively I might add..) at our expense....and at the expense of the homeless/drug addicts etc.
UnIdentified Downtown Business/Property Owner goes on and on and on and on about her precious property rights d-town, and I sure would like to see some righteous indignation about the perversion of one of the answers to Crime In The Streets !!! That is --- solve the homeless/drug addict problem and a lot Crime In The Streets !!! will disappear.............
Tressie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter