Jamila said:
It's amazing how a thread started to remind people of the exploitative conditions that the children who pick the cocoa beans to make commercial chocolates can create such controversy.
I was simply suggesting that people make the changes in their buying habits that they can to help make the world a fairer place.
Where is the big controversy in that?
There is no controversy, it is just not that easy to just change the buying habits, or to end poverty and exploitative work.
I'm also buying fair trade coffee and chcolate every now and then. But as a student I can't live on these products, neither could my parents.
Nobody here seems to totally disagree in fair trade being a good thing, especially when this sector grows so that more and more people can get out of the factories and get work there.
Still, people have to be able to pay the price, and not everybody could do so.
As anitram stated, students have huge debts while studying because of the ridiculous tuition fees, living costs, and what not. At the same time, students are one of the most important target groups in just about every business. But they can't pay the prices for fair trade.
It will take time, and it will need a change in society to realize that we can't exploit the third world forever.
Still, boycotting companies only because they don't pay fair wages does more bad than good. It's a hard fact to swallow, but the families rely on the income these children, women and men bring home. Without this income they die.
Boycotting or, e.g. buying chocolate after Valentine's Day also has another side of the picture.
A decrease in demand leads to a decrease in employment. That's simplest economics taking place here.
When the worker, or the product, doesn't generate value, and the expectations are that the demand will be less in the next year, producers will produce less, hence employ less people.
These people won't find a new job on a plantation that produces at fair trade terms as long as demand there doesn't grow.
I'm sure most of the users here are well aware of exploitation, fair trade and the struggle of the third world. Many participate in one way or another to make a change. But they can't do more than they are able to.
And every thread I've seen in my life has in some way gotten a twist, or went in another direction. When so many people come in and give their thoughts, that basically has to happen, as everybody thinks differently.
It's also not bad, as it keeps such topics alive.
If everybody was just agreeing with the first post, you would see about ten responses such as "Good point" or "I agree on that", others would take a look at the thread, and this thread would disappear in one day.