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Author Topic: How much should we avoid buying products made in third world countries/sweatshop  (Read 859 times)

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Offline Cryptinox

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I was watching an old episode of "What Catholics Believe" on Youtube and it was about the four sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance. When I heard them talking about defrauding a worker of a just wage and they brought up companies laying people off and stuff like that I thought of stuff made in China/Vietnam/Bangladesh etc. Should we try hard to reduce buying stuff made in sweat shops? After all those companies are probably depriving laborers of a just wage. I have been thinking of buying clothing from thrift stores and stuff and try to only get made in China stuff when necessary. I am not sure if I am obligated to do this but I might start cause I don't wanna support companies depriving people of a just wage.


Offline Nadir

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99% of my clothing comes from so-called charity shops. Often their stuff is superior to bargain stuff in the regular stores anyway.

Of course, avoid what is made in sweat shops, but how do you recognise what is made in a sweat shop and what is made in a regular factory?

There are certain brands that are known for using slave labour but if you don’t buy by brand name you are safer. Avoid following fashion.

Help of Christians, guard our land from assault or inward stain,
Let it be what God has planned, His new Eden where You reign.


Offline Seraphina

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It’s probably impossible to not use any products made by abused workers.  Even if you make your own clothes, where does the fabric, thread, needles, buttons, come from?  Check out a sewing store sometime.  Buying from thrift stores adds a degree of remoteness, but when it comes down to it, the product was still made by slave labor.  Here’s a better suggestion.  Whenever you see a tag indicating a product comes from a third world country, pray specifically for the one who made it.  You don’t know, but God surely does!  

Offline Ladislaus

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You need to buy whatever you want without thinking twice about it.  Impose a self-imposed ban on reading any theology until you take care of your scruples problem.  You’re starting about 2-3 threads per day now to deal with your scrupulosity.  People should stop responding too because you’re undoubtedly filtering out the “less safe” opinions and are really just looking for reinforcement of your original scrupulous position.  Please stop starting these threads until you’ve gotten help.

Beside that, this question has been dealt with a half dozen times, so you can use the search function.

Offline Minnesota

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Cryptinox, I mean this with all due respect. It's not personal at all, but just an observation:

You are the most scrupulous person I have ever seen. Take some time off this website and seek a priest, even if you have to block this website for a while. Run, don't walk.
Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed


Offline Matto

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What if those diagnosed with scruples are just sensitive souls with a true faith in a jealous God, while those who accuse them of scruples are laxist bourgeoisie Catholics who if they even have faith at all are lukewarm. Doesn't it make sense that we shouldn't buy products made with unjust labor (just as we shouldn't use vaxxes made with dead babies? Both are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. It is true that it is hard to avoid products using unjust labor but it is also hard to avoid the use of dead babies in modern medicine. In both cases if we had been strong in the beginning, we would not have been in such a sorry state of affairs.)
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Offline Ladislaus

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What if those diagnosed with scruples are just sensitive souls with a true faith in a jealous God, ...

No, they're not; difference between sensitive and scrupulous has always been well know.  When you interject crap like this without having of lick of experience in the matter, you run the risk of reinforcing scrupulosity and damaging souls.  So shut the heck up, take your meds, and go watch some butterflies.  OP needs to be under the care of a Traditional priest yesterday.

Offline Struthio

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What if those diagnosed with scruples are just sensitive souls with a true faith in a jealous God, while those who accuse them of scruples are laxist bourgeoisie Catholics who if they even have faith at all are lukewarm. Doesn't it make sense that we shouldn't buy products made with unjust labor (just as we shouldn't use vaxxes made with dead babies? Both are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. It is true that it is hard to avoid products using unjust labor but it is also hard to avoid the use of dead babies in modern medicine. In both cases if we had been strong in the beginning, we would not have been in such a sorry state of affairs.)

All these thoughts sound like thoughts of folks who spend money which was earned by others.

Those who earn the money don't have time for such deep philosophy of "what if"s.
Men are not bound, or able to read hearts; but when they see that someone is a heretic by his external works, they judge him to be a heretic pure and simple ... Jerome points this out. (St. Robert Bellarmine)


Offline Ladislaus

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Cryptinox, I mean this with all due respect. It's not personal at all, but just an observation:

You are the most scrupulous person I have ever seen. Take some time off this website and seek a priest, even if you have to block this website for a while. Run, don't walk.

I would agree that he should stay off Cathinfo until he finds a priest.  This forum should not and cannot be a sounding board for scrupulosity.  People have told him over and over again that he has serious issues with scrupulosity, but it's making no difference, and he keeps coming back for more.  That's one of the primary characteristics of scrupulosity, where you filter out any objective perspectives that run counter to your biases from scrupulosity.  Crypt has come up with one reason after another why he doesn't go to Communion, including having an idle thought about some disputed theological question which, if he got it wrong might be a sin against the faith, to feeling scrupulous about not correcting someone who isn't as scrupulous as he is.  Then he's gone scrupulous about whether he can attend a 1962 Mass because he might be committing some grave sin due to St. Joseph in the Canon, etc. etc.  Before that it had to do worth buying blessed religious articles or items that may have "curses" on them.

Scrupulosity, contrary to how the devil presents it, is actually extreme pride; it's this demand that you have to be perfect and without any stain whatsoever, and an intolerance for anything that might compromise your own personal virtue.  It is NOT motivated by the love of God, but of self.  I would have to say that extreme scrupulosity like this can be a much worse problem than laxity, much more difficult to snap out of it.  So the only hope for him is to put himself under obedience to a Traditional Confessor and do exactly what he says.

I suffered from scrupulosity myself.  Then my confessor at STAS ordered me to go to Communion unless I could swear on the Bible that I had committed a mortal sin, and then not to confess anything as a mortal sin unless I could swear that it was that on a Bible.  He said that if there's a mistake, and that if I accidentally went to Communion not in a state of grace, God would not hold it against me on account of the obedience, but that it would be on him ... he was that certain of his diagnosis.  This instantly fixed the scruples in me.  Where it gets worse is if the penitent starts questioning and rejecting and second-guessing the Confessor's advice.  Then the devil will really go on the attack.

Offline Ladislaus

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All these thoughts sound like thoughts of folks who spend money which was earned by others.

Those who earn the money don't have time for such deep philosophy of "what if"s.

Not only that, but practically everything, at some point in the supply chain, leads back to slave labor.  There's almost no getting around it.  Made in the USA?   :laugh1:   95% of the parts were made in China using slave labor.  It's gotten to the point that one can't function anymore, nor does one have the time nor resources to research everything that's out there.  Heck, most American companies grossly underpay their labor in the interests of increasing profit margins.  Here's your $9 per hour ... while I profit $150 per hour of each employee's back.  That's the same difference.

Offline Matto

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crap

heck
XavierSem would say that such language used against a fellow Christian would constitute a mortal sin. I know you have recently at least twice derisively told me to go take my meds and watch butterflies and not engage in discussion with my bettors. I used to think highly of you, but you are treating me derisively quite often these days. You are a known laxist here, even supporting women wearing makeup. And you are a feminist. And you don't know what experience I have.
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Offline dymphnaw

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Unless you buy haute couture  your clothes were made in a third world sweatshop. Should you go naked? Nonsense and remember if the women and girls in those shoes weren't working their own families would probably turn them out to prostitution.

Offline 2Vermont

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No, they're not; difference between sensitive and scrupulous has always been well know.  When you interject crap like this without having of lick of experience in the matter, you run the risk of reinforcing scrupulosity and damaging souls.  So shut the heck up, take your meds, and go watch some butterflies.  OP needs to be under the care of a Traditional priest yesterday.
Matto may have been wrong in his assessment, but you did not have to be so mean.  
For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)

Offline Matthew

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It’s probably impossible to not use any products made by abused workers.  Even if you make your own clothes, where does the fabric, thread, needles, buttons, come from?  Check out a sewing store sometime.  Buying from thrift stores adds a degree of remoteness, but when it comes down to it, the product was still made by slave labor.  Here’s a better suggestion.  Whenever you see a tag indicating a product comes from a third world country, pray specifically for the one who made it.  You don’t know, but God surely does!  

Unless you believe God expects you to go live in the woods -- naked, eating wild nuts and seeds you find (good luck with that! Most people, urban and rural, would end up poisoned, but I digress) then there is *no hope* of avoiding third world goods.

And I assure you that God does not expect the impossible from anyone.

Seraphina is absolutely right. There are some goods that we don't even produce in America anymore -- production has moved completely overseas. So unless you're going to dig up some metal ore yourself, chisel out your own forge, build your own bellows from scratch, create a fire from scratch, etc. there is NO WAY you can avoid using products from third-world countries, communist countries, sweatshops, etc.

I agree with Ladislaus; it's my reasoned opinion that you are suffering from scruples, and that you need to place yourself under the direction of a good Traditional priest.
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Offline Viva Cristo Rey

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“ In both cases if we had been strong in the beginning, we would not have been in such a sorry state of affairs.” Matto. 

May God bless you and keep you