I am still trying to get my mind around these child labor stories surrounding the Gap. I understand about globalization and outsourcing or whatever we’re calling it now, but, for heaven’s sake, the Gap isn’t even CHEAP! What kind of markup is involved here? I also understand that the Gap says they didn’t know about the conditions these kids were facing, but with all the use of cheap labor in the developing world factories it seems to me extra vigilance is required- on the part of retailers AND consumers (that’s us.)
There are good arguments on both sides of the concept of paying less in countries where the whole economy requires less, but these children, if reports are to be believed, were all but completely enslaved. Slaves! There’s no economic relativism that’s going to justify that. Or any other ism.
Somehow it’s worse when it’s the Gap — of the cool clothes and commercials. And horribly ironic that they, who made such a splash with commercials by the late, wonderful UN child advocate Audrey Hepburn, are whether mindfully or just carelessly, part of what seems to be something that violates everything she (and we hope, most of us) stands for. At some point we are going to have to decide how much we’re willing to compromise. These stores have democratized taste and style but it may be that the tools to do that are, themselves, the most expensive thing of all.