Two Dollar Dillemma

 I've been perusing an online store offering pretty much anything under the sun and came across a large wall sticker, "Music is the prayer the heart sings." For the whopping price of two bucks I ordered it. What better phrase to hang above the piano! Especially one that puts into words what I have tried so hard to articulate.

  It is shipped from China for free so I have wondered how anyone makes any profit. The purchases come via ship so it will be mid-October before it arrives. Maybe that's how. One large shipping container stuffed with two dollar items might allow a few cents profit on each. Pennies mount up.
  I haven't thought much about the social ethics until this morning. It is coming from China after all. Does my $2 purchase involve child labour? Slave labour? Does it fund oppression? The Chinese military? Nukes?
  I don't think I'll be ordering anything else from this site. 2+2+2 from all around the world may be funding an oppressive and cruel regime where human rights violations are the way of life.
  Then the question arises, what is the difference between going online to buy something directly from China when stores on my side of the world are filled with the same merchandise? What's the difference if it all comes from the same place? I guess the only difference is a store in my own country makes some money as well and provides much needed jobs.
  Cheap goods, cheap clothing is a necessity in a country where the cost of living is high, where inflation outpaces wages, where rent can take up to 85% of a paycheck or more in some areas. The explosion of second hand stores is a barometer of the distribution of wealth here in Canada. As is the growing number of people living in homelessness.

  If the same two dollars spent at home means a neighbour keeps a roof over their head, I cannot justify buying something directly from a foreign source. Yet, am I denying a foreign brother or sister a roof over their head? Food?
  What a conundrum!
  I know shopping from the comfort of my own kitchen is the way of the future. Ha! It has already arrived!

  Small, family operated stores are devoured by the big box stores. I've seen a lot of them disappear from the downtown core of Alliston over the last two decades: the men's wear, the shoe store, a small department store, an independent grocery store. Downtown has mostly service providers now, dentists, lawyers and the like. Although, a small bakery recently opened around the corner from work and offers the most amazing butter tarts I've ever had!
  The big box stores will be swallowed by technology. The long lived department store, Sears, died because they didn't embrace the financial potential of online shopping.
  Yes, there are jobs with online companies. Someone has to make things. Someone has to fill the orders. Someone has to ship them. Someone has to deliver them. So maybe, in the end, everything will work out.

  Maybe the Pixar movie, Wall-E, with the single global conglomerate Buy-N-Large is a foreshadowing of the future.

  Things are no clearer than when I started this mini exploration of economics. I confess to being rather ignorant of the subtleties involved. The only thing I am sure of is my $2 has a bigger impact than I ever imagined.

  Lord, teach me to spend wisely. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen!
  "The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8