Your Money, Your Vote
When we buy something, our focus is often directed at ourselves. Maybe we like how a blue shirt looks on us or we identify with the message printed on a tote bag. Perhaps all we know is we just got paid and there’s space in the account now to get something cute we saw in an ad on social media.
The purchase of any one single thing, however, is a vote.
If you bought it, you bought everything that goes with it. What does that even mean? It means we directly support all the hidden costs bundled into the $10 spent on a “cheap” t-shirt.
Research costs: It’s no secret - we’re being watched.
Now more than any other time in history, we live with nebulous legality regarding information sharing. Businesses thrive on our money, obviously, and they need to know what we’re willing to buy.
Any smart business advisor will recommend that companies stock the high-performing products. Data collected on products and services offer businesses what they need to know about your spending habits, what prices you find reasonable, and how often you need a new item. Professional marketing costs include minute details like determining whether a yellow background or a neutral background in an ad will be more eye-catching to consumers.
Environmental costs: No matter whose side you’re on, fashion needs a makeover.
While the placement of fashion’s hierarchy of environmental sins is up for debate, its need to atone is not. According to McKinsey & Company and Quantis, as noted in the New York Times, more than half of all clothing is not reused—two-thirds end up in landfills and incinerators within one year of manufacturing. Over 8% of harmful carbon emissions derive from shoe and clothing industries. Additionally, an approximate quarter of globally produced chemical compounds are made for the profits of the textile-finishing industry.
The water needed to fuel the fast fashion machine is its own nightmare altogether. The amount of water needed to create one shirt to go through the stages of dyeing and finishing is approximately 713 gallons (enough to adequately hydrate one human being for 2.5 years).
Human costs: Who made your shirt and how much does your money compensate the work of making it?
The commercial sex industry can be linked to the abuses of clothing factories. Cambodia is a major hub of fast fashion where sex workers (it’s difficult to determine how many are trafficked into the industry) are “rehabilitated” to learn a trade, often making cheap American retail clothing. The women earn nothing to learn how to sew. When they do enter the workplace, they make minimum wage—$80 per month—to work in deplorable conditions and still not have enough money to pay rent, feed their children, or take care of sickness or personal emergencies. Prostitution becomes preferable to these women under these circumstances and many attempt to return to sex work.
In addition, those who live near textile factories are disproportionately impacted by the polluting environmental costs of fast fashion. The countries where much clothing waste is shipped once it’s discarded are often ill-equipped to enforce environmental protections for the health of those who live there.
Your money is your vote for what you want to see in the world.
When we buy a $10 shirt, we buy all the damages attached to the garment. If we show businesses tracking our purchases that we are more willing to buy a $10 shirt than a $20 shirt, they will continue to resource their materials from unethical, fast, cheap suppliers.
If we want to feel free to buy what we like without being watched, we need to consider companies with tighter policies on our security.
If we want to combat climate change, we have the option to buy products from companies lowering their carbon footprint. Even better, we can take a closer look at our own buying behaviors and beliefs. Something disposable is gone from our house long before it is gone from the planet.
If we want social justice for the workers who make the items we buy, we must keep our money out of the hands of those who trample on workers’ rights for profit.
Shop smarter and make your money count towards your own values.
Aside from shopping less, when you do need to buy something new, there are businesses doing the work to check every box. Learn more about how to vote for the world you want to create by reading through the resources at True Cost and here at Dressember. Take your time and know who and what you’re backing when you cast your green.
About the Author
G Okuma started writing her dreams and fictional court cases at age 6. Her long-term collaborative relationship with words led her to the College of William & Mary and eventually to freelance writing. Aside from assisting clients with online content, she's learning to garden in the highland desert of the southwest, advocating for human and animal rights, writing letters to those seeking an act of friendship on Instagram (@dear.little.g), practicing and teaching yoga, and exploring art and life with her husband and two cats