A Global Trade Note

I haven’t written about foreign policy much here, but have long wondered why both pro-choice and pro-life people are so friendly with China, a state which actually forces abortions on women.

I have concluded that the answer is that greed trumps moral perspective. Both sides see a buck or two to be made and let principle slide.

But I just stumbled a post on a blog called God’s Politics which got me thinking about the subject some more. This was a twist that I hadn’t really thought much about -- crucifixes and Bible covers made by Chinese sweatshop laborers.

I suspect that any person who honestly reflects on his/her personal financial purchasing decisions realizes that there are some places where he/she falls short of the best standards. I really don’t want to get into a big discussion about this, just to remind myself and others that we each need to look inward a bit.

And we may all wonder what those in substandard and often environmentally dangerous Chinese and other third world sweatshops think of Americans and other westerners who will be the consumers of their labor. And maybe of what non-Christian semi-slaves in an atheist country think of the Christian market they are making things for.