General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Are you going to change your buying practices because of the Bangladesh building collapse? [View all]Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)Buying stuff that was produced ethically in the third world is better for the third world than buying stuff that was produced by sweatshops in the third world.
Buying stuff that was produced by sweatshops in the third world is still better for the third world than buying stuff that was produced in the first world.
So if you first narrow down your search reliably to stuff made in the third world, and then within that try to prefer stuff marked as fair trade, recommended on ethical consumer websites or similar, then even if those recommendations are somewhat unreliable - hell, even if they're 100% unreliable and everything you're buying is sweatshop-made - you'll still be doing more good for the third world than if you buy stuff from the first world.