Many years ago I went out of my way to purchase a pair of "100% union made, sweat shop free, organic, vegan, fair trade" shoes online. Got robbed on shipping & customs and this simple pair of sneakers ended up costing me over $100... and they were crap.
They were comfortable enough but it seemed like they started falling apart within just a few weeks. Despite having paid about 40% more than the "evil corporate" shoes I would normally buy they were no where near the same quality. I just checked and I've noticed the company I bought the shoes from is still around... but they've discontinued selling shoes.
So while it's nice to shop ethically if a comparable product is being produced, the "ethics" have to go both ways, you still need to provide a valuable service/product to the end user.
It's overly simplistic to say "third world factory A is better than third world factory B" when there's a lot more at play then just the average wage.
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