Recently I watched a media piece on free market and wealth and why it is good to think about in connection with helping persons from poverty. The piece was intriguing and left the viewer with a lot to think about. The piece used as an example an entrepreneur who imported furniture. He was having difficulty with the products that were being sent to him from the Philippines and finding it to be inconsistent craftsmanship and poor quality. So he traveled to the Philippines to check it out. What he found led him to purchase land and set-up a furniture manufacturing operation. His intention was to create jobs for a community and a product of quality to be sold. He now has over 4,000 employees. However in creating jobs he found that that was not enough, they also needed health care, education for their children and other forms of community development. They needed not only an income, something to do but also an all around place to break the cycle of poverty through raising their families to have a dream of leaving poverty behind and providing the basic necessities that they needed to live. While this applies to the free market and the creation of jobs, this is also what fair trade is, what it does. It not only provides a fair wage for one person who is creating a product, but it gives persons the ability to provide for their families the basic human necessities; clean water, food, a safe and dry place to sleep, clothing and education for their children. Fair trade is more than just the new ‘hot’ term to sell products; it’s about a decision to provide honest work and income to persons for their hard work. It’s why we find our work so important.
To view the media clip click here, Christianity and the Free Market.
A blog from our Relational Care Coordinator, Gina Farcas.
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