Chin-Comms

I remember talking with somoneone, once, about someone horribly, ridiculously intolerant, who asked about something or other in his house, and sneered that "that was made by the Chin Comms" ... the Chinese communists.

I remember, too, when China's communism began to burgeon into astounding capitalism, and how exciting that seemed at the time really.



There is a segment of my liberal thinking which subscribes to the idea that I shouldn't really care "who made it" - and certainly not show financial bias by refusing to buy "made in China" or the like.

There's a much bigger segment of my liberality which believes, and always has, in "spending locally" - eating locally, nurturing my neighbors with whatever money I might have to spend. I believe in accepting higher costs, sometimes, for higher quality - or at least for the worthwhile goal of SEEING the effect my money has in my world. Visiting my family in the Pacific Northwest was wonderful, for the abundance of locality on offer. Local fare, local craft - even indigenous teas, I believe they have now. Heh. It can be a powerful thing, and one can see the movement even in this most republican of towns. The desire for local economic benefit is wider spread as the economy goes on.


***


I also believe in staying out of the Big Boxes, and malls, and in silly clothing one won't find locally, and in eBay, and in shopping, when I'm not in Carytown or a farmer's market or restaurant, online rather than in giant retail.

I've been an eBayer for certainly over a decade now. Most of my clothing and jewelry, and an increasing proportion of even my shoes come from online shopping. I do Christmas (apart from Carytown!) without leaving my house to deal with crowded parking lots; have for a number of years - since before "the morning shows" discovered people could do this. Increasingly, with loved ones far away, it really is the only way to shop which makes sense. And most people who know me know I am the eBay queen.

Which is why it has for some time now grown increasingly depressing to see, even on eBay, actual human sellers - and even actual human (yes, American, frankly) eBay power sellers - increasingly displaced by Asian markets. Over the past year, and almost stunningly in the past six months, the pace to which Asian sellers are taking over auction markets is almost unbelievable.

To be sure, it's certainly easy to tell who's who - and, if you don't want to buy from Asia, to skip over, after you've clicked on the first few pictures in a list, and figured out which stock shots are being used by whom. It's even pretty easy to discern American sellers (and Australian ones; they're huge in this market now) whose stock is clearly originating from the same places.

More and more, too, it's certainly no guarantee that "Asian" equals cr*p ratings. Quite a few of these major marketers are increasing their service and quality quotients enough to make purchasing highly worthwhile. You find yourself marveling at detailed photos, saying, Okay, this one is obviously not some fly-by-night operation sucking down my money without any return for me in it. Some of these sellers really work hard, and you can't find yourself faulting them. I recently bought from an Oregon seller, and the item came - "Designed in the Pacific Northwest; made in China" - an interesting point to delineate. "Some of your money isn't going to Asia!"

And you know what, that's a point that matters to me. The advantage of Asian-manufacture prices, and some advantage, too, for the domestic economy.

But there are sellers out there, with the photos of models who look as if they are half starved, and some of them possibly plucked out of soap lands - with prices custom made to win the bids of people more dependent on price (below all) than I am at the moment - with Engrish in their headlines and descriptions, enough to make you wonder how good their service really is - whose auctions make me think twice. Hand-beaded wedding gowns for $130 ... ? You can get a little queasy, if you think about this stuff much. Even if only about those poor young models, tricked out in ludicrous fashions for the foreign market, and smiling self-consciously ... for how many dollars a week ... ?

I find myself more and more leery of these sellers. And, yes, I know it's not only the Chinese. But they do dominate the stripe. Hugely.

I find myself lighting on amateurish photos, clearly non-stock ones, with very real excitement now, when I peruse a list of search returns of much length, on eBay. "Wow, a seller who might have better than a 98% feedback rating - who might be from Peoria, rather than Pyongyang" ...

It's sad. It's dispiriting.

I look around me, and see how many people are still out of work (while I complained about THREE lousy MONTHS) ... and I think about the connection between my buying habits, and thousands of others' - and the facts of my country's economy.



I'm not pretending sophisticated analysis here. I'm making an emotional post, about my mixed feelings - about my mixed *experiences*, even this very month or so; with one dress a disappointment, and another a great success ... and both, I know, bought from somewhere in Guongdang or the neighborhood.

Yes, I can think, too, about whether my influence is any good in those neighborhoods. Or terrible.

I can stew myself silly over things like this. I'm a woman - and my mother's daughter. Fretting to no dessert is all too easy for me.

And then I want to serve some nice dessert to those terribly thin young women modeling clothes for my prosperous, yet stingy, American consumption.


*Sigh*


There was surely a point to this. But I have chosen to sink under the weight of self-indulgence in my response to these things. My apologies, kids. I'll try to write a better post next time.