I reflexively shared a post about boycotting goods from China on FB. Not due to Covid, but a pile of other reasons such as undercutting local manufacturing, terrible environmental damage, horrid working conditions, etc.

I deleted my share, because the post was overly inflammatory.

Yet, if the average Canadian had a clue about how much of what we buy is shoddily made in China under horrid conditions. . . . Sheesh.

I had a gig stocking at a retail outlet for awhile not too long ago. I would think way over half of the knickknacks came from China. Often as not, as we opened boxes upon boxes stacked on pallets, nauseous chemical smells would waft through receiving.

Anything made from plastic stank. Even supposed wood products stank of preservatives or perhaps fungicides or pesticides.

I shudder to think of the people in the factories producing this shit.

Each shift entailed filling multiple huge garbage bags with packing materials ranging from Styrofoam to plastic to bubble wrap. . . . All to be “recycled,” eh?

No more cheap baubles. They’re like sugar that may give you a short-term lift, but long-term soulless emptiness.

Let’s make better choices. Let’s buy local. Let’s buy handcrafted. Let’s buy art not kitsch. Let’s buy quality that lasts. Let’s not throw things away.