The other day, I got this gift card for a local discount store from my mother. She got it cause she filled a Rx and had a coupon that if you have a Rx filled, you get a $10 gift card. So, that is what happened. I walked around the store trying to figure out what to buy with this $10 gift card. I have such a hard time finding something I want or need, cause I don't really need or want anything. So, after walking laps around the store, looking at all the various items on display in all the departments, I came across this t-shirt that seemed to "speak" to me. It was on the clearance rack, originally $12.99, it was now $3.24. I tried it on in the fitting room, it looked nice, so I bought it. I left the store thinking, wow, that was a pretty good bargain. But, was it really?
The shirt was made in Vietnam, most likely the individuals that operated the machines to cut and sew the pieces of fabric together were very poor, living substandardly, and forced to work for extremely low wages, just to survive. What where they thinking when they were working on this shirt of mine? Probably that the shirt is nice and that they wished they could wear nice new shirts like that. Probably envious of the people that would end up wearing them. Maybe some anger or resentment as well if they are aware enough, or maybe they are just happy to have their job so they don't see how they are being used or maybe not wanting to see it.
My mother initially received the gift card I used to buy the shirt from filling an Rx. It was a bribe from the store to get people to use their pharmacy services, further promoting the use of Rx medications. Ok, so many people believe that medications are ok to use. Well, I have other opinions about that, I'll leave that discussion for another time. Meantime, I will just say that medications have side effects that can create more health problems. I don't really want to go into too much detail right now about how the pharmaceutical companies make so much profit on the drugs they sell while so many people have to pay exorbitant prices for them out of pocket.
But why should I care? I got the shirt for free.
But I do care, people die every day from taking medications or from the side effects that create more health issues. People work so hard in many countries around the world working for very low wages and live in poverty, so Americans can get discounted or inexpensive items, while the business middle man makes all the profit.
