Meating (and disagreeing) minds

One of the nice things about writing a column such as this is receiving feedback. Last issue’s column on Agriprocessors is an example. Below are two responses, one from a Christian reader, the other from a Jewish one:

“Loved your ‘Ethical Table’ article … I believe your points about ethical struggles and the tension between righteousness and recklessness can be applied in a variety of situations. Thanks for sharing your valuable insights.”

The second is less complimentary:

“After reading your recent article in the Jewish Voice & Herald, I was wondering what you would wear to work when school started. Since most of the clothes we buy are made
overseas in sweatshops where people earn a minimum amount, should we be buying and wearing these clothes? I challenge you to find clothing made in the United States by workers earning a fair wage. In protest maybe you should go to Roger Williams in the nude.

“I'm not saying the owner's of Agriprocessors are mensches. But from what I have read they are cleaning up their act and trying to do the right thing. They are hiring workers at better wages and improving the working conditions. They are to be commended for that, not boycotted.

What about all the Jewish businessmen that import or manufacturer goods overseas in sweatshops?

“I think its unfair to pick on these people in this industry alone. We are in a global economy and we all benefit from sweatshops overseas. Why are prices so low in Walmart? Imagine what our standard of living would be like if everything we purchased was manufactured in the United States at fair or even minimum wage?

“Best wishes for a good and healthy new year.”

Which are you hoping is from the Jewish reader? You would be wrong. The Christian got the point, the Jew missed it. Jews! We are supposed to be a lamp onto the nations, not followers of trends. To be of the chosen people is to be ethical, not to shop for bargains at the expense of others. It’s the workers who give value to a product. Cotton on the plant is valueless—pick it, comb it, spin it, weave it, cut it and sew it and you have a shirt. All those readers out there who think it appropriate to treat the laborers who covert the plant into the shirt as though they were not the most important part of the process raise your hands? OK, so don’t believe me. Read Adam Smith, the great champion of capitalism. Treating workers like dirt for greater profits is inexcusable for anyone; but for Orthodox Jews? It’s a shanda.

My correspondent asks “What about all the Jewish businessmen that import or manufacturer goods overseas in sweatshops?” to which I respond what are they going to be thinking when on Yom Kippur Isaiah asks “Is this the fast I have chosen [merely to afflict the body]?... No, says the prophet in God’s name. “This is my chosen fast: to loosen all the bonds that bind men unfairly, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke.”

I don’t know what my correspondent has been reading when he says that Agriprocessors is “cleaning up their act and trying to do the right thing.” I read that after the illegal workers were rounded up they recruited American labor promising them rent subsidies for the first two months of employment which were not forthcoming. They did not receive any wages, instead their money was placed into a bank account which charged them $5.00 to withdraw funds. And the recruiters were paid from these same bank accounts. The workers were promised furnished apartments and found mattresses on the floor. I’m not sure this counts as cleaning up their act.

And then there’s the Walmart observation. “Why are prices so low in Walmart? Imagine what our standard of living would be like if everything we purchased was manufactured in the United States at fair or even minimum wage?” I don’t shop at Walmart because of its reputation as an exploiter of its labor force (and because I don’t like to shop in big box stores—Walmart, agoraphobia, I think it’s called). What would life be like if we treated our workers fairly and paid them a decent wage? The word is honorable. It’s what being a Jew is about, no? Or so I had thought.

As to the interesting sartorial suggestion, there may be something in my contract that prohibits teaching in the nude. I’ll look.