We need Tailors

Howdy there, my readers. I am sorry for the delay, but I am back in action. I am planning to go back to the two posts a week schedule starting Tuesday. One will be a writing piece of some kind, probably flash fiction or nonfiction. But I am back.

Finals week was a lot of work, but one of the short pieces I wrote was about a TED talk about the fashion industry and how it is unfair to women. It was a good talk, and I may post what I had to say about it later down the line once I’ve cleaned it up a bit. What really got me thinking about what our solutions should be to the global warming force is the industrial system.

What I mean by that is how do we get past our reliance on factory-produced goods such as clothing, tools, and food? The answer is not a simple one. The answer is not to switch to a different brand or shop at a different store because all industries, no matter what they advertise, do not care about the products they produce or the cost of producing those products. We must do something harder. We must relearn the skills that have been denied us and have become hobbies at best.

The current industrial system has implanted itself in the place of clothing production, food production, and housing. To free ourselves from the pressures of this system, we must reseize these means of production. The reason the American people haven’t taken hold of these means is that the industrial system has made it easier and cheaper to use them. They had the true expectations of their product by displacing the production in other countries and removing the truly human interaction when it comes to abstaining goods from the local area. The costs are massive. This displacement of labor takes resources from other people, depriving them of what they need. It also takes from us as we can no longer harvest the fruits of our labor because the product we produce is sent to another part of the world. It also destroys the community since a community no longer has to commit to the production of resources for its benefit and must rather produce capital to obtain resources. There is no incentive to commit to labor for the benefit of the community but rather for the benefit of the individual.

This is not a damnation of globalization but rather of its current state. I do not believe that people who live and benefit from living in one community should own and reap the benefits of the product and labor of another community. A person should only reap the benefits of their own labor within their community. Trade outside and production for other communities should be encouraged. That way, healthy relationships between communities can be ensured.

I’m sure you may have noticed my use of the word community is vague, which is somewhat intentional. For my use in this paper, communities refer to both small towns and countries.

What you may notice is that not every community will be able to support itself without trading with others. If I were too simple about it, I would say that these communities must produce goods not produced by others to make up for this lack; however, whatever they produce, more fortunate communities may already produce or find no use for it. This is a way my current model could be used to abuse certain people. At this moment, I do not have a solution for this system that wouldn’t be overly optimistic about people's comradery.

So what does all this mean? What am I asking for us to do exactly? I want local businesses to take the place of chain stores and industry, and I don’t just mean grocers or restaurants but tailors, cobblers, local house builders, and farmers. A more central community that takes the resources from the local laborers and sources them back inside the community rather than outward unless there is abundance or for good from other communities. The best business to look at is a tailor shop. They would craft clothing for the community, providing a unique and unifying style that the town could embrace. The shop itself would be a community center, forcing intimate interactions between all community members. People’s needs would be met according to their needs rather than a size chart or generalized method that would leave people out of its reach. It would also ensure the circulation of profit within the community rather than it being leached out to massive corporations that exist outside the community, and thus, the wealth created by the community is taken and profits somewhere else.

What I suggest isn’t easy but I think that the best thing not only for the earth is good for us. Community matters and must be something that we work for again.

Thank you all for your time, and stay tuned on Tuesday.