STOLEN GO_ODS We often complain about having to pay too much for things, but do we ever complain because we have to pay too little for something? Can things cost too little? When someone stops us on the street and offers us a TV or watch or stereo at a really low price, the first thing that pops into our heads is: "Is it HOT?" Our intuition always warns us that when something costs a lot less than it's supposed to, there is probably something funny going on. We think about stolen goods when someone offers us a "deal" on the street. But do we think about stolen goods when we find a "bargain" at a supermarket, a discount plaza o.r an import store? Do we think about stealing from our children when we go to the gas station? Yet we 'buy gasoline that is cheap because we're pumping out the energy savings ,of millions of years so rapidly that none will be left for our own future or for our children. ' When we buy fresh produce from California in the supermarket, do we realize we are likely buying goods that are produced illegally? Is it less wrong to buy illegal goods from a · ·"Safeway" than on the street? Much of California's produce coines from the Central Valley, where vast corporate farms operate with flagrant disregard of federal and state laws limiting use of irrigation water to 160-acre family farms. And much of the produce is picked by illegal immigrants in violation of immigration, tax and employme~t laws. Is it stealing by Tom Bender when a company that monopolizes food processing sets impossible quality criteria for produce of small independent ,farmers, then buys their crop cheap because there are no other buyers to whom they can sell? How do we know if prices for things are low because they are being dumped? It's not uncommon for lhge producers to sell some 'items below cost to drive out their small competitors who produce more efficiently but can't afford large losses. And how can small farmers compete with corporate farming that wants to operate at a loss for tax writeoffs? . Imports also can be too cheap when our-trade arrangements and energy sources exploit the workers of other countries (RAIN, May 1976). How would we feel if our country had no'source of cheap fossil fuels and another country started to sell fossil-fuel-produced goods in our country so cheaply that we were all put out of work? We would end·up having to work for starvation wages to compete with such cheap energy sources and stay alive. Is it right to purchase goods that support such an exploitative relationship? · So what ifwe do buy stolen goods, or illegally-produced products, or goods that are produced by exploitation? The major problem, it seemsf is that when someone loses, someone else gains. Someone gets rich off of "stolen goods"- either the buyer or an_intermediary or both. When wealth accumulates, power accumulates-whether w~ speak of large corporations vs. individual Americans or U.S. citizens vs. the
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