Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance

Hi everyone, and welcome to the Carnival of Ethics, Values and Personal Finance! This carnival is all about the connections between financial decisions and ethics/values, and I'm always so excited about the participation and enthusiasm from the bloggers who submit articles, the hosts, and the readers. I hope you'll enjoy the posts in this carnival, and then be inspired to step up your participation a little more-- submit a post, volunteer to host, link and spread the word about the carnival on your blog!

Without further ado, I've broken up the posts into a few categories, and identified my favorites among them...

Personal Finance, Values and Ethics:

• Editor's Choice! Cheap Versus Frugal: 21 Humorous (but Common) Mistakes
  
• At Frugalist, The Frugalist looks at the differences between being cheap and being frugal, a distinction which is to a large extent centered around your values and ethics.
  
• Editor's Choice! Don't Forget "Reuse"!
  
• At Green SAHM, Stephanie points out that we may be more likely to think about recycling and reducing than reusing items, and suggests some ways to reuse products for a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
• In Donations vs. Begging vs. Beer O’Clock at Rich Minx, Rich Minx explores the ethics of asking for donations on your website.
• This one gets the special "ooh, cute kitten picture inside!" award.
  
• In Money and Kids in LGBT Families at Queercents, Paula discusses what impact parents' money values have on their kids, what values parents might want to pass one, and how to do it.
  

The Meaning of Money:

• Editor's Choice! Money Money Money Mantra and the Path to Enlightenment
  
• At Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment & Kundalini Yoga, Anmol Mehta has a long but ultimately fascinating post, ranging from ABBA to a wise Buddist sage, that explores the purpose and value of money.
• In What is Money? at Creative Power of Thought: Thoughts Become Things, Kevin Kinchen suggests we think of money as fundamentally representing the service we have provided to the world.
  

Business and Ethics:

• Editor's Choice! The American Nightmare: An Illustration Of The Subprime Lending Mess and Borrowing Bust [A FlowChart]
• At The Digerati Life, Silicon Valley Blogger talks about how people get exploited and trapped in subprime lending situations, including a complicated and nifty flowchart to illustrate.
• In How Credit Card Rate Jacks Actually Work at Credit Card Lowdown, Sagar Satapathy explains some of the misleading and arguably unethical methods that credit card companies use to increase the interest rates they've promised their customers.
• On a similar note, in PIRATES OF THE CREDIT SEA ? Part 5 at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog, Larry Russell writes about his own difficulties getting his credit card company to act ethically, and connects it to the way that laws favor credit card companies over consumer protections in states like South Dakota and Delaware.
• In Six rules to avoid PR disasters at Sox First, Leon Gettler writes about how companies should and shouldn't respond to problematic situations.
  

Along with all the posts I left out because they were way off the theme of our carnival, here are a few more that seemed kind of borderline but I decided to keep them anyway:

• Dave Stech: 3 Powerful Success Concepts by edithyeung at Stewart Hsu.
  
• Defining Malpractice During an Emergency Evacuation by Shaheen Lakhan at GNIF Brain Blogger.
  
• Financial Mindset - How much money are You Really Worth? by Wanda Grindstaff at Creating Abundant Lifestyles.
  

Thanks so much, and I hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did! Please sign up to host, and please submit to the next edition through the carnival submission form.

Technorati tags: ethics, values & personal finance, blog carnival

Sweatshops or co-ops?: Finding sweat-free apparel

Trying to avoid clothes made through sweatshop labor is one of the toughest kinds of ethical consumerism, because sweatshops are just so prevalent. Unfortunately, practically every item you'll find in almost any store was produced in a factory where people-- mostly women, often teenagers-- spend long hours stitching and assembling for pennies per $30/$50/$100 garment, often in unsafe conditions and afraid to speak up for themselves and their basic needs in fear of retaliation and firing. Factories around the globe are constantly competing to produce apparel for brand-name corporations and retailers at the lowest possible price, lest the companies whisk away their contracts to some cheaper factory, and workers become the victims of this race to the bottom or get replaced by the unemployed waiting outside the factory door.

Finding alternatives that don't help support that process, but instead build the demand for more just and humane production, can take time, effort, and often some extra cash (although not always, because workers get such a small fraction of the cost of items to start with). There are some brick-and-mortar stores selling ethically-made apparel-- do take a look in the National Green Pages (an awesome resource) for what's in your area-- but often it seems like online options are the best bet.

Co-op America recently put together a terrific compilation showing where you can find a wide variety of sweat-free products, called 9 Cool Ways to Avoid Sweatshops. It really illustrates the breadth of options that are available. From dress clothes for women and men, to underwear and tights, to blue jeans and sandals, to bath and bedding, there are a ton of great options for any occasion that you can order online, all from manufacturers that treat workers well (and many of the products are organic and/or based on recycled materials to boot!)

Sweatshop Watch has a shopping guide I like a lot, too. All of the products they list are not just sweat-free with a fair share of profits going to the workers (just like the Co-op America list), but are also made by workers who are either unionized or part of a worker cooperative-- those are some serious assurances that workers are treated with respect and dignity. Just take a look at the website of the women in the Fair Trade Zone worker cooperative in Nicaragua (who produce for places like Maggie's Organics and Rage Baby), or the Ceres shirt-makers in Argentina.

That said... it is very tough to switch to 100% sweat-free apparel (or anything close to that, frankly) under current conditions, and it's certainly far beyond my own personal abilities, inclination, and budget. (Especially because I already have a lot of clothing and I'm not about to toss everything out and start from scratch!) But every time I get to wear a piece of clothing that I know was a part of empowering and supporting workers rather than squeezing and exploiting them, I get a smile of satisfaction on my face and the motivation to add one more item. As a consumer, maybe one step at a time is exactly the way to do it. And as a citizen, I'll keep on fighting the way our choices are structured so that someday, exploitation and sweatshops may be the exception instead of the rule.

(And no, I'm not afraid to have the discussion about "why raise standards?"... part of my thinking was laid out in this post on fair trade, but if you want to debate more, go right ahead!)

I'm back!

Yes, the hiatus is over and Money and Values is an active blog once more. I'm very glad to be back and excited about the days, weeks, and months ahead. Come on back and enjoy!

Old carnival, new carnival, YOUR carnival!

• Old carnival: At Tired but Happy you can find last week's Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance. As usual, there are a ton of terrific posts; I especially liked Does Business Squeeze the Poor? at Trust Matters.
• New carnival: Next week, on June 7th, the next Carnival of EVPF will be hosted right here. So that means you have until Wednesday, June 6th, to submit using this form.
  
• Your carnival!: Why haven't you signed up to host (or host a second time, as the case may be)? Step right up and volunteer in the comments or send me an e-mail. You know you want the coolest carnival in the blogosphere on your very own blog!
  

Free Donut from Krispy Kreme

On Friday, June 1 you can get a free donut of your choice at participating Krispy Kreme locations. I'm planning to stop at the one on my way to work (I often tell myself I am very lucky it is a Krispy Kreme and not a Dunkin' Donuts; I like their donuts so much better that I'd be seriously tempted to stop in pretty much every morning, whereas Krispy Kreme donuts I can take or leave. That said, on a free day, it's a "take"!)

(And if you guessed that my return from hiatus is impending, you're correct. Look for more in the coming days...)

Carnival of EVPF update

If you're wondering where the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance was this past week, I apologize for the technical difficulties. I was going to put it up myself, but the submissions are a little thin, and so I figured it's for the best to go back to once a month, at least for now. So you'll just have to wait for the next edition at Tired but Happy on May 24th (deadline May 23rd, submit here!)

Which reminds me: you should sign up to host! If you've hosted already, you can feel free to get on the list again-- just comment or e-mail me.

And if you missed the previous edition at The Skilled Investor Blog on April 26th, you're missing out. There are some really fantastic posts!

The Carnival of EVPF-- now with free ice cream!

Check out the most recent edition of the Carnival of Ethics, Values, and Personal Finance at Money Smart Life. Then go ahead and submit for the next one, which will be up on April 26th at The Skilled Investor.

Also, I know I'm supposed to be on hiatus, but while I'm here I can't help but mention that tomorrow is Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's!