Gift-Wrapped Guilt?

Gift-Wrapped Guilt?: "Gift-Wrapped Guilt?
My Adventure With Ethical Shopping

By Frances Stead Sellers

Sunday, December 18, 2005; Page B01

Earlier this month, there was a three-day sale of imported Oriental rugs at the Mennonite church near my house in Baltimore. 'They are a little pricey,' one of my neighbors warned me wryly, 'because the workers are paid a living wage.' What a concept! The last time I bought an Oriental rug -- years ago in Kashmir -- I haggled over the price with little thought for the well-being of the rugmakers. I was pretty sure most of the profit would go to the store owner, anyway. But now my already stressful shopping season -- garlanded with aspirations to find creative presents -- had been complicated by the intrusion of altruism: I was meant to worry about the workers."