Re: “Shopping locally pays off in so many ways,” Dec. 6.

It is so easy to say shop locally. It is also elitist. When a young family can get three pairs of jeans at an American-owned superstore for the price of one pair of locally made ones, where’s the choice? The quality is the same, except perhaps for those elitist few.

It is our government’s decision to allow businesses to do their manufacturing in China and Bangladesh that has opened and closed the door on this.

With fewer and fewer local people hired to produce these goods, who has money to buy locally?

Big business and government have created this free-trade nightmare. We are mostly just the working poor trying to live, love and survive. Compare the price of local strawberries (taste good) to imported California strawberries (taste just as good). One person may be able to afford such luxury, (and what about the carbon footprint left behind going hither, thither and yon buying locally?), but really, it is impossible for most of us trying to raise a family.

Paul Middleton
Victoria

© Copyright 2013