Buying the Poor for a Pair of Sandals

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy
and destroy the poor of the land!…

Never will I forget a thing they have done! (Amos 8:4,7LFM)

In the first reading for this Sunday, the profit Amos decries the neglect of the poor and lists some of the abuses, such as adjusting weights and measures to cheat the poor out of what is justly theirs. 
       The line that should catch our attention in these days refers to "buy[ing]… the poor for a pair of sandals." How often do we prefer shoes that were made in foreign sweatshops just because we can get away with paying a lower price for them? When we defend doing so by claiming that the people who work in those sweatshops are at least doing better than their neighbors, isn't that like buying the poor for a pair of sandals?
       Furthermore, wouldn't our country be better off economically if we would search out domestically produced goods, made by factories that pay just wages?
Copyright © 2010, Deacon Carl D. Smith. All rights reserved. Reprint permission granted to parishes for use in Sunday bulletins. (http://bit.ly/16p8ws)