Is Ethical Just For the Rich?

At first I was excited when I spotted this segment on the Guardian website today. It promised to show that ethical and vegetarian shoes didn't have to be ugly. Fanstastic. I am always depressed when I go shoe shopping. More often than not I end up buying something with leather in it because vegetarian shoes are a) hard to come by b) so fucking ugly you'd be run out of town for wearing them.

So I clicked on the link and the first pair of shoes are for the snazzy price of £320 and made to order. Ooook...that's a bit shy of a month's rent for me. The cheapest pair they showed was just under £40. The minging looking pump that you imagine an old matron who had give up on life wearing sometime circa 1937. It was disappointing.

I also get that disappointed feeling when I am food shopping. I was in Waitrose yesterday. They do have a fantastic selection of organic produce. It's also fantastically expensive and on my salary I simply cannot afford organic for most of my shopping. So I am reduced to buying the pesticide ladden, environmentall unfriendly produce. It's a depressing thought.

I find that Fair Trade products are also just outside my budget. I would like to pay the extra dosh but I am not rich enough to give the poor farmers a "fair" deal.

This is usually followed by guilt and a feeling of being selfish if I choose a cheaper version of the product. Is the cheaper product really UNethical? Is it evil? Am I single handedly causing suffering to other people by NOT choosing the Fair Trade product?

For me it basically boils down to this: when I have start earning a good salary is when I am going to be able to be ethical with my shopping. Sadly, I think there are a lot of people in the same situation as me. I hope the guilt doesn't get too much for us!