Keep on Shoppin' in the Free World

Market has been...interesting. Sales haven't been great, but I'm letting that roll off me by attributing it to people's lack of fashionability around here (and in particular, the crowd who shops there). Yes, I make myself feel better by criticizing others. I'm also in the side room (cheaper to rent space there) which few people even realize is there, so we don't get a lot of foot traffic.

But what I've found most interesting is that the majority of craftspeople who sell there do this as their full-time job and are otherwise living in pretty much total poverty. Like, in a warehouse without any heat, or raising three kids on 12,000 a year from disability. And none of them charge for their labor. I mean the hours of time they put into making the item they're selling, I'm not even going to go there with the hours of time sitting at the market. You literally cannot charge anything for your labor costs and have a price that most people will find anywhere near acceptable. So they make a dollar for every hour of labor they put in, not including selling time. Yet again, the globalization of capital screwing over the ability of local groups to form productive, supportive economies of their own.