Life without China?

Foreign Policy has a quip about Sara Bongiorni who did an experiment and tried to live for a whole year without buying products made in China. This was not to bash China but to highlight globalisation's impact on an ordinary American family.

"Our son outgrew his tennis shoes, and they were the only pair of shoes he had. So I set out to buy new tennis shoes, and essentially all tennis shoes are made in China at this point. It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally located these tennis shoes made in Italy that cost $68. Well, you can buy tennis shoes made in China for $15 in a place like Payless shoe stores. For someone on a moderate or low income, to be able to buy your 4-year-old kid perfectly good shoes for $15 is a real economic benefit. I didn?t realize I was going to see that at the outset."