If more people were buying products made by those family members or purchased in stores who paid them a living wage and benefits, the $60 toaster wouldn't be a luxury or hard to afford item.
For example, a real X-mas tree certainly costs more than a reusable fake from Wal-Mart produced in China, but a tree from a local farm is much nicer, causes more trees to be planted, gives the local kids their first summer jobs when they're too young to work other non-agriculture jobs, and gives the local housewives extra $ at Christmas when it hires them as seasonal workers to make wreaths and work the holiday shop.
And the reason I CAN buy a $60 toaster is that I have never actually bought a toaster, truffle oil, am driving my first car, talking on my second cell phone, eating off my grandmother's old dishes w/ my mother's old silverware................you get the picture!
Buying quality and locally produced items and only buying what you need costs FAR less in the long run than buying tons of crap! Don't just look at the price tag or the "right now" and you figure out what things REALLY cost!
