The People's Republic of China is a power-shipper, material girl's paradise. At the free market near the Embassy district in Beijing (called alternately the Cotton Market or yifu--clothing--alley), J. Crew Barn Jackets sell, (after a little bargaining), for $10. Silk Ann Taylor Blouses, $5. Laura Ashley-esque sundresses, $3!! Who cares if the seamstresses worked double overtime for 2 cents an hour in steamy firetraps gluing the corduroy cuffs on that barn jacket Exploitation Shmexploitation. Where else you can find a trendy coat for one Alex Hamilton? Besides, by purchasing that fashionable item in the PRC, you're transferring a little bit of an evil big business' 2500 percent profit to an independent Chinese small-business owner, thus funding and nurturing the growth of the nascent middle class in post-Mao China, whose soon-to-be wealthy members, in turn, will spearhead the transformation of the corrupt, market-Leninist, cruel-repressive, authoritarian Chinese state into a free, liberal, shiny-happy, kinder-gentler, just, western-style democratic nation.

The Middle Kingdom.

Better than The Basement.