My family and I were set to move to Florida from NY just before COVID made the press. I was going to take a 10% cut in salary, because cost of living would be l

My family and I were set to move to Florida from NY just before COVID made the press. I was going to take a 10% cut in salary, because cost of living would be less and the company office there was equally at a lower rate than the NY/NJ offices or other US-based locations. We are an ESOP company, so we all have an interest in the performance and bottom line of the company. At first I was taken aback, but then I realized the move would be good for my family for a lot of reasons, and my lifestyle would not suffer. We looked at a house that was a lot more of value located to my soon-to-be downtown office than anything I could find in NY/NJ. The comparison of overseas workers making so little for the clothes and other items we wear used to illicit a knee-jerk feeling of disgust and indignation, but then I remembered an acquaintance of mine back in college who made his business by renting rack space in retail stores in NYC to hang his clothing line he designed. They were made in overseas locations where he would fly to after he started making money to do quality control for his designs. When the corporate social responsibility thing started taking off with Nike and Kathy Lee Gifford's 'sweatshops', I asked him about it. He told me if he didn't produce his clothes there, the village where he employed a few dozen people would have no economy, and his product would not be able to be produced in the US/Europe. I didn't truly understand this until I lived in SE Asia for eight years. I spent the last year living in a remote East Javanese rice-farming village where over half of the houses had dirt floors. I quickly gained an understanding that balanced my view. My in-laws and their families make $4-$7 a day working in the rice fields depending on the task they do. A neighbor got a job sewing either Gucci, or Michael Kors purses and handbags for $20/day. She's very happy, and her entire family is benefiting from her salary that is five times what she would make, and her working conditions are more comfortable than working in the sawa (rice field in Indonesian). She would be devastated if a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) group and incensed Westerners had her job move elsewhere or shutdown. The company might make a concession in this area to create good PR and continue their practice in their other locations, or they might shut it down (likely). I am not an economist, but I am also aware that some local economies have been ruined when false economies are setup i.e. disproportionate and artificially hiked salaries. Anecdotally I have heard some village in Pakistan was incensed that a "victory" for labor per a Western news article destroyed their life, and they were resentful at how the CSR effort affected them. I think the solution is to grow local businesses and entrepreneurs. This usually occurs slowly when people like my friend in Java take their skill and knowledge of the products they have been making and start a similar or other business. I think this is the only true way to help these communities. Quick fixes or PR examples of a model setup by Nike or an other big company for PR purposes is just a show and cannot be a real changer.