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Calling All Billionaires — Pay the People Who Made You Rich.

Rachel Faller
JUST FASHION
Published in
8 min readMar 27, 2020

It really is that simple.

Photo of Vanna, a garment maker, at tonlé’s sustainable garment workshop in Cambodia.

Calling all billionaires — it’s your lucky day! You can be a hero by giving back some of that money that you made off of poor people’s labor. You can do this today. And you need to do this today. Because pretty soon, you’re not going to be able to stand on our shoulders anymore. ⁠We won’t keep purchasing your products so that you can hoard wealth at our expense, and get bailed out by our governments when times get tough. Consider yourselves warned. ⁠⠀

To those of us who are not billionaires (ie most of the people on this planet), this is our moment to come together and rectify the inequality that has long been the mainstay of capitalism. Let’s use this as a time to invest in and give back to the people who have been marginalized and ignored for way too long, and who are the ones keeping the world going. ⁠⠀

To the brands who have been bombarding our inboxes with “We’re all in this together” messages — that’s great, but mean it, please.

Many people have been saying that Covid-19 is the great equalizer. That may well be true, and we have a window of opportunity to make it so. The structures that have upheld inequality are breaking down. The poor folks who…

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JUST FASHION
JUST FASHION

Published in JUST FASHION

Radically reimagining the fashion industry with equity and justice for all. We are writers and industry professionals discussing not only why the fashion industry needs to change, but how to do it.

Rachel Faller
Rachel Faller

Written by Rachel Faller

Radically reimagining the fashion industry for a more just and equitable world. Founder of tonlé.

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