To the editor:

I recently bought an elegant pair of pants in a Lawrence shop for $39.99. I liked them so much that I put them on without looking where they were made. I checked this on returning home and found they were produced in Swaziland.

This is a small African kingdom in eastern South Africa. According to goodsearch.com, about 75 percent of the population works in subsistence agriculture for less than $1.25 per day. Some grow marijuana, which they sell in South Africa. The region has been suffering from a disastrous HIV epidemic and its people have a life expectancy of 32 years.

I wonder how much this pair of pants cost the distributor whose name appears on them as the producer? This is, in fact, a large corporation whose key executives are not accessible to the public, at least not on its home page. Is this the kind of corporation whose tax cuts the GOP wants to preserve?