Comments by "Laurence Fraser" (@laurencefraser) on "Bernadette Banner" channel.

@snazzypazzy I vaguely recall that clothing restriction having something to do with priestly robes being made that way, and also that, depending on the details, doing so generally made clothes harder to clean, wear out faster, or both. So there's that.
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Import tariffs would be the actually effective answer to this nonsense. Allows businesses that are actually compliant with local laws reguarding treatment of labour and the like to actually compete with unethical manufacturies hidden away in other countries. Doesn't help with unethical practices within the borders, but those, at least, are more easily found out about and dealt with. Unfortunately, much of the west is ideologically stuck on 'free trade'. And yeah, the idea of not engaging in tit-for-tat trade wars over petty nonsense or warping the markets to the point that the inate counterbalancing factors in the system can't drag them back into line with excessive and badly applied production subsidies is great (that being a decent chunk of the point of 'free trade' when the idea was introduced), both of those things caused a lot of hardship and damage for no real benefit. The problem is that the tools that were being abused Existed for very good reason and served important functions and have been stripped away in the process. In the name of Efficiency, the price of basic staples gets driven up in areas that produce those staples because that area happens to produce particularly good examples of such and other countries consumers, in places where said staple is either low quality or unavailable, will pay more than them. This is, in theory, supposed to be compensated by importing the same basic staple, but at a lower quality and in greater bulk from another source, but once you add in shipping costs (both monitary and environmental) and the fact that the sources for those lower quality varieties will, in so far as they possibly can, Stop Producing Those, at least for export, in favour of something higher quality (and thus more profitable), and all that happens is that it gets more and more difficult for the less well off in even wealthy nations to afford Basic Food... and of course they can't just Not buy that, and the cheap options keep ceasing to exist (when they're not just flat out dangerous), so they have to cut costs everywhere else, and also seek higher wages, both of which have their own knock on effects... Repeate similar stories in every Other industry and you end up with a rather problematic spiral, much (though obviously not all) of which could be knocked on the head with judicious application of import tarrifs and support for the creation of (relatively) local manufacturing. (note that I say the Creation of said manufacturing. If it can't compete with imports even with appropriate import tariffs in place, the subsidising production won't really fix that, and will create all sorts of perverse incentives for behaviours that worsen the situation rather than improving it). Which is to say, this is a social and economic problem with a regulatory and economic solution, if only there weren't such substantual ideological oppostion to using the tools needed to implement said solution. (ok, to be fair, 'solution' is overstating matters, but it would certainly Reduce the problem.)
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Most men's trousers I've encountered (the ones intended to look decent in any context, rather than super formal or fashionable or whatever) have pockets large enough to hold "pocket size" books. Proper coats, when you can find them, seem to as well. So far as I've ever been able to tell, Nothing else mass produced does. Admittedly, I'm a guy, basically a shut in with little interest (except when I need to replace things) and less (no) skill or ability relevant to the matter, but that has been my experience/observation. Of course, nonsensical fashion choices regarding pockets could easily make for essay length rants, there are Many of them (even if women usually have it worse on that front).
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@philippashirkey2192 ehh, Christchurch probably gets cold enough at certain times of year, especially if you need to be outside in the early morning (yay frost! :P). though mid-afternoon sun means you perhaps wouldn't want dark colours for your outer layer on clear days (the Air's still cold, but anything well insulated against that gets hot pretty quickly). And then, of course, there's the rain (Christchurch gets most of it's rain in spring, to the best of my recollection, but winter and autumn you'll get days (usually a few in a row) where it absolutely buckets down. Summer's usually bone dry) which has all sorts of interesting interactions, both good and bad, with wool.
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