But, in reality, ripples from the importing and sales of such merchandise is not so far reaching as to seem like it really is not going to personally impact you or me.

The losses are in things like tax revenue...money that could be spent on local infrastructure, schools, arts, municipal improvements, crime prevention...the list goes on, and somewhere, there is something that affects everyone somehow. Each time some self-proclaimed savvy shopper "saves" $1,000 by not "throwing money away" on a real designer bag by fattening the coffers of a billion dollar conglomerate (and you know people justify such purchases by thinking, "LVMH doesn't need my money"), they may not be thinking about the tightening of that company's bottom line and that the loss of profits in turn forces them to decrease their own employees on all levels, which may ripple down through to independent retail outlets. It also causes them to pad the retail cost of their merchandise to make up for some of the loss. So in effect add all those "my one bag doesn't hurt anyone"s together and you are not only potentially costing someone their job, but you are also the one causing the prices of luxury goods to increase so rapidly.

Now I'm not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone, nor am I saying that everyone should carry an $1,800 designer bag. What I am saying is if you can't or just don't want to spend money on the designer bag, walk into your local department store, or small boutique and look around at the handbags, not the labels. Close that magazine with photos of celebrities all carrying the 20 latest designer bags to be tagged "IT". A bag doesn't need to be or even look like a designer "IT" bag to be awesome, it just has to be what you like.

Click here for an article and a short video all about the local harm counterfeits can do.