Is my gain worth the loss?

This week a friend, Mari brought me to an old production house where they manufactured custom shirts. It was the former home to 40 sewers....it was like an industrial sewing machine graveyard. While my heart skipped a few beats because I knew I was going to be taking a few of these guys to a new home (where we would begin to produce more handmade product and further our handmade agenda), but my heart also weighed heavy seeing this abandoned space with with all these once heavily used machines, cutting tables and presses.
So where have all these jobs gone, I think most of us know...and while I do my best to buy products only made in the USA and even more so, as much handmade as possible, it's just not always easy or even available (case and point: zippers). This is of course easy to do when it comes to luxury items a little harder for necessities.
I support local Farmers and Growers by shopping only the actual family farmers here at the Dallas Farmers Market (the only daily market left in the country).
But it's not easy, I am self-employed, I don't have a steady income, my husband is a student and so we have learned to live lean and buy only things that we "REALLY" want or need. It's definitely a lifestyle, we have to find ways to save here and there so I can spend more supporting handmade. I won't lie, this means I buy my toilet paper at the discount chains, which supports overseas purchases and puts these production shops and ma & pops out of business.
Its such a huge vicious cycle and where does it begin and end, everyone I ask has a different opinion.
So to avoid making myself crazy, I have decided I can do what I can do and just keep trying to make small changes to progress.
For now, I will promote handmade, create handmade and buy handmade as much as I can, and with my new industrial machines and serger it will be that much easier. Together we adopted over 7 machines and other odds and ends. I can be happy about that!