Bad aid?

For some time now, I've really questioned the effectiveness and impact of Fair Trade claims or companies like TOMS Shoes. It seems unlikely that the companies offer or do as much as they promise, to the people they claim to help with our over-priced purchases. 
Here is an article that I came across recently, addressing this very issue (thanks Chelsie!). Click on the link to read the entire article. 

A tryst with TOMS

By Vivek Nemana | Published November 12, 2010

We buy TOMS Shoes or Fair Trade chocolate or poverty-fighting water bottles because we genuinely want to help. But in the frenzy of do-gooder consumption we stop thinking all the way through. We fail to ask how our money will help, and we overlook how our good deeds might actually do harm. We forget that what we want to do for others might not be the same as what they really need.

http://aidwatchers.com/2010/11/a-tryst-with-toms/