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> rarely (never?) discussed in the west I don't know, I see it talked about all the time, but nobody seems to be able to do anything about it.
by shmageggy 6y ago
> rarely (never?) discussed in the west
I don't know, I see it talked about all the time, but nobody seems to be able to do anything about it.
- capableweb 6y ago> nobody seems to be able to do anything about it. Nobody seems to want to do something about it. It's easy, vote with your wallet. But since the choice is either A) help humanity by stop buying cheap consumer electronics or B) don't get any cheap consumer electronics to make your day 0.5% better, it seems we're stuck in exploiting humanity.
- oarsinsync 6y agoNot sure how buying expensive consumer electronics helps either, given how the excess profits continue to be captured rather than fairly distributed. There's even case studies celebrating these COOs turned CEOs for how well they've "optimised" their supply chains.
- capableweb 6y agoWell, my point was more to stop buying consumer electronics we don't really need, that just marginally increase our quality of life. Not that we should buy expensive electronics instead.
- aksss 6y agoAnother option legally would be to disincentive the purchase of materials manufactured in those overseas areas to which you refer, or tax the bejesus out of companies using them as labor sources. I think there’s room for talk of tariffs and tax penalties for offshoring labor/manufacturing, and I’m not really familiar with other levers to turn that would fix this. Efforts to enforce better working conditions in other countries come and go, are easy to game and are quickly forgotten. The parts of our society that profit off cheap offshore labor are quick to spin stories accusing people of being nationalist/protectionist/racist, but their profit margin is being defended in the process and the issues distracted from. At the same time, if I lived in a largely agrarian society and factory work offered me the choice to get out of poor farm labor work, I’d jump at it the same way my ancestors did. I feel most of us can appreciate the value and prosperity that the global supply chain has brought, while simultaneously lamenting the destruction of domestic industry and the exploitation that has accompanied it. We don’t have to be all-for or all-against, though I think when “free trade” agreements come up, they should be regarded very suspiciously, and when accusations fly about nationalism and protectionism, those should be seen as the cheap and distracting rhetorical devices they are.
- whimsicalism 6y agoWe are never going to "consumer choice" our way away from labor exploitation, it requires laws.
- aspaceman 6y agoLol. “Don’t buy the things with exploitative labor.” Good fucking luck. Bury your head in a hole and produce squash or some shit. There is no ethical consumption under captialism. Blah blah blah.
- 411111111111111 6y agoI tried that for a while. Some time later I found out that they source their products from the same factories and the only thing I've done is prove that marketing works if you wanna convince people to pay premiums for imaginary differences.
- heavyset_go 6y agoI'd rather actually vote for policy with teeth, and not pretend that my individual purchasing choices are going to change the world.