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Capitalism
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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Maybe a little. Kids in Africa are dying as slave laborers in cobalt mines so I can type this reply to you and play the video games I like to play.
The problem is between human rights and profits, profits usually win. You're pitting people with a little bit of free time against a large conglomerate of corporations. Most of the time the outcome isn't a surprise.
Whatabout Whatabout Whatabout!
The problem is that we don't hold anyone accountable for the damages done, we're unwilling to embrace repair culture, unwilling to pay the higher prices for ethical and sustainable products, and fully capable of objectifying faraway cobalt mine workers (and their analogs) as nothing more than something we might be upset about if it were more in our faces.
I do definitely believe corporate greed is to blame, but consumer need drives the greed.
It's our dollars they're after.
I just buy whatever I can secondhand and that the best I can do.
You're right, we don't hold them accountable. We encourage it! We create laws to empower corporations to do what they want. We bail them out. We give them tax breaks to incentivize them to build in our state. And then we scold them on Lemmy.
If we don't hold them accountable, does that mean what they're doing is ethical? What do you propose consumers do? Should we stop buying computers because of the cobalt minor slave kids? Are you going to be the one to tell everyone we need to stop buying computers?
We've tried putting the burden on the shoulder of consumers for years now. No one has the time or money to do it. Stuff has only gotten worse. It doesn't work.
So, do nothing! You're going to do that anyway.
Or you know we could vote for more corporate taxes and better labor laws. We can try to get more transparency in how corporations outsource their work. We can try to form more worker co-ops. And push for democracy in workplaces.