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Loading...Slave Labor, Child Labor, Animal Suffering: What is Consumer Ethics?
Even if we grow our own food and make our own clothes, none of us can avoid being a consumer altogether. Yet unfortunately, many of the products we buy come to us steeped in unethical practices such as worker exploitation, environmental harm, or animal suffering. So what can consumers do if they want to avoid supporting — and benefiting from — such wrongdoing?
The first weapon for consumers who want to buy ethically is knowledge. We must make the effort to learn about what we buy and avoid the temptation to stick our heads in the sand about the production history of an item we may be very excited about purchasing.
We must make it a habit to ask ourselves such questions as:
- Where did this product come from?
- Under what conditions was it manufactured?, and
- How can it be so cheap?
Answering the first two questions is sometimes easy, as when products are clearly labeled ‘fair trade’ or ‘eco-friendly.’ Other times it is much more difficult because labeling requirements typically demand disclosure only of a product’s ingredients and its country of origin. The Internet can, of course, be a big help here, especially given the creation of websites devoted to tracking corporate behavior such as corpwatch.org and transfairusa.org. These sites allow the user to type in a company name and learn about any reported ethical issues associated with that company.
The last question (How can it be so cheap?) is sometimes painful to ask because it may lead us to spend more money for what we want. That is, shopping ethically — buying products made with fairly-paid labor or sound environmental practices — often requires paying a premium price. If you shop with an eye only for paying the cheapest price, this dramatically increases the chances that you will not be buying ethically. While there are some wonderful exceptions to this rule, such as locally-grown vegetables, the mantra of ‘always lowest price’ typically overlooks the hidden moral costs that make those low prices possible.
However, asking these three questions will not allow us to buy ethically in each and every case. Sometimes a fully ethical alternative for a given product just isn’t available. The fact remains that sometimes it is impossible for the consumer to have completely clean hands. Then what to do?
One option is to simply do without that product. If that’s not feasible, then the next best strategy is to prioritize between the various imperfect choices. That is, I believe dirty hands are better than filthy hands, so we should look closely to see if one alternative is significantly better from the moral perspective. More about how to do that in a future post.
Learn more about David Schwartz and his book Consuming Choices at www.consumingchoices.org and follow him on Twitter: @ConsumingChoice.
Read more: animal-friendly, child labor, consumer buying, consumer choices, consuming choices, corporate behavior, david schwartz, eco friendly, ethical shopping, Fair Trade, human rights, worker exploitation
photo credit: dreamstime
David Schwartz
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
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Recent Comments from Causes
Very sad and alarming, but for sure in a few 1000 years, evolution has repaired.
thanks for sharing
what an amazing young man..spoken with more truth,integrity,passion and honesty than most of our elected…
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78 comments
+ add your ownI try. Takes me forever shopping because of my label reading. I often wonder if "eco-friendly," "organic," and other buzz words have meaning. I know that "all natural" means nothing. I am all for more accurate label laws; especially want to know about GMO foods.
I try to be ethical but the trouble is with so many companies sinking into moral turpitude in the name of profits, it's getting so that one can't buy anything at all! :(
I would consider myself to be a very ethical consumer. We buy all our meat and vegetables organically, and often locally, we avoid most processed foods and I steer clear of any cosmetics I know have been tested on animals. However, just when I think I'm doing well, I discover yet another product I use has been produced unethically - sometimes it feels like you can't win :(
Personal responsibility facilitates physical and emotional health, which facilitates compassionate connection for authentic integrity, which serves our highest purpose towards greater spiritual awareness for ultimate peace and joy.
Thanks for sharing, I try to buy as ethically as I can, not to mention I don't buy leather or any other products made from animals (and I'm vegetarian).
been washing my hands of unethical products for a while...
i'm getting consumer excema! : (
Good article!
I buy all non animal tested products and am a vegetarian, and buy faux everything. (:
we are not considered persons, we are just "consumers": as consumers we can make a difference. It's really hard, but we can. Thanks for the article
Unless the majority of greedy and self serving people change by demanding honest politicians and a transparent government, this will never come to be. The overwhelming new religion in the world is “$” regardless of what anyone says. As with a picture equaling a thousand works, actions are proof. People have forsaken their lives, their children lives, their grandchildren lives and everyone else in search of more gadgets, more money, more things, etc regardless of how others are affected even harmed. Religion interpretations continue to grow and change as necessary to meet the needs of the greedy and self important.
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