[kyuudou]

I disagree, consumers should be able to decide if they want to buy a product or not and do their due diligence investigating the producer.

The countries where labor is cheaper benefit by getting more work and ultimately they uplift themselves.

Now, if it comes out that such labor is abused or managed corruptly and so forth, that is a product I will not knowingly or willingly buy.

[anoncake]

In the real world, customers don't actually do that and in fact cannot for everything they buy. Regulation is simply more efficient and effective.

[kyuudou]

>Regulation is simply more efficient and effective.

And that efficiency and effectiveness benefit an elite few. If people continue to "wake up" globally, becoming increasingly empowered by technology and democratizing philosophies, they will come to the logical conclusion that they can "vote" with their currency. Companies will definitely fucking pay attention if people stop buying their shit.

For example, I've taken the "buy local as possible" ethic to its logical extreme, realizing for example that I have to make compromises for things like consumer electronics. "The real world", as you say. But I think it's defeatist to just buy the cheapest junk you can afford in complete disregard of its means and origin of manufacture unless that's the only solution.

Just today, I was shopping around where to buy Sid Meier's Memoirs book since I just learned about it today on HN. I could elect the easy, lazy, one-world-ruled-by-Bezos path and click Amazon to save a few cents and get it delivered a day less, or I could go the slightly less convenient but more positive route of Indiebound.

[anoncake]

You got that backwards. Elites are the ones that benefit from letting people "vote" with money – since they have more of it. That is the opposite of democracy.

I'm not saying we shouldn't try to make ethical choices and just wait to regulation. But it is rarely sufficient. Boycotting a company as an individual has very little effect on the company but does inconvenience the individual. Doing that can feel good but it's actually pretty irrational. Organized boycotts are much more effective. And regulation is the ultimate (threat to) boycott.

If technology turned people into enlightened, selfless beings things would be different. I don't see that happening, to the contrary.

Furthermore, people have limited time and energy. They can't investigate in detail every product they consume.