Hold the corps to account, vote with your wallet, demand that they reinvest profits in education and betterment and development of these geographic areas.
Clothes is a nice and easy one to begin with choosing an alternative for because it's a much more simplistic product with a more easily traced supply chain. Phones, computers and cars are something we'll likely struggle with for a long time.
For anything else, the public will likely need to demand change as I doubt a superior or equal alternative will emerge. With that said, products like the FairPhone are very interesting, though I haven't used one.
Food is something that'll largely hinge on your geographic area and availability of produce that makes sense.
I think his point is that given the context that everything is involved with child labor somehow, pointing out just one particular item isn't very helpful.
More nuances about iphone being a luxury brand and therefore less justifiable and more "disgusting" can be added. But like how you said it above, it doesn't change the fact that the very economy and the comfort we are enjoying partly come from child labor.
I am giving the GP the benefit of the doubt and don't think they are engaging in child labor whataboutism, but I also think they should write in a way that does not invite the qualification of "I think his point is...".
>pointing out just one particular item isn't very helpful
It absolutely is. And pointing out more is even better!
and listing other child labor profiteers has a point : it illustrates that perhaps we should probably look for and fix the root causes of child labor rather than punishing a single perpetrator.
Anything created under Capitalism is probably morally repulsive on one level or another. I vote to get rid of it entirely, if we can only come up with a better solution.
For now, I personally try to participate as little as possible in it.
> Foxconn ships poor people from rural areas to mega factories
They don't have to ship them, the poor people from rural areas come looking for better jobs in the mega factories. Nothing wrong with that.
> take their identity documents, and essentially holds them hostage.
This is a huge deal which many Chinese companies used to practice even just 10 years ago. I don't think it is very common now, the government did crack down on it, to stop making it a norm business practice.
That was 2014. Things aren't perfect now, but better than back then.
> It's good to raise awareness but it's not recent news. [...]
> Child labor in the… [...]
Have you read the article?
To me –pardon my subjectivity and don't take this as a personal attack please – this sounds like it can can be paraphrased with "I don't care".
The article paints a pretty strong picture not only of child labor and slavery but also of the environmental devastation and violence around the harvesting of raw materials in all these countries.
It also mentions electric vehicles, which have batteries that make iPhone batteries seem like a drop in the ocean in size comparison, and are celebrated as green progress.
> How should the typical westerner deal with these facts?
Maybe not buy unneeded batteries and advocate for honest regulation and a stop to reckless growth based on slave labour and environmental destruction?
Maybe stop pretending that capitalism would represent liberty and freedom, when it is built on destruction, unsustainability and slave labor?
For some reason, people can read such an article and claim that they know anything about reasonable environmental policy a couple of hours later, minutes even.
Sorry for the rant, but it makes me sick to follow debate about these topics.
Writing this from a device containing the same minerals that the article is about, duh.
> Hold the corps to account, vote with your wallet, demand that they reinvest profits in education and betterment and development of these geographic areas.
This is a poltical issue on a global scale. As long as it is allowed to reap profit from exploitation, outsource slave labor and environmental destruction and call this "free market", nothing will change.
I welcome everyone who reduces his/her participation in the global exploitation of poverty and the environment, but without political action it is all smoke and mirrors.
Amnesty International report from 2017. Apple is the top rated consumer electronics company (page 78 for all the companies together, 94 focuses on consumer electronics):
For those moaning about the title, the use of iPhone as an icon of uncaring capitalism is not the takeaway here.
The exploitation and ravaging of people and environments enabled by PR-friendly phrase-fiddling ("oh we only use virtuous suppliers") is.
Yes, it's classic clickbait, but more power to it if it brings eyes that would have otherwise passed by. Butthurt iPhone and smug Android owners alike will be snared in the trap, the brand is just the bait.
It's common knowledge for a lot of people, but there's new people reaching a state where they have compassion for others every day, that's a positive thing, thus we need to make this information available to them to understand what's wrong with the world.
In exchange for extremely dangerous working conditions that can and usually do irreparable damage for life. It's hardly a "win" for a kid to grow up doing this for money, and have horrible health issues after the age of 30, making their remaining life miserable.
I think it depends on where in the supply chain kids are participating. If the work is dangerous (ex. mining), they should be banned but if there is a learning experience with little risk of long term negative consequences, it should be available for the interested.
I enjoyed the computer work and newspaper route I had as a child and wouldve probably jumped at the opportunity to assemble digital devices.
The benefits and detriments the children get by working are not equal to those they could get if they were able to get an education and have free time to play, instead.
"This is beneficial enough that some people choose it" and "this is a genuine good thing for those people, compared to the other options" are not equivalent.
I had my own side hustles as a child. I preferred computer related work instead of manual labor. Since I was good at what I did no one cared about my age.
Fashion and footwear industry: https://labs.theguardian.com/unicef-child-labour/
Shrimp processing: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/dec/14/s...
Mining: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangk...
And everything else: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-o...