How important is it for you that your ethics play a role when purchasing something?

[noname223]

I sometimes important cheaps good from China. I don't have that much money. But it gives me good feelings. It isn't good for the environment. And probably the working conditions are questionable. I don't zhink they rely on child labor. In my country the economical liberals (in other countries you would call them libertarians) say child labor is justified under certain circumstances because otherwise the children had to prostitute themselves in poor countries. It eases my guily conscience even though I think this is bullshit.

I still often buy things used. It is cheaper and better for the enivronment.

This year thus far I haven't bought the new Fifa/EA sports FC. The game becomes worse each year and it is so brazen they sell this game for 70 bucks each year. Usually i buy it used for 45 the last years. But I despise the series more and more. Ultimate team is just a disgusting way to rip off the customers. I am sick of it. I think this year I fully skip it. As a teenager I loved the play soccer on my console. But the way they commercialized everything ruins this sport. I use a VPN for watching games. I won't support the current prices.

What about you? I am not that principled. But my values still play a certain role.

 

[tarnishedstoner]

It is important to me to the extent that if I explicitly know it's against my values (child labour for example), I won't purchase it. But I won't go out of my to make sure everything I purchase is ethically manufactured at every step.
I pirate things on a regular basis. The only time i stop to think is when it's from an indie artist. Even then that doesn't stop me because I know I'm not going to buy it either way so might as well just pirate it.

 

[Sphene]

Most things are produced in China anyway, we're just paying extra for Bezos or whoever to get a cut. I'm sure there's some good options for certain goods out there, but I've stopped caring at this point. If I want something I'll just buy it. I've never used Temu though, mostly due to what they sell is total garbage.

 

[Dejected 55]

Honestly, almost everyone but a handful of people just do this stuff for virtue signalling to try and make themselves feel good while waving a "look at me I'm moral" flag.

Why do I say this?

Anyone I've ever known who wanted to boycott a brand or a store for "reasons" never applies this across the board. I mean, if you're a person who sincerely is bothered by a particular thing going on at a company OR they support policies in government that you strongly disagree with... do you always verify every purchase you ever make before doing business with anyone?

Nobody has the time to do that. Seriously. I mean, imagine if you had criteria that must be maintained and you had to research the employees (or at least the CEOs and policy-makers) and corporate policy and how they treat their workers, etc... you'd never actually have time to live your life.

So... what people do is... they happily turn a blind eye and don't want to know how the soup is made... until someone spills the beans, and then they go off like it's the worst evil imaginable... except they don't bother to look at what other places are doing the same things. They stop at waving their flag and boycotting that one company... because it really isn't about improving things or supporting a cause... it's about appearing to care more than they actually do.

Now, I'm fine with anyone boycotting anything they want for any reason... but I value consistency. Like, I've gotten extremely bad service at places and management was horrible and giving them multiple retries over time I find the service to be consistently bad at that place... then I'm done... and I don't go back... and any place that behaves similarly towards me, gets the same couple of chances and then I'm done. Consistency.

But if you want to boycott a company for abusing overseas workers and exploiting them... then you're not going to be able to buy much of anything, because most things in part or in whole come from outside the USA... and while I 100% wish we weren't exploiting people... and I wish I lived in a world where I could patronize the good-guy companies and let the bad-guy companies flounder... we don't live in that world. Most of the things are controlled by a handful of companies and most of them are doing some form of exploitation.