Consumers contribution to unfair practices.

[Mastrgamr]

Are consumers (people that buy products) that buy from a company with unfair practices, as guilty as the company that they purchased their product from?



[font=arial, sans-serif]Ex: Apple has deals with assembly factories in China where workers are known[font=arial, sans-serif]to commit suicide (jump out windows) due to their unfair treatment.



[font=arial, sans-serif]- I say consumers that purchase products from Apple are contributing to those unfair practices and suicides that occur just from the fact they re buying Apple products.



[font=arial, sans-serif]I would like to know what other people think.

 

[Evil Eye]

Yes, but only if they know and do nothing.

Companies probably should know everything that goes on at the companies they buy from, but there's always a chance they don't know. Once they know, they should try to change things... if they don't you can consider them to be as guilty as the company they purchased their products from.

 

[Mastrgamr]

I think, even if the consumer is ignorant (don't know, or completely unaware) to the fact that they are buying from a company that participates in unfair practices, they are still contributing.

because the unfair practices will still continue

 

[Jazzy]

If I am aware of a company that is indulging in unfair practices and decide to patronize that business, yes I'm just as guilty. When I heard about the child labor being used to produce products for Wal-Mart, I no longer step foot in that store. Would I buy an Apple product knowing they indulge in unfair practices, the answer would be no. Unfortunately, these companies that do this are not always caught. Therefore, the cycle is allowed to continue since consumers who patronize these businesses are innocent.

 

[Mastrgamr]

Unfortunately, these companies that do this are not always caught. Therefore, the cycle is allowed to continue since consumers who patronize these businesses are innocent.

Sadly yes, some companies are not caught in the act. I'm not too sure what you mean, but I think I disagree with the last sentence of that statement. Yes they are innocent due to their ignorance but they are guilty (are responsible) due to the fact that their purchases allow these practices to continue.

 

[Jazzy]

Sadly yes, some companies are not caught in the act. I'm not too sure what you mean, but I think I disagree with the last sentence of that statement. Yes they are innocent due to their ignorance but they are guilty (are responsible) due to the fact that their purchases allow these practices to continue.

Without knowledge and a choice to make, then you cannot be guilty. Are you saying ignorance is bliss?

 

[Mastrgamr]

Oookay I see where you are coming from now.

First off yes I think sometimes ignorance is bliss, sometimes people are better off not knowing the truth. But I think that discussion is reserved for another thread.



now that I know where you're coming from, I agree with the sentence I disagreed with before. I think I unintentionally mixed the point I was trying to make, and that's that consumers (whether knowingly or not) contribute to the unfair acts companies use to make their products simply from buying that company's products. Agree or Disagree?



As far as guilt is involved, they are not as guilty as the company when they are not informed, until they are informed and buy the product anyway.

 

[TommyTooter]

i see that mastrgamr, who started this thread is posting from new york and there have been no comments here since before the storm. here's hoping that he and his got through it safely.



this is an interesting topic, close to home for me. my family and our friends owned small to medium light manufacturing businesses. these were all destroyed by the expansion of big box stores and offshore manufacturing in the 60's and 70's and i've been advocating boycotts of those businesses for many years.



in my own business, i have to be very careful of my sources. i'm trying to cater to the metaphysical niche in the jewelry trade and any exploitation of the labor or wanton environmental destruction is going to translate to bad energy in the stones.



after the election, a number of franchise restaurant's, starting with papa john's pizza and including burger king and mcdonalds's announced cutbacks in workers hours to avoid paying health care benefits. immediately, the activist community started calling for boycotts. when i shared some of that media, one of my subscribers came back with the question of how a boycott would impact the workers the boycotters were calling for. because of the impact these franchises had on my community's businesses, i really don't care if they all close down. it's a pretty crappy career choice anyway. if somebody wants to be in food service, they should go with something classier or community-oriented.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

Oookay I see where you are coming from now.

First off yes I think sometimes ignorance is bliss, sometimes people are better off not knowing the truth.

I agree with you there. Truth is stranger than fiction.



As for consumer culpability. Firstly, I understand that's not where you are coming from. In short, I see the argument that consumers by their existence contribute to unscrupulous practices as generally one-sided. I just don't see how you could hold a consumer morally accountable when they were simply buying the product? It seems like guilt by association. Like Evil Eye said, patronage in spite of knowing a company’s ill motives and practices is a different story.



Unfortunately, as Mr. Tooter so eloquently described, I can see the workers on the losing end regardless. To be a consumer is one thing as you are somewhat distanced from the company. When it comes to immoral business practices, as a consumer I might be blissfully ignorant or even dismissive precisely because I am not in that sphere of internal corporate workings. Precisely because I don't experience the full extent of it first-hand for it to really affect me to any significant degree. But, workers have to do things against their individual conscience in the interest corporate motives, to maintain their status in an organization, or even just to be able to keep their job..



When it comes to boycotts, they lose more than any consumer. After all, they are no less dependent on the success of the corporation as the owners and upper management responsible for the questionable business practices. It's pretty conflicting..