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All I see are your excuses for being selfish and cheap. I’d wage all my sustainably-made, ethically sourced stuff you’re not as helpless as you claim.

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how's the weather in that ivory tower?

I honestly just research whatever item I want to buy and look into the company that makes it.

I detect some dishonesty here. how sure are you that your toilet paper is made with sustainability in mind? or that the minerals in your toothpaste are from reputable sources?

I also don’t buy a lot of superfluous shit so I barely ever buy anything anyway. Plus every town I’ve ever lived in, there are people/mom and pop shops who make and sell stuff themselves.

That's great for you! Should the rest of us uproot our families from our socioeconomic communities and move to wherever you live? I'll warn you, there's more than 10 of us so it might put some pressure on your mom&pop shops to deliver regularly.

Globalization of trade has done so much damage to our sense of humanity. People so easily ignore that they’re buying stuff from sweatshops because it’s not in the town they live and they can put it out of their mind with the wave of a hand.

this is the problem with all that hippie-dippy bullshit. how do you expect a small business to regularly deliver on a scale that's so out of reach they would literally need to work themselves to death to cover a fraction of the demand?

I live in a metropolitan area with around 5 million consumers. what's your answer for providing locally sourced/locally manufactured products at a scale that suits the needs of those 5 million people. AND without damaging the local ecology, economy, or social structures.

it's easy to say, "just do your research", but for real tangible change at scale it's just not possible for your "solution" to work.

yes, harsher penalties to products and services that ignore human rights.

yes, banning companies that continuously break or abuse human rights.

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Can you help me? I'm having trouble finding a locally sourced RTX 4090. And while we're at it, I also need to locally source some insulin for my diabetic child.

hey, have you ever found locally sourced lumber? I live in Nevada and I just can't find anyone willing to deliver any for a project I have.

the fact that your answer is, "just google it" tells me that you're just a low level troll with nothing better to do on a Friday night.

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you sound like a troll lmao

Lord Wiggle

Not everyone has the fanancial space to spend more for a more ethical product. Some are so poor, it's the only thing they can afford. A hamburger is $1 but a broccoli is $5. A Primark shirt is $3 but a fair trade cotton shirt is $35. Many have minimum wages. It's either a sweatshop shirt and a hamburger or a fair trade shirt and no food for a week. When you have more money it's easier to buy more ethical products but sadly people with more money also consume more products and often buy sweatshop products non the less.

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This is the one thing I regularly get so mad about. 99% of people I know have the means to shop responsibly but act so helpless and get so defensive of their need to buy nonsense from Walmart and Amazon. I realize I’m acting very high and mighty but I have family in very poor parts of Mexico, I’ve seen how awful their working conditions are, let alone the kids in sweatshops in China. I sound like a jerk/troll because I’m so fucking pissed that everyone can’t be bothered to care.

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I love the response that unless every bit of what I do is flawless in every way, then none of it means anything and I might as well buy stuff made by slaves. Yes, I acknowledge I’m acting very high and mighty, but stop being so defensive of your need to buy the cheapest stuff available. If you actually saw first hand what these kids go through, I guarantee you’d feel differently. 99% of people I know act like they’re so poor and then immediately spend their paycheck on the dumbest bullshit. I’m just infuriated by how checked out people are about this issue.

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The poorest people I know seem to make the effort and even support tax increases for social services. The wealthiest people I know cannot be bothered to do the right thing. People just shrug and say “I don’t want to think about that.”

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I see you've picked a few hardest examples and picked specifically difficult items.

RTX 4090 is specifically produced in areas with specific tech and infrastructure to do so. My big question here is why are you looking at specifically buying a top end graphics card, that is better than 95% of cards in existence? Nvidia does have significant sustainability progress, but seen nothing on if its environmental or social.

You asked what you can do? Don't buy the most expensive, high end, newest card.

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Its a tough choice. $40 ethical chirt vs $9 kmart shirt. I do feel bad when shopping at kmart, but either i need a better job, or live off 2 shirts and just do washing every day

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Buy second hand at thrift stores and there’s a lot of facebook groups dedicated to giving away free stuff

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Buy second hand at thrift stores and there’s a lot of facebook groups dedicated to giving away free stuff

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I'm going to largely agree with you because I do my best to buy local, to buy from locations that market that they go out of their way to get ethical goods, etc etc. But I'm going to also say that I have the incredible privilege to be able to do so. I have the money that I can drop on things that cost more (and these things often do), and I live in a location that has stores that are conscientious about this sort of thing, that know that there's a market for it in the area. I don't live in a food desert or the middle of bumfuck nowhere. I'm really grateful for that. And I recognize not everyone has either of those boons.

I think it's important to let people know those options are out there. And it's important to understand that not everyone can reasonably live up to that standard.

To those who are still reading and are genuinely interested in making a swap, start small and work your way up. My first change was when I had to switch to reusable grocery bags. It was state mandated. But it got me thinking about what else I could change, like no longer buying cases of water bottles and instead buying water filters. One step at a time, as opportunity permits.

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Where do you live where K-Mart is still a thing?

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Yeah, because those companies totally disclose their use of foreign labor and shitty wages. Blaming the consumer is such a corporate tactic. Laws need to be passed at the supply side, not the consumer side. Consumers will nearly always choose the cheaper option and of you want real change you need to change the choices available. I mean, do you take the same attitude toward climate change? Why don't we all just stop using gas cars, buy only sustainably sourced food, and buy only products that are made with low emissions? Because it's not feasible for most people. They don't disclose the emissions involved in every product you buy anyway. Only with government initiative will we make any real changes, and the same applies to this meme above. If we stepped in and saved American manufacturing sooner it wouldn't have gotten this bad. Just like how our individual choices are a mere drop in the ocean of emissions since corporations (supply side) make up the super-majority of emissions, we need supply side changes, not blaming individual consumers as if you would even be able to change most people's minds.

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Name something, anything, you can buy in a store and I'll tell you how inhumane it is.

Yes, that also includes a loaf of bread.

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I have serious doubts about anything labelled as "ethical".

It's like every year some investigative journalist reveals that the labwjs and prices on promised ethical products are bullshit.

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Australia still has kmart