this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
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Linus Tech Tips
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this is a bad take. You should absolutely care what brand makes your products because some brands use slave labor or child labor, some brands use toxic chemicals, some brands destroy our environment, some brands steal from their employees etc.
If you want to shop on Amazon, and drink Nestle water, and wear Adidas that's your choice, but don't pretend like brands don't matter. You say you don't like google, but you send them your money and in doing so, send them your support in the only way that matters.
I commend you if you are able to pursue a 100% ethical approach, but it's also a bad take to expect everyone to follow that approach.
The reality is that purchasing ethically is a luxury, and a first world problem. The power of brand choice is very much a luxury. You are assuming that everyone has the purchasing power of choosing ethical production. You can only do that if you have the means to choose and finances to pay. The majority of the world doesn't have the fans financial means and have no choice but to purchase what they can afford, regardless of unethical production.
If we don't realize this unfortunate reality of the world, it only exacerbates unethical production even further, making it much harder to find ethically produced goods, as ethical products get more and more expensive due to demand, making people flock to unethically produced goods due to financial means.
However, in this sepecific case, people who can afford a 250$ backpack, a 70$ screwdriver, and/or a 60$ fanny pack probably have the financial power to choose.
As much as I am also upset that LTT related post is dis allowed here, I don't feel like "people cannot afford ethical consumption" is a good argument against it.
That's a stance I can only admire, but you're basically removing any decently priced piece of technology from your life, starting from the iPhone.
We can totally buy fair stuff made 100% in America which costs probably 5x the price of the same article built in China, but for a lot of people, the wallet is a higher priority if they have to choose between being ethic or buying food for their family.
It's not always easy living a more ethical lifestyle, and of course there's no truly ethical consumption under capitalism, but you can try.
Most people have too many things and in order to afford them all they need them to be cheaper. You need less than you think, you don't need the new phone every other year, or a new laptop every update cycle, or iPods or an iPad. You don't need a smart watch or wireless earphones or designer clothes or 5 pairs of shoes. You don't need multiple TVs or multiple games consoles.
Less consumption means more money for the things you need, which means you can be more ethical with your choices.
Of course if you're in a position of struggling to feed your kids, you gotta do what you gotta do. Too late to do anything about it at that point