How moral are you? My wife and I watched Blood Diamond last evening and we learned about conflict free diamonds. Meaning diamonds that were not set into trade to fund a war, cause genocide etc…etc…. The link explains more. I got to admit my wife loves diamonds, but she is not a savage when it comes to having one. She wears antiquated diamonds most if not all came from Jewish jewelers in Antwerp at the turn of the 19th century…How do we know that? Her relatives are from Belgium and she has several who were jewelers since the mid 19th century. Tough trade back then…
We got to wondering about other moral dilemas in this day and age. Burning CD’s from other peoples CD’s, DVD’s…Stealing peoples work from the internet.
Passing judgement on another.
Do you always take the moral high ground? What kinds of things influence your decision to check the moral history of an object, like buying a diamond, or burning a CD, investing in Exxon…Do you have a series of mental checkpoints you go through when buying something? Do you fit into the drone consumer who buys without regard for where something originated?
I do…I do all the time. I’ll go into Walmart and buy things that I do not check into. I usually put a monetary value on my moral checklist. If I buy a diamond and find that it came from Sierra Leon, I may opt for a different stone. But if I buy a pair of jeans from the Gap and they are made by 8 year olds in Malaysia, I may not bat an eye all the time. That’s the honest truth to the matter of moral spending. I don’t always check. I know I should, but I don’t. Do you?
I’m not sure there’s necessarily a correlation between looking into the morals of the source of a product and one’s own morality. For notorious items, specifically diamonds, music, etc., one likely has an obligation to do at least some background investigation; but how far back in the supply does the moral taint affect the product? I could concede if the direct source is immoral, then it would be immoral to purchase the product; but what if he is unaware of the immorality of his supplier, are you then accountable as well?
To answer the question, for products of which I’m aware of the moral questions, I do more often than not take that into consideration when making the purchase. Perhaps it is something I should take into account more often; still, if I’m itching for some gum, I can’t see myself debating the relative morality of Wrigley’s vs. Dentine. So I suppose there is, more or less, a monetary value on the morality of a product for which diamonds and cars and such are generally above, and things like a pack of gum are below. I can only explain my concern with the morality of music with my personal fascination, or perhaps its general cultural influence.
I believe a true moralist would conside those diamonds from the 1800’s tainted as well. They are very likely products of the imperialist slave trade and death in the hundreds of thousands.
I am a moralist, insofar as I recognize the Kharmic cost of what I do and realize its effect. Sometimes I absorb it, somtimes I can correct it, or lessen its future impact. But I am moral, regardless.
Hmmm. I sort of make attempts at buying morally. I don’t buy diamonds, because I don’t like the whole aesthetic, so that’s a moot question for me. But I do try to stick to locally grown produce when it’s available and organic products with identifiable ingredients. So, for instance, I was at the grocery store the other day and I had potatoes on my list. I had a choice between normal potatoes, organic potatoes and organic local potatoes. I chose the organic local ones. If I hadn’t had the choice in front of me, though, I wouldn’t have gone to any great lengths to get the organic local ones…regular ones dug up by slaves in China would have sufficed. In my attempts to buy morally, I also tend to shop in stores that are going to give me the choice (Trader Joes, Whole Foods, my little locally owned natural foods shop). I don’t typically shop in WalMart, although I’m not boycotting them or anything…I just know I’m not going to be able to get my organic soap made from all free trade ingredients there. I do, however, shop in Old Navy waaaaay too much…I can’t resist the almost free children’s clothing there.
I am not a moralist at all. I am more of a self-serving pragmatic hedonist. I realized long ago that the world contains true evil, we are all going to die, and so will the universe eventually. It is both futile and not worth worrying about. If blood diamonds make me or somebody I love happy, then so be it.
I have worried about this probably way more than I should. I am not a jewelry type person and did not want or get a diamond engagement ring. I do have a ring that could be considered an eternity ring that was made by my husband’s uncle. The diamonds are small and were a gift fo the uncle jeweler. He did the ring, from a drawing I made, gave us the diamonds the ring as a wedding gift and charged Mrsin for the platinum stone settings only (I think he did that to make Mrsin comfortable a
I have worried about this probably way more than I should. I am not a jewelry type person and did not want or get a diamond engagement ring. My wedding ring could be considered an eternity ring that was made by my husband’s uncle. The diamonds are small and were a gift from the uncle jeweler. He did the ring, from a drawing I made, gave us the diamonds and the ring as a wedding gift and charged Mrsin for the platinum settings (I think he did that only to make Mrsin comfortable about not paying for the rest, etc.) But, I feel guilty about having my little diamonds. If I had it to do over, I would not get diamonds ever, ever, ever… But I only have ONE piece of jewelry that I wear on a semi-regular basis, my wedding ring, so what am I to do? I will never buy a diamond again, FWIW.
As far as CD’s I’m kind of torn. I have copied a CD of artists for another individual that I know would not buy it on their own because they are unfamiliar with the music, to turn them on to the music. My hope is that they will get into those artists and buy their stuff. I would not copy CD’s of an already popular artist for another.
Am I a moralist? Well, I have moralist tendencies, and I USED to take great pains to accommodate them. But there does come a point at which it’s more effort than it’s worth.
Example? I USED to try hard to find American-made clothes and other products. That used to be difficult, but feasible. Nowadays, however, it’s all but impossible to find American-made clothes… or close enough to impossible that I just don’t try any more.
As for investments, well, if it gives you peace of mind to sell off all the Altria or ExxonMobil or Caterpillar stock in your portfolio, that’s certainly fine by me. Or if you want to dump all stocks you own in companies that trade with Israel or the Sudan, you have that right. But I have to ask… what’s the point? When you sell stock, that stock doesn’t cease to exist. All you’re doing is giving it to someone less scrupulus and conscientious than yourself, probably at a bargain price.
What does that accomplish? I mean, when all those colleges divested themselves of their Coca-Cola stock, on the grounds that Coke did business in South Africa, it didn’t hurt Coke a bit! Instead, people who didn’t give a rat’s ass about apartheid got to buy the stock for a song, and collected dividends for years. And now that apartheid is history, those colleges will have to pay more to get back the stocks they abandoned.
If doing the moral thing made them feel good, great. But it’s not clear they DID good.
Nope, I really don’t care. If I knew that, perhaps one or two levels above me on the supply chain, somebody was directly affected for the item, I might hesitate. Perhaps if I was buying Diamonds I’d make a cursory effort to purchase conflict-free diamonds, but if it was out of my way and otherwise inconvenient, well that’s the market. I can’t think of any other industry that’s so caught up in that sort of moral issue though, so it doesn’t really bother me.
I am a moralist consumer. Refuse to use store bags most of the time, buy produce in season first, locally second, organic third. If it doesn’t fit at least one of those criteria, I don’t buy it. I choose products with less packing materials even if they are slightly more expensive. I get angry when manufacturers insist on excessive packaging in order to make an eye-catching display of their offering. (Lunchables- Argh.)
I will buy some imports based on the origin of the materials: silk from China: yes. “Made in Hawaaii from imported wool”: no. I won’t buy plastic products that don’t have the resin identification code stamped on and try to buy very little plastic. Try to keep printing to a minimum at work and at home. I have little interest in jewelry, so the gemstone thing isn’t an issue for me. Buy rechargable batteries, energy star appliances, that kind of thing.
My cryptonite is cosmetics. I have a hard time passing up red nailpolish and lipstick, and the unholy amount of chemicals and packaging used in the manufacture of stuff for girly girls is unconscionable. And here I sit with toes and mouth painted red…please forgive me, Ed Begley Jr.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to over think every little thing I do or buy. Do I boycott anyone? Yes, but most likely because they pissed me off in some way in the past, not because of any altruistic motives on my part.
I understand the position that one doesn’t have the time to research all products. The marginal good that you do spending your time that way is probably smaller than the good you could do elsewhere.
But I don’t understand those of who you claim not to care at all. You don’t care about the environment? You don’t care about slave/child labor? Really? I have trouble believing that you don’t care about those things.
I try to be a moral person. I think I succeed for the most part, at least in my interactions with others I know. But honestly, I don’t have the time and energy to research every little product I buy to see if it’s ‘morally produced’. And if it is, it usually costs significantly more, so my choice is often to buy or not buy, not which kind to buy. If I see something advertised as ‘free trade’ and it’s not significantly more expensive (which is a judgement call on my part), I’ll choose it in preference to not ‘free trade’. Same with organically grown, or sustainable resource, or whatever politically correct thing we’re supposed to be buying.
It isn’t that time consuming to turn over a package or glance at a label. And politically correct has nothing to do with it- no one sees (or cares) what I choose to buy- so it isn’t posturing. It is a matter of making the choice (and in a US big box store or supermarket choices are a given) when you have the time and opportunity. Not a big deal, and only an infinitesimal step towards a cleaner Earth- but still better than doing nothing at all.
I care about them in the sense that I recognize that they are negative and I hope they work out for the best. I personally care about environmental issues in my own way more than I care about child slavery. That may sound bad but almost everyone is like that to some degree. Experiments that illlustrate that point tend to occur naturally with consistent results. One night the news will show child slaves in Africa. The next night, the news shows a local man arrested for torturing a group of cats. Which one do you think will get the most outrage? Humans aren’t capable of processing all the horrific news around the world and then reacting emotionally and making an effort to do something about all of it. You would just ruin your own life if you are overly sensitive about these things and give it all significant thought.
Richard ParkerI do care. To an extent. In many instances, it’s too expensive for me to do anything about it as TroubleAgain mentioned. If there IS a choice, however, I’m going to get what works best for my family - end of discussion.
Thanks for the clarification. This seems inconsistent with what you said before.
To the extent I was referring to your comments, it was your quip that you have neither the time nor the inclination to do anything. It was the latter part that I didn’t understand.
As for doing what’s best for your family, doesn’t that always mean buying the cheapest product, third-world workers and environment be damned?
