To what extent should we boycott 'unethical' coperations?

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hopeforfaith

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This is a question that I have been wondering about. As Catholics, we should abstain from purchasing sweatshop goods and support fair trade products because we are not to add to anyone’s sufferings, right? (even though if you ask me, sweatshop workers in China are escaping from rural areas where corruption and the three rural problems are making their livelihood extremely hard and sweatshops are an improvement and coperations can’t do much about it)

But then if you think further, how on earth do we know that something is made from a sweatshop? I live in hong long where big brands are everywhere with little possibility that shops like Green America is available. How can I know that this drink I am drinking is not a result from exploitation?

What about Disney? It is not very nice to its cast members, I’ve heard. So should I not go to Disneyland ever? If I am only against its sweatshop products and still go to Disneyland without buying them, will I be also supporting it?

Another thing in Hong Kong, company monopoly is common and these companies have high house prices beyond imagination. They are only focused on making money while many people are unable to buy a flat. But these companies have numerous other services such as supermarkets. I have subscribed to a music service and it is a great alternative to downloading illegal music as it is official and legal but cheap. Will using it make me supporting this company?
 
I’m not sure what shopping and sharing options are available in Hong Kong. Where I live we can pass on to others things we no longer use fairly easily. Non-profit organizations such as St Vincent de Paul collect reusable clothing and household goods for re-sale and use the money generated from this process to help the poor. We can access music on the radio or check out compact discs and movies from our public libraries.
If the music company you are purchasing from is owned by the corporation whose practices you condemn than purchasing music through that company supports the parent company. Researching these issues can be very time consuming. The more information we share with each other, the better we will be able to shop ethically and support goals that align with our faith.
It is heartening to think that, all over the world, people are asking these questions and trying to figure out how best to live in accordance with their faith. May God bless you!
 
Here are two websites that include links to many different unions/organizations/info. Unfortunately I’m not sure how you can be sure your food & drink is a result of exploitation. It’s hard to be 100% informed consumer here in the US. I can’t imagine being in a foreign country & trying to figure this stuff out.

Labor Behind the Label

No Sweat Apparel
 
Seira said:
Here are two websites that include links to many different unions/organizations/info. Unfortunately I’m not sure how you can be sure your food & drink is a result of exploitation. It’s hard to be 100% informed consumer here in the US. I can’t imagine being in a foreign country & trying to figure this stuff out.

Labor Behind the Label

No Sweat Apparel
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:thumbsup:Thanks!
 
Personally I think that the single worst company you can support is De Beers. I absolutely do not take people seriously when they talk about being pro-life, anti death penalty, pro helping poor children, and pro foreign aid, etc when they have diamond jewelry all in the name of fashion, despite the fact that it directly supports genocide, slavery, and children getting their limbs blown of in mines.
 
Well, what about movies then? I can go crazy thinking all this. If you buy a ticket to see a Dark Knight Rises, are you also supporting all the previous films that they made which may not be in accordance wih catholic teaching? Or the violent scenes? What about the actors and actresses and producers and stuff, are you supporting them if some of them are also not acting ethically? We are giving them money.

Somehow I think there needs to be a boundary for this, such as only boycotting companies where their rationales are very outspokeningly wrong. Because otherwise, aren’t we sinning everyday if we unknowingly supported or contributed somehow in things we have no way of knowing?

Should I go and watch Dark Knight Rises?
 
jeannetherese said:
I’m not sure what shopping and sharing options are available in Hong Kong. Where I live we can pass on to others things we no longer use fairly easily. Non-profit organizations such as St Vincent de Paul collect reusable clothing and household goods for re-sale and use the money generated from this process to help the poor. We can access music on the radio or check out compact discs and movies from our public libraries.
If the music company you are purchasing from is owned by the corporation whose practices you condemn than purchasing music through that company supports the parent company. Researching these issues can be very time consuming. The more information we share with each other, the better we will be able to shop ethically and support goals that align with our faith.
It is heartening to think that, all over the world, people are asking these questions and trying to figure out how best to live in accordance with their faith. May God bless you!
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Thanks. God bless you too 🙂
 
Luckily, there is a boundary!

The link is to an explanation of the various types of cooperation in evil. There is a difference between 1. knowingly going with someone and the two of you robbing a bank and 2. selling the bank robber a car which he later uses to get away.

When we buy things from a company which uses immoral practices, we are more like the seller of the car above–our cooperation is so “remote” that we may not even know about the problem. People can buy Nestle’s chocolate without even knowing they sell baby formula, much less that they use unethical means to “advertise” it.

So, you need not worry about your purchases, but remember that a single prayer will be more helpful to those affected by bad practices than not buying a song or a chocolate bar.
 
St_Francis said:
Luckily, there is a boundary!

The link is to an explanation of the various types of cooperation in evil. There is a difference between 1. knowingly going with someone and the two of you robbing a bank and 2. selling the bank robber a car which he later uses to get away.

When we buy things from a company which uses immoral practices, we are more like the seller of the car above–our cooperation is so “remote” that we may not even know about the problem. People can buy Nestle’s chocolate without even knowing they sell baby formula, much less that they use unethical means to “advertise” it.

So, you need not worry about your purchases, but remember that a single prayer will be more helpful to those affected by bad practices than not buying a song or a chocolate bar.
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If you are female wouldn’t you “Girlcott” rather than “Boycott”?🤷
 
Well if I watch dark knight, I don’t know if Warner bros is supporting anything wrong. My friends want to hang out with me, but what should I do with them? If I shop, it is likely we will be buying from companies that uses sweatshops or use animal testing or stuff.
 
Not boycotting something does NOT mean you are not a good Catholic.

The suggestions are often - buy local, don’t give your money to the big corporations. Well, where do you think the “local guy” gets the stuff he sells? If I don’t shop at Target because they do bad things with their money, and I buy my shampoo and dish soap at the “local guy”, where do you think HE gets those products from? They come from major corporations who do bad stuff with their money too.

Unless someone is independently wealthy and has the ability to buy entirely small batch, hand crafted products, shop at farm stands (some farmers are subsidized by big corps too btw), sew your own clothing, and live in a yurt (because you can’t give money to the mortgage companies, they do bad things too). Then living a life of boycott this and boycott that is nothing but hypocritical.

Now, that being said, I don’t go out writing checks to Komen, nor do I participate in the United Way campaign where I work. But there is a difference between DIRECT support by giving funds to specifically assist an organization, and simply being a casual customer of their products. Just because I buy your toothpaste does not mean I agree with your social agenda. It simply means I like the toothpaste.

I do what I can - but I am not going to lie awake at night fretting over buying my socks at a store that is on the “bad list”.

Pray for those who do bad things in this world - we will always be surrounded by this type of evil. Praying (as someone said above) is far more powerful than withholding the ol’ mighty buck anyway.

~Liza
 
lizaanne said:
Not boycotting something does NOT mean you are not a good Catholic.

The suggestions are often - buy local, don’t give your money to the big corporations. Well, where do you think the “local guy” gets the stuff he sells? If I don’t shop at Target because they do bad things with their money, and I buy my shampoo and dish soap at the “local guy”, where do you think HE gets those products from? They come from major corporations who do bad stuff with their money too.

Unless someone is independently wealthy and has the ability to buy entirely small batch, hand crafted products, shop at farm stands (some farmers are subsidized by big corps too btw), sew your own clothing, and live in a yurt (because you can’t give money to the mortgage companies, they do bad things too). Then living a life of boycott this and boycott that is nothing but hypocritical.

Now, that being said, I don’t go out writing checks to Komen, nor do I participate in the United Way campaign where I work. But there is a difference between DIRECT support by giving funds to specifically assist an organization, and simply being a casual customer of their products. Just because I buy your toothpaste does not mean I agree with your social agenda. It simply means I like the toothpaste.

I do what I can - but I am not going to lie awake at night fretting over buying my socks at a store that is on the “bad list”.

Pray for those who do bad things in this world - we will always be surrounded by this type of evil. Praying (as someone said above) is far more powerful than withholding the ol’ mighty buck anyway.

~Liza
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Besides if you really boycotted, you shouldn’t use American money because some of what the Government does is bad! And if you didn’t buy a certain brand of toothpaste because of what the company that makes it does, your teeth might rot and fall out for not brushing them.🤷
 
Okay, but will I be causing scandal by bringing my friends to a mall where they can buy stuff from those companies?
 
hopeforfaith said:
Okay, but will I be causing scandal by bringing my friends to a mall where they can buy stuff from those companies?
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We give scandal when we do something wrong or appear to do something wrong. You are doing neither. Someone wrongly *takes *scandal when they are scandalized by something which is not wrong, or too easily, like on hearing of a rumor.

If your friends are the types to be that aware and that concerned, then they should ask you about it, and you can explain. But if they are that way, they might be uncomfortable anyway, and might prefer a different activity.

Overall, go wherever will make your friends happy (within reason, of course!) and have a good time 🙂
 
Thanks for clearing that up. So I guess it is okay to shop at H&M or Zara after all…
 
Wait, but what about morally neutral products? How is it defined? I know we are not obligated to boycott shops if we are buying morally neutral goods. Are sweatshop good considered to be morally neutral?
 
hopeforfaith said:
Wait, but what about morally neutral products? How is it defined? I know we are not obligated to boycott shops if we are buying morally neutral goods. Are sweatshop good considered to be morally neutral?
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We are not obligated to boycott at all.

The sweatshop issue is a problem because of the different value of money in different nations. Yeah, they’re being paid a lot less than they would be here, but if there are people lining up outside the place for a job because for them it’s a lot of money, is it really what we would consider a sweatshop?

Now, it may be that we will hear of some bad case and *decide *that we do not want to buy that product, but we are not *obligated *to boycott. I don’t buy Nestle’s, but I know that the ownership of that company owns a bunch of other companies, and I have no idea what they even are, much less avoid buying their products.
 
hopeforfaith said:
This is a question that I have been wondering about. As Catholics, we should abstain from purchasing sweatshop goods and support fair trade products because we are not to add to anyone’s sufferings, right? (even though if you ask me, sweatshop workers in China are escaping from rural areas where corruption and the three rural problems are making their livelihood extremely hard and sweatshops are an improvement and coperations can’t do much about it)

But then if you think further, how on earth do we know that something is made from a sweatshop? I live in hong long where big brands are everywhere with little possibility that shops like Green America is available. How can I know that this drink I am drinking is not a result from exploitation?

What about Disney? It is not very nice to its cast members, I’ve heard. So should I not go to Disneyland ever? If I am only against its sweatshop products and still go to Disneyland without buying them, will I be also supporting it?

Another thing in Hong Kong, company monopoly is common and these companies have high house prices beyond imagination. They are only focused on making money while many people are unable to buy a flat. But these companies have numerous other services such as supermarkets. I have subscribed to a music service and it is a great alternative to downloading illegal music as it is official and legal but cheap. Will using it make me supporting this company?
Click to expand...
First, I believe too many people (not referring to you) are conditioned to get the quick, easy answer from somebody else on the internet in under 5 minutes. Do the research. There are groups that monitor this sort of thing, however, be careful. There are groups who are biased and while they may include some facts, they are part of the “you should hate America/big corporations/Capitalism” crowd. But unbiased facts are not hard to find. And I think it’s worth the time for all of us to use google to find out. The only trick is the phrasing. Using the right key words can get you a better, more precise answer more quickly.

Example: “sweatshops” foreign 2012

Example 2: “sweatshops” China 2012

Example 3: American companies that use “sweatshops” 2012

Example 4: American corporations that use “sweatshops” 2012

Not all corporations are “bad” per se. But there are some who believe that “if my competitor is making the same product I’m making in China for less and dumping most of his American workers, I should do the same.” And most corporations deserve a look from the standpoint of ethics and we should not cling to the belief that change is impossible.

dailyillini.com/article/2012/01/apple_manufacturing_practices_unethical_company_must_become_transparent

Peace,
Ed
 
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