A few thoughts on consumer ethics and the new trade war
2025-04-06
For most of my adult life I've made it a point to actively boycott companies that seemed to have shitty ethics. It's difficult because capitalism is shitty at it's root so I don't think that ethical consumerism within capitalism is a solution to the problem. I don't want to be stuck in the lesser evil. But the problem is systemic. And so I've tried to just limit consumption generally which is, of course, better for the environment anyway. Better to use stuff as long as possible, repair and buy used when possible. Most of my clothes and shoes were passed down or purchased used. In fact, much of the stuff in my tiny house was acquired that way. Purchasing new is my last resort.
I think most of us know too much get's thrown far too early. It's fundamental to our culture of consumption. We trash perfectly usable objects just because. And on top of the waste most don't seem to consider where products come from. Made in a sweatshop by children? Shrug. It doesn't register for most. Step into any big box store and you're surrounded by products shipped in from offshore factories that you know nothing about. The source of the labor, the likely environmental degradation and climate emissions are not on most people's minds when they put something in their cart. Unethical, thoughtless hyper-consumption is at the core of capitalism and most of our planetary-wide crises. There's no serious discussion in the nations of the global north to change this. The vast majority, certainly those in the US, just don't seem to care.
In the early days of 2025 we find ourselves in a new, very deliberate shake-up of the global economy. It goes without saying that the current crop of idiots in the White House are not attempting degrowth or anything resembling a climate solution. But it seems increasingly likely their trade war will result in something between deep recession and depression for some nations. I'll not pretend to understand the scope of what's coming but it seems likely that they've broken the smooth operation of the global economy. Which is to say that production and consumption will slow for awhile. Likely a long while.
How does all this play out over time? I have no idea. I'm just a fucking goofball living in the woods. I spend most of my time talking to my dog, my cat and any squirrels that will pretend to listen. But I do think it's fairly obvious that the status quo of the past 70+ years was not sustainable. That US foreign, domestic and economic policy was not concerned with long-term human and ecological health, human rights or global social justice. Nor were US based multinationals. The status quo was charging into faster into a deepening polycrisis with the climate emergency at the center of it all. We were going in the wrong direction.
Again, I know that the cheeto and his fuckwits care not a lick about the climate crisis. They most certainly do not care about human rights or social justice. But as I pointed out, most US citizens also have not cared about their own personal conduct in relation to the global crises we helped create by living as we do. Our lifestyles our built upon global inequality and unsustainable over-use of resources. So while we should all rightly criticize the policies of the current administration we should also remember that, the vast majority of the US have conducted themselves in a way of life that shows little consideration for those we share a planet with. Be it other species on the verge of extinction, other humans in the Global South paying the price of extreme climate change or our future children. My fellow citizens of the US, generation to generation, have failed to take on any kind of responsibility. The response is always the same: It's not our fault, it's the system, it's government policy, it's corporate profit seeking.
It's all of us and all of that. A government "by the people, for the people" is not compatible with a culture that emphasizes, to the extreme, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". The first is about taking personal and collective responsibility, the other leads to the abandonment of that responsibility.
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