It should be way easier to source materials without exploiting and endangering people. Fairphone has a lot of work to do which they wouldn’t have to if other companies would treat their workers right.
Fairphone is really expensive for the hardware performance you’re getting. Now, I’m absolutely fine with this, given that I bought one, but it does highlight the reason companies and consumers in our capitalist world toss ethics to the wayside. In the end, it’s still a completely selfish reason that shouldn’t happen, but I don’t see it not happening unless capitalism itself is abolished.
You don’t need to abolish capitalism completely to stop anti consumer and anti environment practices. There’s such a thing as social capitalism.
You “just” need to stop with untethered capitalism and disaster globalism. Tax corporations. Make them pay for the resources they extract from the planet. Make them responsible for providing repair manuals and parts and recycling old devices.
Twenty years ago it would have been unthinkable that a phone or TV doesn’t get updates after two years and becomes trash. We have to go back to that.
Corporations effectively can do what they want. We need to work together on a global scale to stop that. Educate people.
It’s not easy and it won’t get any easier unless there are significant investments in ethical/ecological resource extraction.
Fairphone at least allows us to know the price of ethics.
Fairphone at least allows us to know the price of ethics.
That’s very true. They’re transparent. 99% of cellphone makers are intransparent and shady and outsource the costs of ethics via unethical methods onto people who they don’t pay.
