Yet Another Reminder That There are No Ethical Choices in Modern Capitalism

Are you reading this on a computer or smartphone? That means you’re a terrible person!

Okay, maybe you’re not a terrible person just for using a computer. However, give me a minute to illustrate the point.

In a recent court decision, several big tech firms were found not liable for the forced child labor (read: slavery) required to mine the cobalt they use to manufacture their devices. The article is an interesting read, if a bit technical on the legal side of things, but in a nutshell, the plaintiffs (several current and former child slaves, among others) did not adequately prove that Apple and others were actively complicit in the whole “child slavery” thing and therefore didn’t have standing to seek damages against Apple et al.

I’m going to hold back on commentary on the premise of whether or not Apple and the like should be made to compensate current and former child slaves based on their roles in the supply process. I am working on the assumption that the courts followed the law as written in this case (although that assumption is not a given lately).

I have a lot of feelings on the laws as written, though, and while I am not nearly qualified enough to comment, I tend to worry about a legal system that protects enablers of slavery. Slavery is not acceptable in any case, whether it’s children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the subjugation of Uighurs in China, Andrew Tate’s alleged participation in human trafficking, or any other instance of slavery.

Any law that attempts to justify slavery or otherwise sweep it under the rug is inherently wrong and unjust, and I don’t care whose kids feel uncomfortable about it. If you’re not feeling uncomfortable about the history of slavery and the things that happened to slaves, you’re not reading history, you’re reading a fairy tale, and it’s a disservice to that history.

And, while I understand that there are a lot of legal intricacies in that case that I don’t understand, I feel like the whole thing — both the legal case and the article — sort of buries the lede a bit. You know, with the whole “child slavery is wrong” thing being a bit absent in the commentary. That’s a whole other thing, though, as we’re here to talk about a system that enables child slavery in the first place.

It is an endless frustration to me that, in a world with marvelous technology like smartphones and generative AI, child slavery still exists. In fact, it is those very things — smartphones, laptops, and the typical tech bro’s insatiable need for more and better computers to run their AI ventures — that enable the continuation of child slavery.

We, the public, demand newer and better devices year after year, and those devices need cobalt in their manufacturing process. That cobalt has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere has a solid chance to be the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And, because demand is high and the cost of child slavery is minimal, the people who mine cobalt can make significant amounts of profit by, again, enslaving children.

There are other bits and bobs that we, the consumer, demand that are subject to slavery and child labor. Do you eat chocolate? There’s a child slavery problem there. Drink coffee? Plenty of child labor and slavery in the coffee industry. Eat fish? There’s plenty of slavery in the fishing industry too.

If you’re concerned about environmental impact, cobalt and lithium, both key elements in a lot of tech, are horrible for the environment in terms of their production. Consumers have their role in reducing environmental impact — think hybrid cars and other “green” choices — but industry contributes much more damage to the environment than every consumer worldwide.

For example, we are largely aware of the impact of factory farms on the environment — cow farts and the like. However, there are also power plants using outdated technologies (fossil fuels and the like) that contribute massively, and plenty of industries produce massive amounts of waste that is dumped in landfills and water supplies. The sheer amount of plastic we use is mind-boggling.

And, while we can try to patronize companies that match our values, ones that use green tech and slavery-free components, we cannot possibly get to a point where 100% of the products we use are sourced 100% ethically. The global supply chain is just not built for that.

We have built a world where profits are more important than people. As such, there is an incentive to pay people as little as possible to produce the many consumer goods that Americans and people in other industrialized nations consume. Slavery is literally free labor, after all, and maintaining good, safe working conditions is just an unnecessary expense.

We also like to think that America, the so-called “greatest country in the world,” is free from this sort of thing. It’s not, though. First off, slavery is still legal in America, explicitly so, even. Like, it’s written into the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that it’s still legal in certain circumstances.

Second, there are loads of horrible crimes against the labor force in America all the time. Wage theft is the largest form of theft in America right now, outpacing all other theft and shoplifting crimes by a landslide. You’d never know it if you asked the corporations stealing wages, of course — they’re more focused on keeping your attention on an overblown shoplifting “epidemic.”

Finally, if you think that all of this stuff — which is just the stuff that we know about — should be the source of major punishments for corporate perpetrators, think again. Corporations generally know that they’re breaking the law when they do it, but they don’t care because government fines are cheaper than doing things legally. They can literally do better financially by breaking the law for decades and paying a meager fine compared to the massive profits they make along the way.

And, of course, the shareholders are the only people that matter in the grand scheme of things, at least to the big corporate interests that enable everything from wage theft to human rights abuses like slavery. They have loads of money and lobbyists to throw at whatever problem pops up, whether it’s paying fines for breaking the law or covering up ties to that whole child slavery thing.

Apparently, whenever they said “won’t somebody think of the children,” they didn’t mean children in other countries getting mangled in cobalt mines. Just their kids who might have to feel a bit uncomfortable by learning about the slaves that have enabled and continue to enable our daily lives.

I wish I had an answer, but again, there is simply no completely, 100% ethical life in this, the year 2024. Damn near everything we buy has some sort of ties to a horrible human rights atrocity or environmental nightmare, and there is basically nothing to be done about it. This is how the system is designed — to enable the capitalists and 1% at the top of society to continue making money on the backs of both middle and low-income Americans and child slaves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alike.

We do not matter to the system — we are just cogs in a blood machine that prints money for the Bezoses and Musks of the world. And, by simply existing within that system, we are continuing to enable it. There is basically no escape, either — aside from going 100% off the grid and being entirely self-sustaining with 100% stuff you made, hunted, foraged, and caught yourself.

So yeah, there is basically nothing to be done about it but to rage against it. That doesn’t mean that you should just give up and become a nihilist, though.

I am a firm believer that people are generally good, cooperative, and creative as a whole, and that the 1% who hoard resources and money are the outliers. I also believe that the scales will inevitably tilt toward progress and justice in the end.

What does that mean, though? It means two things. First off, although I might be a mote of dust in the grand scheme of things, I can always choose which side of the scale my mote of dust lands on. That matters. It might not be a lot, but it’s something, and that’s more than would happen if I chose the path of nihilism.

Second, while there is a lot of injustice in the world and a lot of powerful and well-resourced people working to keep that injustice in place, they cannot win if we all work at it. As I am prone to saying, none of us is as strong as all of us, and if we all put our mote of dust on the side of justice and push, we can keep things moving in that direction.

It is a slow, arduous process, and it is easy to get discouraged when there isn’t much happening right away. However, while the wheels of justice turn slowly, they do turn, and it is our work, our effort, our pushing things in that direction that keep those wheels turning.

We might be tiny cogs in a capitalist blood machine, but one small cog can move a lot of big cogs down the line if applied correctly, and a lot of small cogs working together can move heaven and earth. Put another way, we all imagine the butterfly effect where a small action in the past can have a huge impact in the present, but we don’t think that a small action in the present might have a huge impact in the future.

Enough motes of dust can outweigh every piece of ill-gotten gold that those in power have hoarded at our expense, so never ever think that your voice or presence doesn’t matter. It absolutely does. We might all be cogs in the capitalist blood machine, forced to participate in an unjust, cruel system, but if enough of us turn the right way, we can get it working for us again.

I’ll end by reiterating some of the things I said above: none of us by ourselves is as strong as all of us together, and while the wheels of progress and justice turn slowly, they do turn through the combined efforts of the oppressed and downtrodden. Always remember: none of us are free until all of us are free.

Be well out there.

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