Steve Jobs, Fair Trade and porn

A friend of mine posted a comment about foxcon on Facebook as part of his praise of Steve Jobs. It spawned a flurry of defenses of Apple, but many didn’t really get his point. The elephant in the room is conspicuous consumption.
When we buy a product, do we share the guilt of the production chain?
– Suicides at foxconn?
– communities that are at the mercy of the coffee industry?
– human trafficking, linked with the sex industry?
– if we don’t buy these products, will 3rd economies collapse?

I heard a medical ethicist talk about IVF treatment years ago. He said that you can’t be against abortion yet take part in IVF because the research that his technology is based on is rooted in abortion. How much of our current medical practices are based on nazi experiments?

These are vexing questions, and could lead to a monastic lifestyle – if it weren’t or the fact that the monks probably encouraged the crusades. (a joke in quite bad taste…)

What do we do? What can we buy? Who do we trust? Is it possible to be guilt free?

Well, conspicuous consumption is ugly. It’s not very good for the New Zealand economy. it would better if all that money was invested in making things that other countries could conspicuously consume.

What do I do? Well, I live one day at a time. I sincerely don’t want to hurt people, and I believe that that’s actually the bit that counts. It’s my intention that I’m concerned about. I give to World Vision. I use my vote to encourage China to be more transparent. I fight for the innocent, but I let God judge the guilty.