ugh why does cheap have to equal evil most of the time?

[CarrieLynne]

walmat...cheap and evil...

but lately I been wondering where BP disappeared to...used to see them around all the time til you know what happened lol

so last night I went to am/pm arco cause they are always cheapest on gas....and as I got ready to swipe my debit card I saw "welcome to BP"

:/ damn...why do we have to pay extra to not support evil?

it should be cheaper to support good companies not the bad ones
cheaper to eat healthy not poorly etc


this world is so ass backwards

[RKP5637]

1. "This world is so ass backwards" sums it up well. I think that a zillion times a day. n/t

[Tumbulu]

2. I Know I know- today I shopped at Walmart

something I never do, but I was with the person who was fixing my truck and he insisted on getting the battery there. It was the cheapest battery, easiest to return- at least this was his thinking and he is the mechanic....

I was having the very same thoughts today.

But it is not cheaper to eat healthy, because raising animals humanely and properly really costs more money. Farming without toxic chemicals costs way more as well.

It is sad.

[ManiacJoe]

3. I take it that you did not know that BP owns Arco?

[Capitalocracy]

4. Barrier to entry.

They own the means of production. You could actually pay workers a decent wage, make a decent living, and sell products at a competitive price compared to the cheap stuff (although slave labor is hard to beat even with a huge profit margin), but you need infrastructure to do it. Even if you could borrow the money to purchase/build that infrastructure from a financial institution or investors, they're not going to give it to you unless you have a business model with the same kind of profit margin as the ones that exist today.

Even differing price points don't always mean less evil products... in many cases, cheap knockoffs and expensive brands are put together in the same factories using the same slave labor. The more expensive brands just have a higher price point, smaller customer base, perhaps higher quality, and similar profit margins.

But if you could get legislation banning bad practices like slave labor or destroying the environment, then businesses would have to change their model to stay in the legal market. That's really the best way to do it, although getting enough people (with enough money) who care enough to pay more for less evil products coming from people who have to pay as they go, you can build up an infrastructure and the kind of economy of scale that would make it possible for ethical businesses to operate. But that takes a long time and a lot of people who are willing to pay a premium for ethical consumption.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. Isn't it self-evident? There are lots of situations where the ethical decision is not profitable

In any business, you face many decisions.

In some of those decisions, the ethical choice and the most profitable choice are the same one. Everyone - companies and individuals - is going to make the same decisions in those situations.

In other decisions, the ethical option and the most profitable one are not the same. People or organisations who choose the profitable option in those situations will have lower costs and higher profits, and hence be able to undercut those who make the ethical choice.


What can be done about this? Well, consumer awareness and ethical trade organisations help a little - *not* by encouraging companies to act ethically when it isn't profitable to do so, but by making it more profitable to act ethically. But that's only a band-aid, and I don't think there's much more that can be done.

If you want your goods made ethically, it *will* always cost more.