Living “ethically”
I was thinking on the train on the way home that a fundamental economic principal that Christian must live by is that we will not benefit from injustice. Then, I began to think of how I had gained from the mistreatment of others just today:
- My clothing, my bed sheets, and all other textiles I came in contact with over the day were almost certainly made overseas by workers in appalling conditions. The cotton farmers were probably paid just enough to survive.
- All the electronic equipment I use – the laptop I write this on, my PC at work, and my MP3 player – contain coltan. Which has contributed to most of the funding of the conflict in the Congo.
- The pharmaceuticals I use are protected by IP property laws which prevent 3rd world countries from creating generic versions that would save millions of lives.
- The petrol and electricity I use contribute to global pollution. Pollution always hits the poor hardest, and if global warming is even slightly probable it reflects a significant social justice issue.
- The fashion I wear reinforces the ludicrous notion, created by cleaver marketers, that some people are ‘ugly’. This has a huge impact on self-esteem and wasted money.
This doesn’t include the implicit disregard for life created by spending money and time and effort on my own comfort whilst ignoring the basic needs of others. Nor does it take into account that even playing a part in the work-advertise-spend treadmill contributes to the overall decline of society, as we dedicate ourselves more to the accumulation of stuff than to sustaining relationships.
It makes me thing a lot about what it really means to live without doing so at another’s expense and the cost of living “ethically”.
