> The lawsuit accuses those companies of "knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children." It has not been tested in court.
Might as well sue the end users too, if that's a viable theory.
Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
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Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#42Do we all feel better blaming the tech companies for this than blaming ourselves, the customers of the tech companies?
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the assumption is that ethical suppliers would be more expensive and that these companies have the margins to pay more.
Yes but more expensive suppliers might not be automatically more ethical. Just throwing money at the problem won't magically fix it on its own without some additional effort, probably just ends up as more fat bonuses at Glencore HQ
If you have a higher budget, you can shop around more. Nobody's assuming that they'd just tip their vendor.
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#44Do we all feel better blaming the tech companies for this than blaming ourselves, the customers of the tech companies?
Uh, yes? You can force millions of consumers to stop buying things or a single company to stop producing them.
Which one is easier?
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#45> The lawsuit accuses those companies of "knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children." It has not been tested in court. Might as well sue the end users too, if that's a viable theory.
sue millions of consumers or one company... seems like a hard choice.
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#46Then the law needs to change. It's unconscionable for this to be happening. You make the buyers of that cobalt start caring, you'll make the producers of that cobalt start caring.
I think you got downvoted because people like Teslas more than they care about African children.
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Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#47Regarding the legal merits of the case, I notice that don't see any coverage of a proposed theory of liability in the article. The lawsuit text is more informative, pointing at a bunch of sections of US Code about forced labor, trafficking, and sale into voluntary servitude — for instance, 18 U.S. Code § 1589 which notes, "(b) Whoever knowingly benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participati…
A quick search shows that past lawsuits against Nestle and other companies for child labor in their supply chain listed consumers as the plaintiffs claiming damage from false advertising and non -disclosure [1]. These cases have ended up being dismissed. The difference is that in this case the children and their families are the actual plaintiffs which presumably changes the legal merits. I still suspect that this ca…
Raise public awareness? I think they are seeking remedy.
Sad that the courts are so slanted in the favor of corporate interests. Why do these cases get dismissed?
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#48Then the law needs to change. It's unconscionable for this to be happening. You make the buyers of that cobalt start caring, you'll make the producers of that cobalt start caring.
I think you got downvoted because people like Teslas more than they care about African children.
I don't care about Teslas. I down voted because the proposal wouldn't be an effective solution.
Instead of trying to impose additional requirements on buyers, a better approach would be to work at the national governmental level through a combination of carrots (foreign aid and advice) and sticks (sanctions and tariffs for countries that don't meet labor standards).
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#49>Perhaps the only tragedy greater than the criminal destruction of the environment and the lives of the people of the Congo by these companies is the fact that it would be a rounding error on their income statements to fix the problem. Eh, I don't think giving more money to the third world mining companies is going to guarantee they're going to stop using child labor. The simplest and least risky decision for the tec…
the liability is with the mining company and national government of Congo. the companies purchasing products can indeed put pressure on both to improve the working conditions of miners but in the end as with nearly every human tragedy, it comes down to the government to take responsibility for its actions and inaction. nothing changes until the local government has to change it.
You literally want to place the blame solely on a third world country for the deaths and disease of all these child laborers when it's our first world addiction to their resources driving the injustice in the first place? Who is in a better economic standing to improve this situation?
Would you have no problem buying ivory, since it's the poacher who acted immorally, and you as the end consumer have no responsibility as to how it was supplied?
I don't throw this word around lightly, but what we are enabling in the Congo is evil, and all so we can drive expensive electric cars and pretend like we're making the world better. It's pathetic.
Re: Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt
#50I feel like this is essentially trying to sue capitalism. Of course most raw materials people get is essentially sourced from exploitation. That's just the result of buying for the cheapest cost. People don't like seeing how the sausage gets made, like the John Oliver segment on children making clothes, if they shut this down it will just pop up again with another company...
If those premises are true, it seems like the only choices available are to accept just about any level of brutality and exploitation as inevitable, or to oppose capitalism.