Would you still buy from a company if you knew that their products were made by child slaves or any kind of slavery?

No, I would not.

That being said, I am embarrassingly uninformed about how the products I buy are manufactured. So maybe I am supporting child slavery and don’t know it.

I buy nearly all my clothes at the second hand store, so if somebody else bought it new, then I suppose the answer is yes.

You do if you buy at Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Sears, KMart, etc…etc…

No, also because we’re bringing this up, I’ve heard that Old Navy makes their clothing from child slaves. One of my friends who used to work there (and who will never again) found a note in a box with child-like writing that said “help.” After that she quit and never stepped foot there again. Neither will I.

Many do. From Ralph Lauren to Gap. Here’s an interesting and sad article on child slavery in India.

No way!!!!! I won’t even buy products that I deem unnecessarily tested on animals… much less child cruelty!!

I know in some places, people are very very poor and what I buy contributed to their sustenance so I don’t feel all bad. I do feel badly for exploited factory workers but for the small child who can fully facet colored stones or weave rugs with their families and earn some money instead of begging or starving or being prostituted in the streets?

@hungryhungryhortence Good point! Maybe our standards say they are mistreated, and their by standards they feel a job is a blessing.

@hungryhungryhortence; to some extent that is true, but companies that profit from the very cheap labor of slaves or impoverished workers wield a powerful influence on our government and on those of the countries in which they maintain their factories, to ensure that those people are kept in slavery or poverty, and that rival economic opportunities are kept out so that wages are not driven up. Far better to seek out a company that pays fair wages to its workers. (I say this in absolute hypocrisy, however, as I have made no effort to research the origins of the products I purchase).

@BBSDTfamily: to me, it’s all about the treatment and who is making the choices. Children sold in work by their families, that’s very sad to me. Young children going off to work instead of school is very sad to me but I’d hate to see them starve when they have no other way than mean and dangerous ways.

When I was in Egypt they showed us shiney faced children making rugs and tried to sell them to us. Broke my heart.

I would do my best to not further enable businesses that profit by exploiting children.

No

It’s basically what likeradar said. It’s easy to come here and say “I’d never buy this or that” but in reality we all buy clothes made in India, and use lipstick that was tested on animals, sit on chairs made from Rainforest wood, and drink coffee that came from exploited farmers or wear diamonds from mines with working conditions even worse than those on the average Roman galley.

At the end of the day the one thing we look at when buying the product is the price. And what we really care about is our own everyday lives, our own budget when it comes to shopping, and whether we’ll get enough stuff for our money.

If it were easy to find out the source of the items we buy, we could make better choices, but that information is deliberately hidden from us.

now I wonder how impoverished the workers from these companies would generally be if they made more than a few bucks a day…