Death Crystals (1 Viewer)

Uncle Gizmo

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https://www.iflscience.com/environm...s-for-the-environment-and-local-communities-/

This article suggests that buying something from a foreign country(s) is causing distress, hardship and possibly genocide to certain groups of people in those countries.

I fail to see the importance of not buying them, as I am sure that the perpetrators will find some other way of causing distress hardship and genocide. It's not like they need an excuse to be corrupt, pathological people, that already exists in them whether they get money for this that or the other.

Look at it another way, if these oppressed miners become valueless because they can no longer sell the gems, then what's to stop these pathological genocidal people from just killing them all?

Secondly it sorted follows the typical attitude I see everywhere these days in that it's like the "me too" thing, it's "you are doing something wrong" therefore you are bad and you should stop. I hate you, I am going to kill you your wife and your children and your grandchildren!

But people don't recognise something that's even worse, it's very easy to point at someone and say you shouldn't be doing this you shouldn't be doing that!

But what about what you're not doing? There are billions of people in the world suffering, barely enough to eat, low standards of education, sanitation, health services.

For some reason that's not bad, the ignoring of it, the brushing of it to one side, it's not bad because we all do it.

It only becomes bad when you can pick on a group and say you're bad because you're doing this or that or the other!

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NauticalGent

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Careful now Tony...let's not introduce logic and pragmatics into a topic. It only confuses the issue!
 
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AccessBlaster

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https://www.iflscience.com/environm...s-for-the-environment-and-local-communities-/

This article suggests that buying something from a foreign country(s) is causing distress, hardship and possibly genocide to certain groups of people in those countries.
The writer is worried more about the environment, the people are just an after thought. They mention the people so you will read the article.

"Healing Crystals" Bring Bad Vibes For The Environment And Local Communities
 

kevlray

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I do a little bit of rock collecting for the beauty of the rocks. I also have a rock tumbler and have made a little bit of jewelry with a few of the rocks that I tumbled. I have bought a couple of geodes, not for any mystic abilities that someone my claim that they have. I just like how they look. I watched a special version of Gold Rush on TV where one of the miners (Paker) has gone to other countries to see how they mine gold. Saw some pretty bad situations in New Guinea. Mining gold is pretty destructive on the land. Hopefully (as least here in the USA), I can only hope that they do some sort of land restoration after they are finishing mining it.
 

The_Doc_Man

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If you follow that logic, then we should clearly keep the illegal immigrants and legal but severely underpaid itinerant farm workers out of the USA since their presence allows them to be shamelessly exploited. We should not eat foods picked that way.

Unlike death crystals and blood diamonds, though, these folks provide food and keep the prices down in grocery stores by taking the jobs at low wages. So if we do boycott such food providers, they will either go out of business, which eliminates a cheaper source of food, or they will be forced to pay more for labor, raising the cost of food.

There is also the reputation of clothing and shoes manufactured in various countries in southeast Asia. Again, the "sweat shops" hire people at really cheap salaries and those clothes make it to us in various department stores that have lower-price brands. Maybe we should only buy more expensive clothing - though often the difference is more about whose label is in the clothes, not who actually made them.

Is there a line to be drawn on refusing to pay for the cheapest goods because the labor used to bring those goods to market was paid low wages? If so, where and how do you draw it? I have no claim of special knowledge on how to draw that line, but I know that economic forces have driven people to compete for money by undercutting prices and finding cheaper ways to make things for not years but centuries - or perhaps even for millennia.
 

Mark_

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Please remember, there is also the other side of this issue.

Several companies have been told to NOT pay high wages for low skilled labor in under developed countries. The reason is this is destructive to the local economy and will cause increased poverty as these "Affluent" shoe makers become a dominant factor locally. Everyone will want to go into shoe making to the detriment of required services. Once the big companies pull out, the economy crashes and there is massive economic hardship.
 

The_Doc_Man

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An interesting facet, Mark_, and worthy of consideration in the "big picture."
 

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