You make sure you never order fish off the Environmental Defense Fund's "Do Not Eat" list. You wouldn't dream of wearing clothing unless it's certified sweatshop free. And we won't even get you started about your love of fair trade coffee.
So, popular blogger Tom Foremski asks, why don't you care more about where your gadgets come from?
"We reap the benefits in the form of cheap digital gadgets, gizmos and computers." Foremski writes, "We have absolutely no idea about all the blood, sweat and human suffering that went into creating our digital devices."
Foremski points out companies like Apple, Dell and HP do have agreements with their third-party factories not to employ children, and all insist on certain safeguards. However, as recent reports indicate, not all is well at the mega-factories owned by Foxconn, which make iPads and other devices. At least nine suicides have been reported so far this year at the factories in Shenzen.
Would you have to pay more for a fair trade mp3 player? Perhaps, says Foremski, but considering it wasn't that long ago we were paying thousands of dollars for a laptop that's now priced in the low hundreds, "surely we should be able to afford to pay a Fair Trade premium on electronics without too much suffering on our part."
