138 points

Anyone voluntarily participating in the US for-profit prison system is, almost assuredly, a problematic person with questionable morals.

It’s literally making money off of slavery. If you would not be proud to call yourself a slave-owner, I’d hope you would also not be proud to invest in slavery.

Royal “you,” by the way. Not OP, specifically.

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9 points

In a culture where almost everyone is wearing clothes made by children working 14 hour days who occasionally burn to death because fire exits would cost too much, this seems to me, an odd line to draw.

Might just be me but I’m not sure I see much of a difference between slave investor and wearing slave labour.

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58 points

I think the difference is, you can CHOOSE not to invest in slave labor. If 100% of the clothes are made by slave labor, what are the other options? Be naked? You’ll get arrested, and now by US law, YOU’RE the slave labor.

Whereas nothing is forcing you to invest in slavery.

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8 points

But they aren’t all made by slave labor. You only have to spend 3-5x as much. Not a problem if you buy %80 less clothes.

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3 points

Not 100% of clothes directly benefit slave labour. For the price conscious, there are thrift shops/second hand clothes almost everywhere and ethical clothes available online for a bit more (but generally less than brand name stuff that’s expensive and still made by child slaves.)

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-12 points

Whereas nothing is forcing you to invest in slavery.

We all have to do something to survive.

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20 points

I don’t disagree with you that slave labor is bad regardless of who, what, where, how. I disagree, however, that there’s not much difference between purchasing products you need and investing in a business.

Some folks can’t afford anything except cheap clothing/household goods from overseas, where they are often made in sweatshops with slave and/or child labor; it’s not their fault that they can’t afford to purchase ethical products. No one needs to invest in a business, though, so choosing to invest in one that deals in slavery is that investor’s fault.

For those of us who can afford ethically-sourced/made items, though, I agree that it’s quite similar. I have no excuses other than people are, as a whole, not good to each other. :(

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2 points

I fully excuse folks who are really struggling. Though given thrift shops are a dime a dozen, I don’t entirely think it’s a free pass.

Sorry, this one just bugs me. I absolutely hate that our culture has this huge blind spot to the very real exploitation that so many people engage in but we’ll simultaneously get furious about sins that are, in comparison, fairly minor.

Investing in something evil is reprehensible but I put it on about the same realm as buying an expensive slave made product. At least for the investment, maybe it’s for your kids or something rather than looking cool.

Really appreciate the reasoned response though!

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Difference is, if you invest in Apple and find out they use slave labor, you are still primarily investing in a phone production industry. Investing in prison labor is just that, slave labor. A phone company can eventually stop using slave labor, but prison labor is always slave labor.

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10 points

Huge difference between not being able to afford the right thing, and being able to afford the right thing and instead investing in the really bad thing.

Kind of like how I have to gas up but I would never invest in the oil industry.

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3 points

But there are non slave alternatives all over. For the price conscious, there are thrift shops, facebook marketplace etc. Otherwise, there’s tons of ethical clothing available online and if you live in a city, probably in some stores near You.

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There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. There is no ethical investing, either.

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3 points

*yawn

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7 points

Yeah, it’s pretty boring, that’s why they call it “a boring dystopia.”

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2 points

Orlly now?

Yeah, there are a lot of big cheaters right nowz doesn’t mean All of it is

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81 points
*

What does it mean “as left as they come”? When you’re interested in profiting from current slave labour and future concentration camps.

Bad isn’t even a category here, you’re a wannabe fascist profiteer

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64 points
*

Short answer: Yes

Long Answer: Good lord. Yes, it would be something a bad person would do.

In effect, any gains you make will be blood money. Have fun with that on your conscience.

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56 points

“listen. I don’t WANT Hitler to commit mass genocide. But I am going to fund the company of the gas chambers he plans to use. Because I benefit from it”.

It’s not a one to one comparison but um. Yeah.

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2 points
*

Buying stock is not funding the company though unless the company is issuing new stock. The company already took the cash during the IPO. The only thing buying shares does is affect the price. So it will make some evil shit stain who is the founder of the company wealthier.

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5 points

It’s a bit more nuanced. Buying the stock increases the stock price which makes issuing stock a better deal for the company in case they want to expand operations. It also makes stock buybacks less likely.

So if they issue stock OP is indirectly funding the company. If OP prevented a buyback and the money went into investments such as a new prison OP has an different effect. Otherwise there’s no effect.

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1 point

I was coming to say that also.

The stock market is nothing more than gambling on the public (rich people) sentiment about how well that company is going to do. It’s similar to how there is gambling on who will win the presidency, and does not affect the outcomes.

Buying stock is not investment, the money that the company recieves comes from issuing the stock. Your money does not fund the evil things that the company does, unless you are paying for goods/services from that company. But, I have seen that stock price influences the decisions of leadership inside the company. Your individual action will not influence the stock price.

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1 point

While I admit that I used to think trading was gambling I now know that while there is an element of gambling, there are a lot of measurable factors that make the “gambles” much more informed, even market psychology to some extent.

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47 points
*

Yes.

Investing to make money off of other’s suffering is never justified.

You may as well scream “FUCK YOU, GOT MINE” a little louder.

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