Ethical Shopping A Fad? A Distraction?

Does going green just mean spending more?

Is ethical consumerism just another form of consumerism?

While it might sound silly to some of you who are visiting a website dedicated to advice and information about ethical shopping and ethical investing; only to find a page offering an opposing view, we feel it is important to always hear both sides of the story.

And to be frank, there are questions that many people do ask and do need a genuine answer to: Is ethical shopping always good? Is it a waste of time? Is ethical shopping a bad idea?

It’s best not to shy away from such questions; so we hope some of the opinions here provide some food for thought; and remember these arguments are only hypothetical!

Facing Up To The Sceptics

Is ethical shopping counter-productive? Is it about middle class snobbery? Could ethical shoppers be doing more?

These are just some of the questions that sceptics of ethical shopping ask.

Bluntly put, many who are interested in politics but have little time for consumerism regard ethical shopping as little more than a fashion craze. Many people are horrified that ethical shopping is a form of consumerism in itself, which it is by its very nature; is part of the capitalist system; and so many people feel that ethical shopping is little more than a distraction to wider, more important political issues.

The critics are not just on the left but on the right too. Right wingers believe in free markets and do not want anyone sticking their noses in the easy flow of capital, flexible employment and the like: all of which can mean exploitation from the point of view of an ethical consumer, if left unchecked.

Does ethical shopping serve as a pointless distraction from the more serious issues of national and international politics? Are there bigger fish to fry where the real decisions are made which will have real impact on the environment and social justice?

Just some of the ideas and questions that we explore:

Is Ethical Shopping Justified?

Are there better ways you could be spending your money? Some would argue that ethical shopping can be an unwise form of investment. The money spent on some expensive items such as a green energy car could have a more beneficial impact if we spent less on such items in the first place, lived a more fugal life and gave our savings to Oxfam and other charities and organisations who are actively involved in empowering workers in the third world.

For many, expensive ethical purchases such as cars and solar panels and other energy efficient products, to even day to day items, often seem little more than a fashion accessory to sceptics of ethical shopping, especially for those who cannot afford them.

Ethical Shopping Is All About Snobbery?

Let’s face it there are people who seem to talk about ethical shopping in a rather hollow way. Ethical shopping is now mainstream and big business. The bags and trinkets and t-shirt carrying slogans can often seem shallow and glib to some.

Some of the products associated with fairtrade and ethical shopping can also seem a little expensive to the average consumer.

Some people argue that there are far too many people now who indulge in buying and showcasing their ethically produced products. Again, which can to some observers, those on the hard left of politics or just those who are politically aware but find themselves outside the mainstream discourse on ethical spending, seem like little more than the following of a craze. Also, at times some people view an over showcasing of ethical purchases as examples of guilt trip behaviour and an ugly form of middle class conspicuous consumption.

Too Much Time On Your Hands

Ethical shopping is about showing off that you are rich? Many ordinary, dare we say it: working class people who are struggling to meet ends meet in a recession, working full-time, looking after families, see the endless indulgence of ethical shopping as being something for people who have far too much time on their hands.

Ethical Shoppers Are Hypocrites

There is an element of hypocrisy involved in some forms of ethical shopping and those who campaign for it. Unfortunately, sometimes the contradiction of what people do and what they say when it comes to ethical shopping is never far beneath the surface.

Contradictory comments, contradictory lifestyles:

We have all seen individuals on television with multiple homes and a jet set lifestyle insisting that we should be doing more to live more ethical and responsible lives as consumers.

We have all seen pop stars and public figures on our TVs promoting a low carbon life for us all while they clock up enormous air miles on their world tours, promoting their books, CDs, etc; which seem to the sceptic more about making them money than saving the world.

Do you know anyone who is an avid spokesperson over lunch about the environment but has four or five foreign holidays a year involving air flights?

Such hypocrisy is often laid at the door of the ethical shopping movement in full, revealing it, harshly, to be hypocritical as well.

Ethical Shopping Is Just Another Consumer Market

Some find the flux of ethical products available as ethical shopping becomes more and more fashionable, to be ridiculous. There seems to be an ethical version of everything these days from toilet rolls to coat hangers to currant buns. At times it seems to observers that many so called ethical shoppers are consuming more of the planet’s resources than those who have little interest in the rights and wrongs of consumerism and also, significantly, less money to spend.

Similar criticisms like these were applied to counter culture hippies in the sixties. In many cases as the hippy culture became more popular, beneath the slogans individuals were often criticised for their activity as very active consumers: fashion clothes, music, ironically propping up the society they were proposing to change.

Ethical Shoppers Are Not Political

Does ethical shopping and the role of the ethical investor in day to day life have little or no impact? If you are an ethical shopper who shops fairtrade; has a solar panel and green vehicle; should you not realise that such activities are just a tip of the iceberg in terms of their impact in creating a better, more sustainable planet?

Should not ethical shoppers who are thinking more local than global become more involved in active campaigning for change on a worldwide, political level?

Consumer power is all well and good, but does doing the right thing in the day to shopping aisles allow the real bad guys to get off Scott free?…the oppressive governments; the companies who are the serious polluters and damage doers.

Campaign Not Shop

Direct action is more important…lobbying MPs for changes in law, campaigning for social justice and environmental justice, for better housing and transport.

What’s more important: being able to buy fairtrade bananas or having a fully integrated transport policy which is subsidised to make it affordable for all?

Nothing Is Really Ethical So Why Bother?

The money you donate to charities goes on fat salaries of overpaid and underworked charity directors? The majority of the money you spend on green products and ethical goods often ends up in middlemen and business people’s pockets; and has little effect on the overall conditions of those it is supposed to help?

The growth of ethical consumerism has led to a glut of products and services claiming to be ethical. How often do we really question what they are and whether they are truly ethical?

Some of the criticisms are worth thinking about. Should we treat ethical claims with more of a healthy degree of scepticism; especially if it is something that is trying to get us to part with our money?

In practice a combination of consumer and political pressure has been shown to force change for the good but part of the answer might also be to get in touch with the real issues and ethics that are important to us; and think more about being an ethical person in all aspects of life and not just as a consumer.

What do you think?