It's true. It is very hard to think of any product that doesn't have some kind of ethical issues going on with it. I guess it all comes down to taking a certain level of personal responsibility for your actions and purchasing only those things that are necessary for your job/survival. If enough consumers lower the demand, then the supply ( and all the ethical issues) going on with it also decreases.
I wonder if any other stuff could be done for these communities. I assume they are forcing their kids to do this dangerous work because they are in such a dire situation financially they would starve without the additional income. I cannot imagine what else would drive a mother to allow her child to do that. Stopping buying the products is a good first step, but there must be more.
Good point. The article I linked in my other comment talks about how the company Lush decided to switch to synthetic mica. However, they didn't do anything to undo the damage they had already caused and try to do something for the communities they were exploiting before.
There is no easy solution. But, I do think consumers should put pressure on these makeup companies to do something for those communities. I think the average person really underestimates the power of many consumers coming together. It always goes back to supply and demand. If enough consumers demand something, the companies will have to budge.
"Capitalism is exploitative. It doesn't know how to be anything else."
Definitely, and it's not even a bug - it's a feature. When it started, child labour was common in the West, and over time it got banned, and as unions formed, conditions seemed to get better. But with a global economy, a lot of companies just moved their operations oversees, so we get the system today: they extract resources elsewhere, they make products in factories with less labour laws, and then sell them for profit in the West. When people find out about shell companies and offshore tax havens - they move them. When people hear about things like the Bangladesh collapse in 2013 or child labour in fast fashion and the like - the companies say their contractors did it, fire them, and hire someone else - who just repeats the process. The companies only concern is profit, and it doesn't pay to be ethical. They only pretend to care when it could affect their profit margins.
its a tough one because you dont want kids working but in a lot of these countries if they didnt their family would starve as theres no social security system.
I've seen similar stories in enough industries to really wonder if child labor isn't part of every industry, somehow.
Capitalism is exploitative. It doesn't know how to be anything else.