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Comment by xyzzy123 | Hacker News Reader

Weirdly enough, big companies are our best shot at fighting modern slavery / child labour etc in foreign countries.

If you buy $unbranded thing you have absolutely no idea what went into it.

If you buy from $huge_brand, their supply chains are closely scrutinised by rights groups.

They put out reports, activist investors pressure the company, internal esg & pr teams get antsy and put pressure on the suppliers or drop them.

I kinda hate the future, but basically only huge brands can be held accountable and contribute to ending these labour practices (without regime or legal changes in the source countries, that is).

So uh, support global mega corporations I guess? (and be sure to switch your 401k to an ESG fund) :/

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I call bullshit on this. Our best shot at fighting modern slavery is electing politicians who support ending modern slavery and do not conduct free trade with such countries. Anything else is prioritizing neoliberal free trade over human rights.

I see a parallel over this with climate change. Our best shot at solving climate change is not buying from brands that green wash their image. It is to pass a global carbon tax.

Who are you to call bullshit? A “global carbon tax” isn’t a thing.

We don’t have a world government so carbon taxes are only going to be what nations agree on.

The regulations are already a thing, they're just scoped as corporate reporting requirements.

I'm not aware of any politicians who would not want to end modern slavery or child labour. It's very difficult to enforce these measures internationally so they tend to seek a local entity to hold accountable.

Like most, I would support more regulation in this area.

Well of course politicians don't say they're pro-slavery. They say they're pro-free trade because that's what the globalists who fund their campaigns pay them to be. That free trade with unfree countries leads to slavery is plastered over by economists who assure us free trade makes everyone richer.

You're not wrong that it's probably is easier to scrutinize 1 big company than many small companies' supply chains, I guess. But OTOH, the Supreme Court has a little more muscle than "rights groups" and they gave the all clear to not worry about 3rd world slavery too much (paraphrasing) in Nestlé USA, Inc. v. Doe.

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