Your electric car may be eco-friendly, but is it ethical?

Looks to me like African slavery is alive and well, thanks in part to the increasing demand for (and price of) raw materials for lithium-ion battery-powered electronics, including electric cars.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/05/africa/congo-cobalt-dirty-energy-intl/

^ The story is a multimedia presentation more than an article, so there isn't really anything I can post here. It details what is going on in Congo, that there is a new gold rush of sorts to mine cobalt, and that conditions are pretty bad.

 

Especially in Libya.

Thanks Clinton.

 

Thanks everyone, really, in and out of politics. The auto makers either don't know or don't care. Trump? Not doing a thing about it, of course. People buying electric cars? In the same boat as the manufacturers, I suppose. Now I'm glad I went with Diesel

 

Why is it up to Trump to solve the modern day African slave trade?

 

Advances in graphene technologies may be a solution.

 

I should hope it isn't.

This story is like those we've seen about tech companies relying on slave labor in China. Come to think of it, so does Ivanka's garment company, doesn't it?

 

Or like the people in the US who support illegal immigration to maintain their slave class.

 

Jobs Americans won't do, they say. I think there is something to be said for that, actually. Plenty of people won't go sweat in the sun if they can work in comfort instead, even if it means earning less. We're spoiled.

 

Put people on welfare out there doing those jobs, or here's an idea: issue worker visas that require employers to pay a decent wage.

We're spoiled because liberals enable the lazy.

I'm always amazed at the progressive proclivity to step over someone dying on the sidewalk to send money to some foreign country.

 

you seem to totally misunderstand. People don't take jobs in mining unless they are better jobs than they had previously. This it's a huge step up.

 

Child labor. Yeah, YUGE step up.

 

it is a huge step up which is why even the NYTimes supports child labor. Working 12 hours a day in a safe heated factory is better than selling your body or scavenging in a dangerous dumb all day. Do you understand?

 

This isn't work in a heated factory. This is mining.

But sure, let's pretend that it's that or dumpster diving and prostitution. Whatever helps us sleep.

 

in Africa where no heat is needed and where child mining is far superior to starving

 

dear, why are you so afraid to tell us what it is that makes people take horrible jobs if not that they are actually better jobs than others available?????