User:TannerGLeser/Ethical consumerism

Final Article
(I tried renaming it as Final Article, its just been so finicky!)

I Bolded everything that is my edit within the paragraph I thought was most appropriate, I also included a reference of only my sources at the bottom of the article.


 * I included the definition of ethical consumerism given by Christopher Kirchhoff into the opening statement because it's from a well known source Brittanica, as well as briefly simplifying the subject; "Christopher Kirchhoff is a Past Fellow of the Program on Science, Technology, and Society at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University." Definition: "Ethical consumerism means a consumer is not only buying the product, but the process with which its made. "


 * My second edit is the inclusion of the quote from the Concise Encyclopedia of Business Ethics on Ethical Consumerism, to me it is a simple way of understanding the depth of Ethical Consumerism, as well as the reasons for it. "The authors of CEBE [Chris MacDonald, Alexei Marcoux] are both philosophers. They both teach ethics in a business school context, and have written about the topic extensively." Edit: "It [Ethical Consumerism] generally implies that purchasing decisions are a way of putting values into action. "
 * Thirdly I found this quote in a scholarly article by Fink/Schubert that i chose specifically because it was disproving an argument by a peer-Hussain, saying ethical consumption is immoral, while a price/quality perspective infers freedom and morality; "So, ceteris paribus, by merely transitioning from being an ethical to a price/quality consumer, you can become a more moral individual."

Assigned (edited) Article:
= Ethical consumerism = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ethical consumerism (alternatively called ethical consumption, ethical purchasing, moral purchasing, ethical sourcing, ethical shopping also associated with sustainable and green consumerism) is a type of consumer activism based on the concept of dollar voting. It is practiced through the buying of ethically-made products that support small scale manufacturers and local artisans, protect animals and the environment, and boycott products that exploit children as workers, are tested on animals, or damage the environment. It was also defined by Christopher Kirchhoff, a Past Fellow of the Program on Science, Technology, and Society at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, as "Ethical consumerism means a consumer is not only buying the product, but the process with which its made." The term "ethical consumer", now used generically, was first popularised by the UK magazine Ethical Consumer, first published in 1989. Ethical Consumer magazine's key innovation was to produce 'ratings tables', inspired by the criteria-based approach of the then-emerging ethical investment movement. Ethical Consumer's ratings tables awarded companies negative marks (and from 2005 overall scores) across a range of ethical and environmental categories such as 'animal rights', 'human rights' and 'pollution and toxics', empowering consumers to make ethically informed consumption choices and providing campaigners with reliable information on corporate behaviour. Such criteria-based ethical and environmental ratings have subsequently become commonplace both in providing consumer information and in business-to-business corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings such as those provided by Innovest, Calvert Foundation, Domini, IRRC, TIAA–CREF and KLD Analytics. Today, Bloomberg and Reuters provide "environmental, social and governance" ratings direct to the financial data screens of hundreds of thousands of stock market traders. The not-for-profit Ethical Consumer Research Association continues to publish Ethical Consumer and its associated website, which provides free access to ethical rating tables.

Spending as morality
Some trust criteria, e.g. creditworthiness or implied warranty, are considered to be part of any purchasing or sourcing decision. However, these terms refer to broader systems of guidance that would, ideally, cause any purchasing decision to disqualify offered products or services based on non-price criteria that affect the moral rather than the functional liabilities of the entire production process. '''Chris MacDonald and Alexei Marcoux, who are both professors of Ethics, and authors of the Concise Encyclopedia of Business Ethics said the following; "It [Ethical Consumerism] generally implies that purchasing decisions are a way of putting values into action." ''' Paul Hawken, a proponent of natural capitalism, refers to "comprehensive outcomes" of production services as opposed to the "culminative outcomes" of using the product of such services.[citation needed] Often, moral criteria are part of a much broader shift away from commodity markets towards a deeper service economy where all activities, from growing to harvesting to processing to delivery, are considered part of the value chain and for which consumers are "responsible".

Criticism
Critics argue that the ability to affect structural change is limited to ethical consumerism. Some cite the preponderance of niche markets as the actual effect of ethical consumerism, while others argue that information is limited regarding the outcomes of a given purchase, preventing consumers from making informed ethical choices.[citation needed] Critics have also argued that the uneven distribution of wealth prevents consumerism, ethical or otherwise, from fulfilling its democratic potential. Julian Fink and Daniel Schubert, two scholars who've written extensively to disprove the connection between price/quality and ethical consumerism and their morality, The following quote explains their reasoning; "So, ceteris paribus, by merely transitioning from being an ethical to a price/quality consumer, you can become a more moral individual. But this is implausible. Suppose that in the situation described...you abandon your social ethical change consumerism by becoming a self-absorbed hedonistic materialist... your utility function no longer includes concern for the wellbeing or rights of others... Should we conceive of this as a way of improving your morality? Surely not. On Hussain’s view, however, [Price/Quality Consumers] in fact represents a panacea for those who infringe democratic requirements qua ethical consumers. This is untenable. ]PQC] alone cannot exempt us from the demands of public morality." A study suggests that "Buying Green" serves as a license for unethical behavior – in their 2009 paper, "Do Green Products Make Us Better People?", Nina Mazar, Chen-Bo Zhong state the following:"In line with the halo associated with green consumerism, people act more altruistically after mere exposure to green than conventional products. However, people act less altruistically and are more likely to cheat and steal after purchasing green products as opposed to conventional products. Together, the studies show that consumption is more tightly connected to our social and ethical behaviors in directions and domains other than previously thought."In a 2010 The Guardian article, British environmental writer and activist George Monbiot argued that green consumers who do not articulate their values are part of "a catastrophic mistake" on the grounds that such consumerism "strengthens extrinsic values" (those that "concern status and self-advancement"), thereby "making future campaigns less likely to succeed".