Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying CheapRoss, J. Elliot (John Elliot)
Philosophy
Consumers and Wage-Earners: The Ethics of Buying Cheap
Ross, J. Elliot (John Elliot)
Consumers -- United States; Wages; Wages -- United States
"I live, but such a life as ever dies,
I die, but such a death as never ends;
My death to end my dying life denies,
And life my living death no whit amends."
Yet notwithstanding the workman's almost superhuman efforts to avoid
pauperism, once he reaches that abyss he loses all desire to rise from
it. You cannot drive him back into that industrial war which is daily
crushing better and stronger natures.
Such being the situation, is it not an inspiration to the Consumer who
longs to do something for humanity to feel that he is contributing his
mite to keep some workmen from becoming paupers? There are persons, I
know, to whom their utter helplessness in the face of all the social
evils oppressing us to-day, has been the keenest suffering. To them this
doctrine of the responsibility of Consumers and the plans of fulfilling
it have come as a gospel of good news. They have felt that they could
now find rest from their tortures of conscience: they have felt that
they could now have a purpose in life worth living for.
And what if in our sober moments we must admit, that the good we
individually accomplish as regards the workman be small? What if we are
tempted to look upon it as useless? Let us take courage from the fact
that we are members of an organization, that everything that the group
accomplishes is in some way attributable to us. One hundred men
associated together can accomplish much more than those same men
working separately for the same ends. This fact is evident in the case
of a religious community. If the members of these communities were
scattered as individuals over the earth, how paltry would be the results
of all their self-sacrifice and devotion compared with what it is
to-day. And so each individual Consumer, banded with others in an
organization, can feel that all the work of the whole body is to some
extent his. His powers of doing good are multiplied, and the mere fact
of his association with others multiplies their capacities too.
But even if this were not so, the mere fact of realizing this principle
and co-operating with other noble-minded persons in its fulfillment will
be an immense gain to ourselves and will finally result in unexpected
good to society. Simply to know that we are accomplishing some little
mite in the field of preventive philanthropy will be an inspiration in
our lives.
To ask ourselves, not whether a hat be exactly the latest style, not
whether it be absolutely the cheapest we can get, but how it was made,
what effect is our buying it going to have upon the workers and society
in general, will beget an invaluable spirit of self-effacement. A
social conscience will be generated and grow until it becomes a dominant
note in our lives. And from us this gospel of charity and justice, this
good news to men of good will, will spread until it becomes a mighty
force for social amelioration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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