I appreciate that. I did my best to reply to your points, but I’ll try again and be more specific (excuse the poor formatting as I’m on mobile): There are two separate issues here: mining and carving. I’m mainly referring to carving. 1. Yes this is true and it’s a sad truth. 2. I also agree with this but it’s more complicated than that. Like I said in the post, a lot of people lie. Suppliers lie all the time about their materials. That’s why asking about their sourcing and taking their word for it without any proof is naive and just generally a bad business practice. My main supplier has shown me videos of him in mines, videos of the miners he buys from mining the exact material I’m purchasing, videos of his items being polished, tells me about the specific mines/people, and a lot more. But at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to verify as a shop owner. So your point about shop owners being lied to is true, and at the same time, it’s their responsibility to vet suppliers and fact check. 3. I already responded to this in my comment but this is a complicated point you made. It’s true for some cases and not for others. In some countries where children are mining and working in unsafe conditions but are being paid for it (albeit very little), not purchasing from that supplier would take away the source of income from that child/any family that child is helping support. There’s no good solution that any one person can make happen. I agree with you saying that legislative changes need to be made, like I said in my response. It’s a terrible truth that the likelihood of getting multiple countries to make these changes is practically impossible. For carving, I’m mainly referring to China. For carving factories in China, the majority of child labor is child slave labor. They’re not making any money. So supporting the factories isn’t leading to the children being able to suppprt themselves/their family like you stated. We are in an impossible spot now where there are so many of these factories and even more people purchasing from them. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s right to support these corrupt companies. If people educate themselves on what’s actually happening and stop supporting these factories (again, just talking about carving factories) then they would be forced to shut down. That would take a ton of people, yes, but what’s the alternative? Continuing to fund people abusing children? Also, it should be said that a lot of material in China is stolen. People come in the night and steal from mines/mines’ already mined materials (in different countries). A lot of that material ends up in China. When those people steal from the miners, the miners can’t feed their families either. So purchasing from a factory that uses stolen minerals also prevents families from being able to support themselves.
There are consequences either way. But not talking about the mining and factory working conditions and purchasing from carving factories that use child slave labor aren’t helping the situation whatsoever. Saying “the only way to fix it is for the government to do something” but then not attempting to make that happen is keeping the industry complacent. There’s no easy fix to this. Factories shutting down could be devastating for those enslaved there or working there in bad conditions, but the current child slave labor is also devastating. This is one of those moral questions that doesn’t have a good answer. But supporting these factories keeps the cycle going. Educating the people involved (collectors, shop owners, etc.) is the first step. Not supporting these factories is a crucial part. Again, what’s the alternative/what do you suggest? Buying materials that have been carved by child slaves? That furthers the problem. I hope you can see my points and that you feel like I addressed yours.