Questions of Morality

Q001 | June 26, 2015

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Is a company blameworthy for outsourcing its production in favor of a supplier from a country where human rights and labour international standards are not strictly observed or where political and social values are in contradiction with those publicly proclaimed by the company itself?

Are Apple and Nike, for example, blameworthy for outsourcing their production to Chinese companies for the sake of higher profits? What makes a company blameworthy in such a situation? The mere idea of pursuit of profit or the fact that this pursuit is “by any means”, i.e., knowingly affecting others? Or that fact that by outsourcing their production comes with a high cost in their home countries, where workers are left jobless?

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