So they DO have something to complain about; so what's the beef with them complaining about it? Because they're not using your perspective? You're complaining that they're not looking at the issue through the perspective of others, so aren't you doing the same thing?
The life experiences of people on the other side of the planet isn't more tangible than your relatives' life experiences which have borne witness to the suckiness that you acknowledge they've experienced. If a parent loses one child in a car accident, are you going to tell him to "stfu" because another parent somewhere lost two children in a car accident?
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/06/01/astonish...
[2]https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-examples-of-dark-humour
For decades Capitalism has pushed manufacturing jobs overseas first and into the arms of robots second, and also robots overseas for double savings. In those same decades, more and more of the wealth has been concentrated in the super-rich, while the middle class has struggled to continue to exist in any meaningful way. Regular people are satiated with cheaper and cheaper products made in overseas markets, but there's still an overwhelming sense of "broke" permeating societies in the developed world.
Eventually the rich are going to have to be willing to let some of the money flow back into larger society, if for no other reason than there will be no more consumers for even their cheapest of goods. This problem goes double as China continues it's rapid industrialization, and begins ascending itself to where it's labor is no longer cheap enough, and capitalism now turns its gaze to even less developed countries for cheap manufacturing. But, this activity itself is what causes industrialization and the rise in cost of labor; and there are a finite number of countries.
As usual though no capitalists are thinking in long term goals. Just get the money now, the most you can now, right now, before the whole thing goes toppling over.
Even the people that could buy ethical don't do. The previous century dilluted some important links between people and created a bit too much of a race to the bottom.
Because it's exhausting, and it's made to be that way on purpose. Brands within brands within brands, shell companies within shell companies, producers selling to distributors selling to distributors selling to distributors.
Forget shopping ethically, I think most people would be hard pressed to tell you where anything they've bought, regardless of prior thought, actually came from.
Slaves are property. For all the many, many awful things that are wrong in China there is no slavery.
Minimum wage laws are not economically binding in less developed countries except sometimes for the professional managerial class. They sure as hell aren’t binding in Communist countries like China or Vietnam. You need a strong and powerful state to enforce minimum wage laws. If you can’t manage to vaccinate all the children in your country the laws may be on the books but they won’t be followed.
Serfdom was abolished in 1861, so no the USSR did not go from serfdom to the space race.
But that's an aside, the point is that exploitative labour practices come about because of what @netsharc says. You've sidestepped his and my point.
If it was you or your children in a sweatshop you mightn't be so gung-ho.
Capitalism is about private ownership of the means of production. It often goes hand-in-hand with free markets, but they're not the same thing.
As an example, interest rate fixing by central banks in DM countries is anathema to free markets and price discovery; yet ownership of production is privatized.
Just let these definitional arguments go, they’re not interesting or valuable.
As a general principle agree your definitions before you lock horns and you'll start getting somewhere, if no further than agreeing to disagree.