system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is it worth trying to buy ethically?

I've heard the term "there's no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism" and I believe it. However some choices can be more ethical than others. Buying from a farmers market is more ethical than shopping at Walmart. However being or trying to be more ethical in spending usually means spending more money and time than you would otherwise. My question is because the system perpetuates unethical practices is it worth trying to buy things in a way that is, relatively speaking, more ethical?
gpt
**Neoliberalism** is one economic philosophy that would argue that, yes, you can use market forces in order to steer broader societal change. Moreover, stronger articulations of this idea argue not only that market forces can steer societal change, but that they are the preferable way to do so (compared to, say, big government).

So a neoliberal view of 'ethical' consumption is that consumers can 'vote with their wallet'. When consumers choose ethical products (and there are a few ways to define this), this makes ethical products more profitable and therefore prompts businesses to shift towards more ethical practices in order to appeal to what people are buying. Through this process, the entire supply chain theoretically becomes more ethical (again, with the acknowledgement that this isn't a straightforward idea).

However, as you rightly note, because this process uses capitalist mechanisms in order to bring about change, it's incapable of actually changing the system altogether. It seems plausible that there is a limit to how ethical a capitalist system can ever be.

Others have argued that the history of capitalism is punctuated by moments of 'moral clarity', citing the abolition of slavery as one ethical revolution that wasn't brought into effect by market forces, but instead relied on ethical intervention to make it happen. The same argument can apply to climate change; it's possible that market forces are not sufficient to truly slow the damage we're doing to our environment, and a moment of 'moral clarity' and intervention will be required that cuts across capitalism rather than works within it.