Right Livelihood Part 3 – Business in Human Beings

By Jennafer Duerden

The Buddha told his disciples, "Monks, a lay follower should not engage in five types of business. Which five? Business in weapons, business in human beings, business in meat, business in intoxicants, and business in poison. These are the five types of business that a lay follower should not engage in." In part 1 of this article, I discussed the concept of Right Livelihood when it comes to the choice we make in our career. In part 2, I discussed Business in Meat and the varied benefits of veganism. Now in Part 3 I’d like to examine the complex choices we are faced with as consumers and how these choices may support Business in Human Beings.

Human Beings

The globalised supply chain and our modern expectation for fast deliveries and 24-hour convenience and availability has made the avoidance of businesses exploiting human beings nigh-on impossible. Particularly during the Covid pandemic, we’ve come to rely on companies such as Amazon to deliver goods to our doorstep, often within hours of ordering them, never paying much thought to the workers working in purportedly ‘dangerous and dehumanising’¹ conditions whilst the world’s richest man, CEO Jeff Bezos, becomes ever richer. In a shopping-addicted society that values low prices and ‘fast fashion’ over quality and longevity, it was no surprise to see queues around the block as soon as the pandemic lockdowns in Europe ended and cheap clothing stores such as Primark re-opened. When we walk into a clothing shop or click to order online, how deeply do we think about the source of the products we’re buying and the human beings involved in their manufacture or the people that might suffer at the hands of the manufacturer? How deeply should we be thinking about it?

There are so many instances of everyday products being created by slave labour or by labour that is exploited in the name of profit and it would take many thousands of words to discuss them all, so here I’ll just touch on a couple of examples. An extremely prevalent example is the modern trend for ‘fast fashion’. Consumers want cheap clothing so that they can constantly change their outfits and be ‘on trend’ but few people seem to question how it’s possible to achieve such low price tags. I’m sure the people queueing down the street in the pandemic paid little thought to the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh that resulted in the deaths of 1,138 workers and exposed the massive human rights abuses perpetrated by Primark and 27 other high street brands.² I’d be willing to bet that most of us have owned a piece of clothing by Nike, drunk a Coca-Cola or used an Apple product at some time in our lives. I myself am writing this article on a Macbook Air wearing a pair of Nike Jogging trousers (thankfully not drinking a Coke). It might come as a surprise to many to find that in 2020, Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple actively lobbied against a bill in America aiming to prevent the import of goods from China that use Uyghur slave labour.³ These companies claimed that such a bill would put ‘excessive strain’ on their supply chains and affect consumers. Such powerful companies have a huge influence on the world and would have the potential to forcibly end these slavery practices but compassion is frequently overwhelmed by profit margins. Where do we as consumers fit in? Are we also culpable for modern slavery if we buy these products? Should we boycott such companies and find alternatives and are the alternatives any better? If we use these products to do good in the world, does the ends justify the means?

It seems that much of the world is driven by what the Buddha referred to as the Three Poisons: Greed, Hatred and Ignorance, poisons that drive all suffering.⁴ Capitalism and profit are naturally driven by greed. It would appear that as consumers, we are also often driven by greed - the need for the product overwhelms the ethical perspective. We could also claim when we buy our Apple products that we were unaware of the anti-slavery parliamentary bill and the opposition to it, we can’t possibly be culpable for something we are oblivious to. I would argue, however, that this is another of the Three Poisons: Ignorance or Delusion. Knowing that such evil practices exist in the world, should we not make it our duty to educate ourselves and find out more?

Sources of Wealth

There are other more complex and often overlooked aspects to ethical consumerism that are not always apparent on the surface, namely source of wealth and profit investment. The exploitation of humans by sweatshops manufacturing cheap clothing or factories forcing terrible conditions upon workers is quite clear but what about companies whose employees don’t suffer these abuses? I wonder how many citizens in Germany pause to think about the appalling human rights abuses of the Second World War when they put on their Boss shirt in the morning or make a transaction with Deutsche Bank? One may wonder what the relevance of this period of history might be today. Shouldn’t we have forgotten about it and moved on? It might, however, come as a surprise to many to learn the extent to which modern German companies owe their extreme wealth and success to the exploitation of human beings. Auschwitz, the concentration camp where 1 million people were slaughtered, was financed by Deutsche Bank, world-leading car manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes, Audi used forced labour from camps to build their vehicles, Hugo Boss willingly produced propaganda articles for the Nazis, and Bayer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, made huge strides in medicine and indeed huge profits by experimenting on and mutilating human beings.⁵ These are a mere handful of examples out of thousands. Should we consciously avoid such companies due to deeds of the past or should we forgive and forget? Are the modern owners of these companies remorseful of their past actions and are they using their current positions of power to at least do some good in the world? Deutsche Bank was forced to admit its role in the Holocaust as lawyers dug into their archives as part of an acquisition in the late 90s and yet has remained unremorseful and unapologetic in the years since.⁶ Judging by their role in the 2008 financial crisis, it seems some things never change.

Business in Weapons

Not only are companies making massive profits from the exploitation of human labour, they are often using their profits to invest in unscrupulous industries. Deutsche Bank is a shining example of a company that not only attributes its success to human exploitation but uses its profits to invest in another Wrong Livelihood: Business in Weapons. In June 2019, PAX, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), launched its latest ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’ report reviewing the financing of the nuclear weapons industry by global financial institutions. The report found that 325 financial institutions had provided financing of $748 billion to the top 18 nuclear weapons producers between January 2017 and January 2019.⁷ Nuclear weapons have been prohibited by UN treaty since 2017, signed by 82 states and ratified by 50; should we not hold our financial institutions accountable for upholding this treaty? As consumers, should we accept that our funds are being used to finance an industry responsible for the death of human beings and the potential destruction of our planet and society?

How to find our place as an ethical consumer

The Buddha recognised, centuries ago, the benefits of the ethical treatment of workers. In the Layperson’s Code of Discipline contained within the Sigalovada Sutta⁸ he explains: ‘There are five ways in which a master should minister to his servants and workers as the nadir: by arranging their work according to their strength, by supplying them with food and wages, by looking after them when they are ill, by sharing special delicacies with them, and by letting them off work at the right time. And there are five ways in which servants and workers, thus ministered to by their master as the nadir, will reciprocate: they will get up before him, go to bed after him, take only what they are given, do their work properly, and be bearers of his praise and good repute. In this way the nadir is covered, making it at peace and free from fear.’ It’s clear that if we treat our employees well, we can expect many benefits in return and yet this karmic balance is often overshadowed by greed and ignorance. As consumers I believe we have a duty to increase our awareness of the business practices of the companies we purchase products from and actively avoid falling into the consumerist traps of fast fashion, cheap produce and reliance on the temporary fulfilment we get from constant shopping. If a price seems too good to be true then it’s worthwhile stopping to think about what might be behind the pricing and the possible hidden cost to human life and dignity. Although we might not be able to deeply investigate the entire supply chain of each company we buy products from, there is a wealth of information available online about the ethical rating of major manufacturers and we can do our best to avoid the most obvious culprits. I don’t believe that consuming products from Nestle or Coca Cola or buying a new cheap outfit every week can be considered a basic human need. There are more and more companies entering the ethical marketplace - GOTS certified cotton, Rainforest Alliance and Fairtrade branded products are becoming ever more prevalent, as well as companies supporting local communities and donating profits to charities. There are many league tables ranking ethical banks and their sources of funding and investments are in the public realm. Perhaps we should spend less time consuming and more time researching.

But what about the products we have to buy or products where we consider there is no ethical alternative that meets the same standard? I’ll admit the news about Apple’s refusal to sign the anti-slavery bill doesn’t have me running to replace my many Apple products - iphone, Macbook, Watch etc. They’re too ingrained in my life and I don’t believe there is another company that can offer replacements on the same level. I’m wondering if perhaps we can sometimes find a sort of karmic balance - using products produced with the intention of mass profit with some dubious ethical practices for doing some good in the world. Whilst Apple’s ethics have become ever more questionable in my mind, I like to think that my MacBook is also a powerful tool that is used for doing work that I hope ultimately helps people: supporting Ru-Yi, teaching and studying. Writing this article has, however, given me a lot of food for thought about my own ethics and how far I really examine my own choices. It’s easy to write about these companies and be appalled at their actions but I’ll admit it’s less easy to take decisive action when it comes to our consumer habits. On the one hand, I pride myself on being an ethical consumer: I am very conscious of not buying any medicine from Bayer pharmaceuticals, for example. Many friends are surprised that I live about 100 metres away from a Lidl, the largest and most popular German supermarket discounter, and yet I refuse to ever step foot in the place. Oxfam’s Behind the Barcodes campaign⁹ revealed the massive extent to which Lidl exploits farmers and workers all over the world (which is pretty obvious if anyone would ever stop to wonder how their prices can be so low). They’ll never have a penny of my money, that’s for sure. On the other hand, before I get carried away with selling myself as some kind of ethical consumer hero, I will admit that I do drive a BMW. I bank at Deutsche Bank (the fact that there is an entire book that has been written about their criminality throughout their entire history should really have had me questioning this long ago). I shop at Amazon and expect my parcels to arrive the next morning. Why? Simply because the alternative is inconvenient.

I believe that the average consumer probably doesn’t actively support human exploitation but rather that, like me, they fall prey to convenience. What does convenience mean? It means getting things done quickly and more easily without considering the harm we may do to others in the process. Our need for convenience in our everyday lives once again highlights the power of the Three Poisons and demonstrates our greed and ignorance. I wouldn’t like to classify myself as a greedy and ignorant person but perhaps I should also examine the extent of my morality in the pursuit of consumerism and try to do better. If everyone would make even a small change to their consumer patterns, I believe it would have a great impact on the world. As the saying goes, we can all vote with our feet.