Something has gone wrong with the capitalist system when corporations are no longer creating products that cater to the customers lifestyle and value systems, but creating a lifestyle and value system which the customer, themselves, is expected to integrate into. If you (the corporation) want to sell an image, a brand, a lifestyle, and be successful and enduring in the marketplace, promote one which people can be proud of, and feel good about belonging to. In this way you create a loyal customer, tied not to a brand but an ideal. It's time for electronic companies to start labeling the origins of their minerals used in cell phones, DVD players, computers, etc., proving that they aren't implicated in situations of violence and rape in countries such as the Congo. It's time for long term thinking, it's time for capitalism with a conscience.
Consider sending messages or writing on the facebook walls of Cannon, Dell and Rim in support of the Dodd-Frank Act. The following campaign is one example of such advocacy.
http://www.facebook.com/StepUpfor1502?sk=info
Step Up for 1502 is an effort lead by Enough Project's Raise Hope for Congo campaign. We are fighting to get electronics companies to STEP UP for the conflict minerals provisions (1502) in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Electronics companies must stop participating in the deadly conflict minerals trade in Congo.
When our electronics companies stand behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, they stand for child labor and rape in eastern Congo. We implore them to free their supply chain of Congo conflict minerals.
