interesting discussion on sf last few days of the ethics of consumer capitalism, in particular - sample quote from him:
"I think it's fine to think that companies should be more socially responsible. I don't think anyone wants to see socially irresponsible behavior. I'm saying: when people bring this stuff up, in terms of actions, it always goes back to "buy local," "buy from rich countries," "buy less altogether," or "eschew capitalism."
At which point, if you originally cared about the welfare of people in poor countries, you're doing worse for them than if you just bought the thing from the sweatshop. Better working conditions are always better, but no working conditions is worse than bad working conditions. And at the end of the day, all these views seem like they're just about protecting Western jobs. Or ideas about injecting meaning into the lives of rich Western people, who can enjoy all the benefits of post-industrial society (peace, law and order, liberal norms, etc) while everyone else is just trying to sell their cheap, crappy things so they can survive."
he mentions this article:
http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html