I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think I condemned them for it. I remarked that the outrage and anger seemed genuine. 

That said, I do think it’s valid to point out that these conditions are no secret to us. We know where our products come from and the conditions under which they’re manufactured. We make passive observations about it all the time. What I do think people should stop doing, though, is lending certain business/tech people and brands a higher ethical standing than they deserve. Which is exactly what happened with Apple. People like the iPhones and Macbooks because they’re great products. But then they turn around and grant the company and especially Jobs a wholly undeserved status as progressive and “the good guys” in the tech sector. It’s facetious, but worst of all, it allows them to get away with this sort of thing for as long as they have.

Outrage is good. But not what contributes to that outrage, which is misguided loyalty and affection for a product, its inventor(s), and its distributor(s). Especially with Apple; the joke was always that its users are like a cult, but in all seriousness, the unreciprocated emotional relationship human beings develop with companies like them is unhealthy and dangerous (not so much to us as to others). While most of us can’t help ourselves because of the model our economy and society is built on, we can and do have the ability to maintain something resembling a healthy level of skepticism about it. 

We spent the better part of the 20th Century developing a culture with an emphasis on materialism. We have the tools at our disposal to receive and distribute information and awareness on a greater scale than ever before, but that can’t give us perspective on a day to day basis. The awe and reverence we give to companies and brands skews that in a very bad way, and it makes us all to eager to conveniently forget what kind of system we operate here and abroad.

I get where you are coming from but I respectfully disagree with you on some of the points. I think that rather than criticizing or almost condemning people for their outrage when you feel they should have known better, it’s better to embrace the fact that people are outraged. Does the outrage come too late? Probably, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less valid. The outrage provides an opportunity for galvanization. While Kristof might have his points, the fact that this story still raised outrage among people should be treated as a good thing, imho. 

I struggle on a near daily basis with consumerism and how to put my money where my mouth is. It’s incredibly hard. As you correctly stated,  our economy does make it very hard for us to engage in this. For instance, I’m a reporter. As such, I need to use technology on a daily basis and I need to do so in a way that seems to be the most effective and efficient. I’ve discovered that the iPhone is one of the best reporting tools out there – it allows me to take decent photos, videos and audio recordings, file stories quickly, find the information I need right away, get where I need to go, and a number of other aspects that are important to me. I use a MacBook Pro for similar reasons, although mine was purchased secondhand. Sometimes it’s a matter of balancing the evils. I don’t condone the behavior of the company, but using the product allows me to cover other atrocities and human rights issues on a smaller scale. I realize that the argument could be made that another product, such as the Android, could provide a similar service, but again, I’m using what I have found to be the best for my purposes. And rather pessimistically, I’m certain there are similar issues with other products and their development. 

Technology definitely makes it very hard to be an ethical consumer. When it comes to the food I buy, or the clothing, I feel like it is far easier to use my consumer power, by purchasing locally-produced goods and items that come from small, independent companies whose values and goals I support.