brilliant, I come from a place where we laugh at people for not knowing where milk, cheese, butter and meat come from but most people dont really know where the materials for their cell phones come from, sharing this in the hopes of educating a few more. The power of social media

You seem like a nice person. Really tollerant and all. You embody the spirit of TED.

I know dude :S That's one of the big problems in the world. Tx for your free speach. Respect.

If you look at it from a less cynical perspective, greed is one of the strongest human drives. While many systems tries to surpress this drive through discipline or threats, the idea of capitalism is to exploits it to produce good.

Government is a significant hindrance to a lot of things, but I was not at all blaming it for our problems. Indeed, like you, I explicitly place the responsibility with the people themselves. I am always the first to say that we need to change the people when we want something to change. Fix the people and everything else fixes itself. So again, to be perfectly clear, I agree with you. We have enough power to change things, but people just plain don't care and it's very frustrating =(

Great video, great campaign! It will take a lot of work to certify every component of a cell phone as fair trade, and this is an excellent place to start. What do you think about the currently existing Fair Trade certification process and the split between US and non-US definitions? Do you think entirely new entities for certification need to be formed? Thank you!

Very important topic. People need to know about and work aginst this.

This talk may give the impression that the Congo is the only source for tantalum. It isn't. It's not even the majority producer. There are many countries that mine tantalum, Australia being the primary one. ...which is not to say that I disagree with anything he said. It was a good talk, and I agree with it. Just wanted to make that detail clear.

and decide to not care how those products are made.

OMG I just saw it, I hope everything change

No I'm not citizen of USA, but I'm citizen of a republic. :)) The problem with the term republic is, that it can be traditionally governed by both democratic and aristocratic principles. The way I see it, democracy speaks about methods, while republic prescribes qualities. So I don't see these terms as mutually exclusive. But since our disagreement seems to be merely semantic, I think that continuing our dispute would be petty. :))

No one said that capitalism is the origin of, or the unique source of greed. The fact is that capitalism encourages greed. This encouragement is inherent to the system.

I agree, but then when will there be the option to consume products that are not produced by greedy corporations yet are still cheap and reliable. It is a hard choice indeed for the average person to say, do i encourage this greed or the other one. Even if one knows there's a product out there that is "righteous to the root" it is either too expensive or not forged to the same quality.

And we are 13th on the Quality-of-life Index ,and for what? So we can have super rich?If we were kicking ass on people with more socialism in Europe.But even then it's letting people go massively go without while the rest of us live in luxury.If charity keep up with the need then there wouldn't be a problem,but it doesn't.

Haaaaaaaave you met Ted?

Yes. In a past life. I was Godzilla, Ted was King Kong. It was never meant to be..

A leader of a company has a ethical responsibility to maximize profit first.We should always question their morality.A mix of capitalism and socialism is a proven way to maximize general well being of the vast majority of a given population.It does have a tendency to minimize wealth extremes on both ends.If your main goal is to become super rich I could see where you might have a problem with this.

My only point in mentioning the government in my comment was that WE have encouraged greed in capitalism through it. The laws we have in place, for instance, generally speaking REQUIRE that businesses put their stakeholders FIRST, above and beyond everything else. Obviously that is a blanket statement and not perfectly accurate. Nonetheless, people think government is the way to address greed, when actually it's what encourages it. Government is not the answer, changing OUR BEHAVIOR is.

Republics are about setting basic rights for citizens and even if the majority disagrees, you give them the finger as the politician. Democracies are all about doing whatever the majority says. In reality, there are no democracies, because that would mean that you could vote and decide like a politician could on wether a law would become legal or not. But instead we use republics, we vote for a representative (congress) who vote on behalf of the voters. I'm waiting for the internet democracy

What is, in your view the difference between republic and democracy? Because I always thought these two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

What did he mean by "fair trade"? It doesn't seem to have much to do with the trading part. It seems like he's simply asking us to demand free trade with basic property rights and rule of law for those developing nations - which is capitalism's definition. Why use a term like "fair trade"? Perhaps simply saying "capitalist liberties and rule of law" would not have appealed to as many people. Or perhaps he did mean the actual trading with other nations part - I can't tell, can someone explain?

the phone is not a tool of oppression, nor is technology in general, but capitalism is

Drop satellite cell phones with internet access all around N.Korea.

What does the fair trade means in this video? Can someone explain?

Is it not easier to have regulation on the mining of such product than seek the death of millions of people against a telephone, a laptop etc. Surely everybody will benefit by having access to a conflict free telephone. Let us talk about it loud and put an end to such practices as they only enrich a few illegally. Telephone companies could help a lot in bringing order to this world. Peace is needed in Congo.

Tnak you is from enlgis class!

Europe

I was only aware of the iphone factories in china with their suicide and depression rates.

Nay, no system is any worse than any other in the absence of GOVERNMENT exploitation. Excluding government/law, there is absolutely nothing stopping the common people (the consumers) from demanding socially responsible capitalist practices. Without consumers, the producers cannot exist. It is every bit on you as it is the "greedy corporations". Greed is NOT inherent to the system, greed is inherent only when the PEOPLE themselves encourage it by consuming products of greedy corporations.

But you are missing something here, you are talking about greed, but Capitalism is also only possible in a democratic society, because it favors competition. Capitalism is not only about financial gain, even if that is the goal. It is also free market, free exchange and has led to globalisation of the world, financial possibilities in a free market environment is the foundation of the European Union, something noone would have thought possible just in 1912, 100 years ago. UN aswell

I am buying a cell phone, they are buying the bullets. I talk to loved ones and friends on that phone, they kill each other with the bullets. I am no more responsible for their actions they they are mine. But if you think i am responcible for their action then they must be responsible for mine. If so then they are responsible for me buying the phone in the first place ah? If not then your argument is invalid.

oh lord, they fight among them selves because the land has something someone might actually want, it is some how our fault....How about instead of blaming those that are willing to pump money into you economy you blame the people actually doing the fighting ah?

I think you are mixing up majoritarianism and democracy. Democracy, in the traditional sense at least, is much more than just majority rule.

Do they still use tantalum capacitors in high end electronics? For some reason I thought they moved onto some different material... Either way the solution is for people to quit acting like spoiled little brats and quit buying the newest, shiniest shiny toy because it's so shiny. Of course it's better for Apple and pals to just tell the noveau-hipster culture that they can play "Stupid Flashing Lights" and look at naked people and prattle on about human rights without being a bunch of disgusting hypocrites. I remember trying to make a big deal about this years ago when there were actually wars starting in Africa on account of the demand for playstations. Nobody seemed to give a crap about any of this until the State Department started trying to convince people that everyone would be better off with gigantic mineral prospecting interests running the show. Do you people really think that the Kochs and Haliburton are going to pay those people a fairer wage, house them, feed them, care for them or make their lives any better? At best it'll be a push with the way things are and most of the bad guys will probably stay in charge since those mining firms (which the Pauls invested in) aren't stupid enough to fight the local strongmen if they can avoid it. Oh, and Apple would love to make a conflict free iphone. They could jack up the price and release a model with a graphic of some famous peoples' signatures and maybe package it with a tacky pamphlet filled with "Stories of Real African Miners" and pictures of all the little kiddies that the company rep held down and sodomized (for a nomical fee). The names and stories will be 70% bullshit at best (albeit unverifiable) and a month or two after the photos are taken all the subjects will be dead. You'll be able to send a picture of your naked tits to that really cute guy though.

And yet, capitalism gives us tools to address the most egregious abuses of greed, such as market pressures toward fair trade goods.

The problems is not Capitalism. Capitalism is not a moral code. There is no law that states, we must be as greedy as possible. That's a personal choice. We do have the power to solve these problems, all you must do is look for a stamp that says free trade on your cell phone. Government is where a society puts problems that it does not want to solve. In order that no one takes personal responsibility for the problem.

So what country would be too socialized according to you? Europe is pretty socialized. We have countries with strong economies and strong social systems, and we have poor ones as well (gives angry face to greece and spain). That's no different than pro-capitalist countries. 99% of people want to work, you are fussing over that 1% that doesn't work. In europe, they get benefits, and are still unemployed. But atleast their kids have a chance. In america, they get nothing, and neither the kids

Speak faster man!!!!

Also most of the world's humans live in crippling poverty. Capitalism is a world system and has to be analysed as such. Poorer countries perform a certain function in this system, and are used by richer countries to increase their capital and power. God I could talk about how bad capitalism is all day. Anyway, there's a lot to socialism/anarchism if you just learn/think about it. It's not as simple as USSR vs. U.S.A. I will write a better response to you another day when not so tired.