<story><title>Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt</title><url>https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5399491/tech-giants-sued-over-appalling-deaths-of-children-who-mine-their-cobalt-1.5399492</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>swebs</author><text>&amp;gt;Perhaps the only tragedy greater than the criminal destruction of the environment and the lives of the people of the Congo by these companies is the fact that it would be a rounding error on their income statements to fix the problem.&lt;p&gt;Eh, I don&amp;#x27;t think giving more money to the third world mining companies is going to guarantee they&amp;#x27;re going to stop using child labor. The simplest and least risky decision for the tech companies is to simply stop buying Congolese cobalt. It&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;blood diamonds&amp;quot; all over again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>steve-benjamins</author><text>I think the assumption is that ethical suppliers would be more expensive and that these companies have the margins to pay more.</text></comment>
<story><title>Tech giants sued over deaths of children who mine cobalt</title><url>https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.5399491/tech-giants-sued-over-appalling-deaths-of-children-who-mine-their-cobalt-1.5399492</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>swebs</author><text>&amp;gt;Perhaps the only tragedy greater than the criminal destruction of the environment and the lives of the people of the Congo by these companies is the fact that it would be a rounding error on their income statements to fix the problem.&lt;p&gt;Eh, I don&amp;#x27;t think giving more money to the third world mining companies is going to guarantee they&amp;#x27;re going to stop using child labor. The simplest and least risky decision for the tech companies is to simply stop buying Congolese cobalt. It&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;blood diamonds&amp;quot; all over again.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Shivetya</author><text>the liability is with the mining company and national government of Congo. the companies purchasing products can indeed put pressure on both to improve the working conditions of miners but in the end as with nearly every human tragedy, it comes down to the government to take responsibility for its actions and inaction. nothing changes until the local government has to change it.</text></comment>