Priscilla, I suspect that anyone's concept of being ethical will not be followed by the words force everyone, as the reality is that many initiatives like these have been misused for the benefit of a few.
Looking in from a US perspective, it is indeed difficult to imagine a system that wouldn't be corrupted.
Alas, our chronic corruption biases our perception here. Real ethical progress is, in fact, possible; at least in some places, and given enough concerted effort. We have a long way to go in the US, sadly.
Or, put more mimetically (but significantly less charitably), one might note: snapping back at "force everyone" is a very USAian "muh freedums" kind of reaction. That's a reaction which short-circuits the conversation, denying a meaningful engagement.
I don't know if that outcome was exactly intended, above -- but it is an extremely common application of it, and in the interests of highly (or potentially so) self-aware and introspective ethics or philosophy in this thread here, I think it is worthwhile and interesting to include this observation.
Indeed, substance! Examples would be illustrative here, and if a few would like to air their thoughts, or stories perhaps, there would be some substance to fill that void. A substance, a... food for thought, you might say.
Others might like to air, oh I don't know -- standing up for engineering principles; customer values over exploitative dictates; workers rights; workplace safety / OSHA / etc.; or, say with respect to materials, choosing "which" companies that have better ethical tracks (in respect to "what" ethical values); etc.
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For my part, uhh, well I could probably give many thoughts (no one here doubts my ability to do that....), but more particularly, I might highlight:
My success at work-from-home these last couple years, which I'm sure is over 90% and may be more like 99% (I haven't been tracking that specifically but could add up the logs).
Not that that's particularly special these days -- indeed, it's still actually pretty common. But, that it's continued so well, since that catalytic event, is actually quite encouraging.
Anyway, this greatly saves on transportation costs (implication: reduced oil consumption, pollution). Unfortunately, because almost all cities here in the US are devoid of walkable access [extremely car centric], it'll still be a long time before I'm able to get rid of my car entirely. (Thus drawing attention to the in-environmentalism that is thrust upon me; I'm all but required to own a car -- among other costs I'm required to pay here. What is the ethical role of that environment? Good question, see!)
Or, picking one from the above list -- I haven't designed in a tantalum capacitor in quite a while. They feel... almost obsolete, I guess, for power purposes? That's not quite the right word, but, the workarounds are more than adequate for most purposes, and I would say they are niche use now (e.g. where the stable value is most useful -- long timing constants perhaps?).
Tim
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