Am I financialy enabling child labor in 3rd world country by buying second hand fast fashion from Thrift shop and Vinted? Because I am not the one who originally bought the clothes from Shein. But buy buying it again from someone else I still use it uhhuhh this is complicated.
We have a similar discussion in vegan circles. Where we argue against buying second hand leather, down, and wool. The reason is that the second hand market continues to give value to the exploitation of animals. I.e. It normalizes these products. It keeps those products desirable.
The same argument absolutely applies to child labour. Why would you want to keep those products desirable? Is your image, your way of presenting yourself, really more important than child labour? You really do not have to participate in this, nobody who values you as a human will think less of you. In fact, it’s the morally upstanding way to live.
The responsibility of wearing and using a product doesn’t start and end at the first purchase. It continues and changes over time. Fur coats are now generally frowned upon. And who feels comfortable wearing crocodile leather, or ivory beads. These things are out of fashion, for a reason.
And I understand the ecological argument, that it’s a waste of resources. I really do sympathise with this argument. But in the end it’s just saying no to buying something you never really needed in the first place. It’s never an actual decision. Your life doesn’t depends on a piece of designer clothing, or whatever product. And if it does, none of these arguments matter.
So, no it’s a choice and in the end the ethical choice is the one that’s most closely related to being a human being in this world.
Seems to me that would make the true ethical choice to be to buy it from the second-hand shop and then burn it, robbing anyone else any chance of advertising that fashion.