I'm shopping for a new car, and would like to choose one made with the least bad labour practices, if possible.
My reading suggests there is literally no good choice, but curious if anyone here has a perspective that could inform my choice.
Is there any car company that shits on their workers less and/or chooses contractors/vendors that shit on their workers less than the rest? Or are we just doomed to drive around the blood sweat and tears of exploited persons?
In general, the only kind of company friendly to its workers is a worker-owned co-op. Otherwise, the relationship between management and labor is inherently adversarial, no matter how much management might try to pretend otherwise.
(There are no worker-owned co-op car manufacturers.)
It's worth noting that a huge part of their manufacturing takes place outside of Germany where salaries are way lower and regulations aren't as strict.
At least for cars sold in Europe often times they are still being assembled within the European Union even if in cheaper markets, so protections are still in place and strong. But cars are made of millions of components manufactured all over the world so there's always at least some human suffering somewhere along the chain.
Sure regulations are not same as Germany but even in those cases there’s a lot of corporate culture that makes a difference. I know it first hand working in an automotive in DE and cooperating with people from foreign offices.
Do the actual ethical thing and buy a used car. You're putting money back into the hands of actual working Americans instead of companies, contributing dramatically less to climate change by reusing an existing product, you'll get a dramatically nicer vehicle, and save money too.
I actually do buy used cars, and am currently looking at used Honda and subaru thingies.
But the used car market affects the new car market, so I feel like the choice still matters even if I'm not buying new. I don't think it's "the actual ethical thing" (kind of condescending phrasing btw) to absolve self of the implications of the purchase just because it's used.
Well the most ethical thing would be not buying a car at all, which is perfectly feasible for a huge amount of people who just don't even consider it..
If you are buying a Japanese car that is made in Japan, that would be my suggestion but I don't know what the labour practises of US built Japanese cars is like.
I have don't literally 0 research so I'm talking out my ass right now. But I would be shocked if cars made in Japan have good labor practices. In Japanese culture it is perfectly normally to work 12+ hours a day. They have one of the worst work cultures of any first world country. It's so bad that most Japanese media that is about children, they rarely if ever mention the characters' dad. Think about Pokemon. In most games, they never mention your dad. It's not even weird that he's completely absent. This is just a fact for Japanese children. They don't even know their dads because their dads are always at work, and it's just something they accept. The one pokemon game that I remember meeting your dad in, he's actually at work, and you visit him at work (he's a gym leader).
So my point is that I don't know why car manufacturering in Japan would be any different than every other industry in Japan, which convinces workers to want to work 12-16 hours a day.
The VIN tells you country of manufacture with the first digit. US is 1, Canada is 2, Mexico is 3, Japan is J, and Germany is W, to cover the main ones you'll see in the US. You'll likely have base your model choice on that. It's not like you can request a Japanese Accord just for fun. Sometimes a particular trim might be built in Japan for some reason. I think the Subaru Crosstrek and most Mazdas are still Js
Maybe Volvo? Do note that Polestar cars are made in China, but Volvo ones should be made in Europe or US. I dont know how good the conditions in the american Volvo factory are but in Sweden, Volvo is considered a good employer. Volvo/Polestar are owned by Geely, which is a chinese company but Volvo is pretty independent.
I think you misclicked which comments you went to as it sounds like you meant to post this on the one about your most frequently quoted Futurama line, and not this question about labor-friendly car companies. lol