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Certain trust criteria, e.g. creditworthiness or implied warranty , are considered to be part of any purchasing or sourcing decision. However, these terms refer to broader systems of guidance that would, ideally, cause any purchasing decision to disqualify offered products or services based on non-price criteria that do not affect the functional, but rather moral, liabilities of the entire production process. Paul Hawken, a proponent of Natural Capitalism, refers to "comprehensive outcomes" of production services as opposed to the "culminative outcomes" of using the product of such services. Often, moral criteria are part of a much broader shift away from commodity markets towards a deeper service economy where all activities, from growing to harvesting to processing to delivery, are considered part of the value chain and for which consumers are "responsible".
Some argue that "Shopping is more important than voting", and that the disposition of money is the most basic role we play in any system of economics. Some theorists believe that it is the clearest way that we express our actual moral choices, i.e. if we say we care about something but continue to buy from parties that have a high probability of risk of harm or destruction of that thing, we don't really care about it, we are practicing a form of simple hypocrisy.
Notably, the adjective "ethical" is much more common amongst industry or voluntary groups or non-government organizations, while the adjective "moral" has actually been reflected in commissions and in proposed legislation, e.g. in Maine, U.S.A., in unions (as "moral boycott") and among professional purchasing and sourcing agents:
FreeMarkets Insider Feb., 2002, notes in its sourcing column that "Though certainly not a traditional purchasing-related article, "The Moral Advantage" definitely merits printing out and circulating among colleagues. There is a tendency to ignore or to downplay the moral dimension of one's work. And yet that dimension is always present. Don't read this article now. Save it for a time when you can give it the attention it deserves." The article itself notes that 80-90% of businessmen in the United States follow some sort of " restrictive morality , usually associated with a spiritual tradition, e.g. Christianity. Although it is difficult to read causality into such trends, it may be that choosing "moral" behavior is often considered the role of individuals (by choice) and governments (by force), while "ethics" is considered a professional or non-governmental organization's responsibility. In other words, an individuals "moral fiber" or " moral core" must determine what ethical criteria they pay attention to, so the choice is "aesthetic".
However, ethics being the science of morality, there are many attempts to deliberately systematize the criteria of informing the buyer of what they are involved in, in the entire production process, and these are more commonly referred to as "ethical" endeavors:
Dominic A. Tarantino , Chairman of Price Waterhouse World Firmin 1998 described Social Accountability 8000 as "the first ever universal standard for ethical sourcing. SA8000 is an initiative of the Council On Economic Priorities , a New York based research organization. It provides a common framework for ethical sourcing for companies of any size and any type, anywhere in the world. SA8000 sets out provisions for issues such as trade union rights, the use of child labor, working hours, health and safety at work, and fair pay." However, it does not address broader issues of ecological or bribery or other issues which may require more consumer or executive restraint. Tarantino further argues the need for moral leadership:
"Pricing, products and services are no longer the sole arbiters of commercial success... it is business that must take the lead in taming the global frontier. Business must take the lead in establishing rule of law in emerging markets. Business must take the lead in stopping bribery. Business must take the lead in bringing order to cyberspace. Business must take the lead in ensuring that technology does not split the world into haves and have nots."
Many people would disagree with the view that purchasing should be motivated on personal moral criteria rather than utilitarian grounds. The view argues that a citizen's proper expression of moral choice is via voting for parties and candidates in government. Accordingly, in democratic countries, most people consider themselves to some degree responsible for the decisions governments make about what to buy on the people's behalf, e.g. pacifist nations such as Costa Rica refuse to buy military weapons or equip armies suitable even for self-defense, similar nations such as JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh keep their forces small, and some, e.g. New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land, refuse to allow nuclear ships or weapons into their ports.
Furthermore, governments handle various kinds of drugs in very different ways, e.g. buying out a coca or poppy supply for use in medically approved channels, forbidding trade in marijuana and interdicting its movements, all of which involve some degree of purchasing of arms or violent force. By seeking to restrict citizens' spending on drugs, they seek both to prevent the use of these drugs and to keep money from the hands of those whose morals they dislike, e.g. armed " terrorist" groups selling drugs to raise funds to buy arms.
A common argument is that governments buy things that the public claims they do not want, but actually do, and so act as collective systems of hypocrisy. Critics of this view argue that the political process, or parties within it, add the hypocrisy for their own benefit, and ignore public will and morality.
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