Ethics of consumers: Do consumers care?

Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that it's going to make some computers in America. A negative reaction is in effect seeing the stocks took a bit of a plunge.


Before this announcement, some time ago, news stories have brought public awareness to the the many Apple products produced in part in factories in China with a record of failure to provide safe working conditions, using child labor, and demanding employees to work long shifts for low wages.

The media have attuned a sharp eye on the status at factories run by Apple’s Chinese suppliers. Foxconn, that assembles the iPad and the iPhone, has got the brunt of attention.
Allegedly, Foxconn carelessness led to notorious stories to surface.

Foxconn didn't provide workers who worked with toxic chemicals appropriate safety equipments, it was responsible for the death or two people and injury of more than a dozen from a factory blast; it required workers to work levels of overtime deemed illegal for which it frequently did not play its employees in full; it deceived potential recruits regarding pay rates; its supervisors humiliated the workers; its workers were often to stand almost uninterrupted for a 12 hour shift; its poor working condition that led to a number of suicide in 2010 from its Shenzen plant.

Another supplier of Apple also faced a problem and was forced to shut down. Catcher Technology, who makes the aluminum casings for many Apple products, was recently instructed to shut down one of its factories by the Chinese government after neighboring denizens complaint of noxious and unbearable fumes coming from the factory.
A number of steps were taken by Apple to improve the situation in response to recent public pressure, albeit these "change" that the steps implement likely is a little more than cosmetic in nature.

The problem is that Apple’s competitors may have similar problems in their supply chains. To accurately put it, the same suppliers that Apple uses, many of Apple’s major competitions utilize as well. Foxconn supplies Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, and Dell. Likely the recent investigations and attention of unethical practices in Chinese electronics industry has focused on Apple, rather than its competitors, is likely due its size and high profit margins. Ethical Consumer Magazine ranks Apple to be mid-table in terms of the ethics of its laptop and phone manufacturing processes, and above some of its biggest competitors, such as Samsung, Sony, HP and Toshiba. In further regards, although Apple is not doing enough to improve the entire situation (as this likely out of their hands), arguably, it is doing more than most of its competitors, such as conducting more rigorous audits of its suppliers.

From this, it's safe to conclude that any Chinese-manufactured electronics product bought in current circumstances, is likely and probably one way or another will encourage some unethical labor practices, whether it be the mistreatment of Chinese workers or reward the company to continue with its unethical practices.

If you has no choice but to support this unethical behavior, seeing that most of the products in America are made in China, how might you go about trying to mitigate this effect?
I'm not picking on you, and by "you" I mean consumers, just as myself.

Or do most consumers just don't care?
So suppose you need a new laptop or a tablet (say to pack it as a gift for the Holidays), or at the least, are going to buy one, do you leave leave aside ethical considerations, and shop a product that best suits your wallet and comforts?

I know in the consumer electronics department, I know I am guilty.