Money Moral Dilemma: Is it wrong to make money from clothing I'm morally opposed to wearing?

TheRaffs

Goodness - first world problem anyone? 

Bonnypitlad

“Frankly my Dear”

TMPBEESR

Hi there. Are you opposed because of the suffering involved in the process?
If that is the reason then if you pocket the money, you are still benefiting from that suffering.
Perhaps you could just give it back to a charity shop and walk away - head held high.
A nice little bonus for the universe!!!

martingreatest

RevtheKev said:

You object to wearing it so I guess you are not going to do that. Selling it second hand may prevent someone else from buying a new part silk object so is the best means to reduce silk production in this dilemma. Making a profit from buying items at a charity shop is not an issue, unless you haggled the price down- you have helped them reach a market place they weren’t exploiting themselves and they set their price which you can think of as a wholesale price or unsorted price as you wish. If it did bother you then as others say you could share the profit or donate it all back, this in my opinion would go beyond the point of being morally neutral or not immoral and be what I’d call positively virtuous! However, you have mentioned you are short of cash so it’s perfectly moral for you to sell what is yours and which you bought fairly and without promoting the silk trade to enable the purchase of alternative clothes- which you’re going to need plenty of layers of this winter given the energy prices. I think even thinking about the humble silkworm and about the charity shop marks you out as a good person. :-)

Lol!  If you support silkworms selling silk won’t help! Nor does pretending you support them.

Sheriff23

Seriously?  Millions of people having to choose between Heating and Eating and you worry about a silkworm!

MERCHS

Either wear it, or sell it but donate the proceeds to charity.  It's already produced, there's nothing you can do about that, but if you feel it's morally wrong to profit from it let a charity benefit instead.

JayD

Already made - you had no idea - throwing it out not ideal re landfill.

So either sell it and be happy you have earned a little money towards your own financial problems or put it back into the charity shop and write off the £1.50p you spent.

GadgetGuru

Sell it and use the money to buy yourself a takeaway. 

catman57

Would agree more or less with 'gothvixen'. Perhaps you could keep half of any profit and give the balance to the charity shop or another charity. I've had similar problems before and you should be able to work something out with which you are happy. One example: I recently bought a book published (I sell secondhand books in a small way) in connection with the RNLI. When it was sold, I made a note of  how much I had made and put 50% in the next RNLI collecting-box I saw. And if you feel you haven't given enough, this is easily remedied!

And certainly a useable item should not be trashed. There is a similar problem with ivory antiques, as well as of course, fur. Some time back I had a book which I found very distasteful when I read some of it. Rather than binning it, I gave it to a friend to sell if he wanted. That was a difficult one! It is a bit of a minefield, so don't worry if others online think you are being pernickety...

theoretica

If you are opposed to silk, then selling it as silk - promoting silk as something desirable and worth money - seems more negative than simply wearing as the top you liked the style of and bought in ignorance.  You could consider wearing it a penance for not reading the labels, if you will.