Keep Building EVs, but Pay the Congolese Their Due

   You know, the world is missing out on a chance to lift the Congolese out of poverty. Here we have some of the poorest people on earth, struggling to eke out an existence, and an opportunity comes to lift them from the crutches of poverty.
   And we pass.
   Instead, we jump on the EV industry. We make good note that in order to put EVs on the road, we travel to the jungles of the Congo and subject the children there to child labor. We need their cobalt for our batteries. Two-thirds of all the world's known cobalt is in the Congo.
   And, we need it.
   Children as young as 10. We pay them -- what? -- between $3.50 and 10 a day.
   All in the name of the electric vehicle.
   This is a problem. But I am not suggesting the solution is to quit making EVs. Not at all. We need them to fight climate change. But, yes, we do need to end the abuse of children in the Congo. That the world has turned to Congo for valuable cobalt should be used to deliver the Congolese from poverty. As an international community -- each individual nation, as well as the UN -- should be applying pressure on KCC and the other cobalt companies to pay the workers handsomely.
   Handsomely.
   Whether we blame the greed of the cobalt companies on capitalism or whatever, we, as society, should require the riches of Congo's cobalt to go to the poor who do the mining. 
   Just sayin'. And, I mean it.