I think the root cause are the three just mentioned above:
-capitalism for being a social economic system based on the recognition of individual rights, in which all property is privately owned.the "laissez faire" premise ,has gave political freedom to businesses ,which have as a main objective in order to survive ,the search for profit ,they decide what to produce and where ,and they try to influence consumer purchase decisions in order to increase their profits.capitalism has increased with globalization, and has lead to insanily levels of consumption which are good for the economy ,but bad for the environment,it has made people go crazy for the search of profits.
-corporations established under capitalism, are as well searching for profit.the profit motivation of capitalism has made corporations grow with a few "bad apples" that have left their seeds in them....and have made corporations surpase the limits of welfare of the environment that surround us.
-consumism has derived from capitalism and the continuos corporations motivation’s for profit, in which they try to influence consumer purchase decisions with marketing and advertisement strategies ,and the creation of new products,this is the reason why we consume today a large variety of products beyond our basic needs .consumption is the core of most societies. Consumption has led to the wasteful use of resources, labor and capital and is one of the major causes of environmental degradation.
It is not that capitalism is bad, it is the way it is handled,the extremes it has lead to,extremes in which the damage to the environment,and the welfare of the community are no longer important,the search of profit by capitalism and corporations can be persued but being responsible with the environment and the community.Corporations need to be respectful with the world we are living in,they need to be full responsible for their actions,and to have other purposes different than profit,they HAVE to have social,environmental and corporate responsibility.i think the problem is a cycle in which capitalism influence corporation’s motivation for profit,and influence us as consumers to buy more(creating consumism),this consumism creates at the same time motivation for corporations to innovate and produce more ,and more,and this innovation in production influence us to buy more and more,constructing a cycle that has apparently no visible end.
First of all, I'd like to say that your blog is visually really nice looking.
ResponderEliminarAlso, you did good job here in your entry when dividing and explaining these different terms. I agree with you here, it's impossible to blame a single actor here, or the capitalistic system, but are these are connected. We as consumers have responsibility as well. But how many of us really make our consuming decions on ethically strong basis? Do we try to find out the logistics chain of our new blackberry phone that everyone seems to have at EAFIT? Are we really interested and how much?
Good job with the blog!
Alejandra, You are doing a good job, I like your level of analysis. Please remember to reference where have you taken the images from.
ResponderEliminar