- McSPOTLIGHT -

can we buy anything?

Posted by: Ben Leamy ( Ethical Consumers Everywhere, UK ) on July 04, 1996 at 19:19:15:

In Reply to: Yeah, nice one but.... posted by Bones on July 03, 1996 at 21:02:24:

> Nice to see someone standing up to the big corporates.
> But if you never consumed or purchased any product from
> companies that ever did something un-enviromentaly friendly,
> didnt rip people off or exploited people would we ever
> consume or purchase anything ?

Yep, very valid point. I try to practise ethical consumerism
but it is not easy. However, anything we can do to improve
things must be done and so I try. Day by day, more companies
and products are added to my boycott list and it gets more and
more difficult.

However, this is a short term problem. In the long run, as
people start to make ethical considerations before purchasing,
producers must take notice or fail to find a market.

Obviously, ethical consumerism can increase the amount of
money paid by the consumer on certain items, but the cost to
the world is lower. And hand in hand with ethical consumerism
is anti-consumerism, where consideration of the actual need
to consumer applied before a puchase. This actualy saves the
'consumer' money, making it possible to support ethical
companies when a purchase is needed.

So, if everybody never consumed or purchased any product from
companies that ever did something un-enviromentaly friendly,
didnt rip people off or exploited people we WOULD be
able to consume or purchase things because the only way that
a company could sell their products would be to act ethicaly
and with respect for the enviroment.

Ben



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