Paul K
While it is sensible to have reservations about sustainability under
capitalism, communism as practiced in former Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe was not much of an alternative and provided little incentive to
towards waste reduction, pollution control, health and safety,
environmental protection etc since the regulator was also the regulated.
Neither was it a system that offered much choice. Its record is not good.
At least under capitalism the consumer can make ethical choices. Provided,
that is, that the consumers a)are well informed and b) themselves act
ethically. (I am assuming that sustainability is an ethical issue). The
information needed concerns the negative externalities that consumption
brings with it. Organisations which profit from satisfying demands are not
slow to respond to public sentiment as expressed through patterns of
consumption.
The difficulty with capitalism is its enormous power to deliver to us what
we (in aggregate) have an appetite for. And the evidence is that we want
products and services that may not satisfy sustainable criteria (If and
when we adequately define them). As you may know, and, as some will know
were, George Orwell said something like "Advertising is the rattle of a
stick in the swill bucket". Well we just love that swill.
(if the word "swill" is not in the international vocabulary, it is the mix
of leftovers, turnip tops, etc that was fed to pigs)
Perhaps the task is not to change capitalism's very effective system of
supply, but is to make more intelligent demands.
regards Paul K
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