the environment and potential future human and animal health due to its
non-biodegradable or re-usable composition. This illustration on a broader consumption scale provides a simplified perspective to evaluate the underlying values
captured in consumption decisions. From this perspective, production for consumption may be expressed as a myopic activity, focused on near-term satiation of a need
or want to the exclusion of the evaluation of the impact or ripple effect of the
satiation.
Another example is the price of a t-shirt produced in an emerging market. The
price will include the cost of the laborer who cut and sewed the shirt, but not the
social cost resulting from the lack of a living wage (given the price differential from
his payment for labor and the return to the producer who will sell the product at a US
boutique) and the limited to non-existent safe working conditions. The price does not
include the carbon footprint related to the ultimate transportation of the t-shirt to the
store, or the waste cost related to the landfilling of a shirt that cannot biodegrade
because it is not made of natural fibers. In net, the cost of the consumption of the
t-shirt is only partially borne by the purchaser; other societies and the environment
subsidize the price. The outcome, a price that is not reflective of the true cost of the
resources used, allows a developed society to have more than needed, to satisfy
wants, while unknowingly using more resources and creating environmental and
social externalities. The developing country laborer subsidizes the consumption due
to lack of labor market strength and in this manner, it becomes quite obvious the
vicious cycle that exists between poverty and consumption. Poverty enables overconsumption through enabling the maintenance of low prices in developed
countries. In the developing world, the pervasiveness of poverty limits self-funding
for infrastructure, sanitation, and sustainable choices; this fosters a dependency trap
that only promotes survival not a focus on quality of life.
Sustainable consumption requires that consumers base consumption decisions on
the holistic impact of their consumption choices. The values embedded and
communicated within demand and supply determine the manner in which a need
is satisfied. Explicit awareness of present behavioral assumptions inclusive of the
“unlimited wants” of consumers, the profit maximization motivations of producers
to meet investor returns, and the understated resource depletion resulting from
externalized or understated costs offer the potential to modify active and embedded
behavior.
GDP is the global metric for economic progress. The metric is based on the
market value of final goods and services sold within the geographic borders of a
given country. The limitation of the calculation of GDP to market value in conjunction with firm profit maximization and consumer insatiability, two endogenized
tenets of neoclassical economics, has resulted in externalities to the environment
and societies. Externalities are observable in environmental degradation, and depletion of environmental resources as well as in exploitation of labor markets.
Given the strength of the consumer expenditures in developed countries’ GDP,
sustainability transformation to sustainable development may be catalyzed through
education that promotes a shift in the cultural value of consumption to include a
responsibility for the holistic impact of a given consumption choice. The result
2 The Role of Culture and Moral Responsibility in Facilitating a Sustainable. . .
17
non-biodegradable or re-usable composition. This illustration on a broader consumption scale provides a simplified perspective to evaluate the underlying values
captured in consumption decisions. From this perspective, production for consumption may be expressed as a myopic activity, focused on near-term satiation of a need
or want to the exclusion of the evaluation of the impact or ripple effect of the
satiation.
Another example is the price of a t-shirt produced in an emerging market. The
price will include the cost of the laborer who cut and sewed the shirt, but not the
social cost resulting from the lack of a living wage (given the price differential from
his payment for labor and the return to the producer who will sell the product at a US
boutique) and the limited to non-existent safe working conditions. The price does not
include the carbon footprint related to the ultimate transportation of the t-shirt to the
store, or the waste cost related to the landfilling of a shirt that cannot biodegrade
because it is not made of natural fibers. In net, the cost of the consumption of the
t-shirt is only partially borne by the purchaser; other societies and the environment
subsidize the price. The outcome, a price that is not reflective of the true cost of the
resources used, allows a developed society to have more than needed, to satisfy
wants, while unknowingly using more resources and creating environmental and
social externalities. The developing country laborer subsidizes the consumption due
to lack of labor market strength and in this manner, it becomes quite obvious the
vicious cycle that exists between poverty and consumption. Poverty enables overconsumption through enabling the maintenance of low prices in developed
countries. In the developing world, the pervasiveness of poverty limits self-funding
for infrastructure, sanitation, and sustainable choices; this fosters a dependency trap
that only promotes survival not a focus on quality of life.
Sustainable consumption requires that consumers base consumption decisions on
the holistic impact of their consumption choices. The values embedded and
communicated within demand and supply determine the manner in which a need
is satisfied. Explicit awareness of present behavioral assumptions inclusive of the
“unlimited wants” of consumers, the profit maximization motivations of producers
to meet investor returns, and the understated resource depletion resulting from
externalized or understated costs offer the potential to modify active and embedded
behavior.
GDP is the global metric for economic progress. The metric is based on the
market value of final goods and services sold within the geographic borders of a
given country. The limitation of the calculation of GDP to market value in conjunction with firm profit maximization and consumer insatiability, two endogenized
tenets of neoclassical economics, has resulted in externalities to the environment
and societies. Externalities are observable in environmental degradation, and depletion of environmental resources as well as in exploitation of labor markets.
Given the strength of the consumer expenditures in developed countries’ GDP,
sustainability transformation to sustainable development may be catalyzed through
education that promotes a shift in the cultural value of consumption to include a
responsibility for the holistic impact of a given consumption choice. The result
2 The Role of Culture and Moral Responsibility in Facilitating a Sustainable. . .
17