consumers and producers would attribute to a resource; examples may include the
environment, human health, and animal welfare.
Every day consumers make decisions with the collective strength of aggregated
individual demand. These decisions influence supply and demand going forward,
including the ability of producers to develop new goods and services, as well as
resources and technological advances to satisfy both existing demand and projected
future demand. Demand is a powerful catalyst in the evolution of market outcomes.
However, to a large extent the power of demand is limited both by the fragmentation
of consumers due to limited opportunities for coalescing around specific interests
and by the consumer understanding of the inherent power of aggregated consumption decisions. From this perspective, understanding how the market functions and
the power of consumption in creating sustainable economic outcomes is one aspect
of developing into a rational economic agent.
The values embedded and communicated within demand and supply determine
the manner in which a need or want is attained. To the extent that there is no
discussion of the values and behavioral factors assumed and reflected in demand
and supply, arguably, implicit values, the values and the subsequent behaviors
become endogenous to the economic system. From this perspective, explicit awareness of present behavioral assumptions inclusive of the “unlimited wants” of
consumers, profit maximization motivations of producers, and the understated
resource depletion resulting from externalized costs offer the potential to modify
active and embedded behavior.
2.12 Conscious Consumption and the Social Norm
of Sustainability
The explicit discussion of the embedded assumptions guiding the behavior of the
decision-maker is typically not a part of the economic education process. As a result,
to the extent that individual economic agents, producers or consumers of a good or
service, are bounded by rationality that does not include addressing the impact of
externalized or non-quantified costs, the economic discussion does not promote or
position the assessment of alternative outcomes. Implicitly and endogenously, the
economic discussion establishes and maintains consumption to production circular
flow, focusing on the gratification of consumption and profit-taking from production,
seemingly eliminating assessment of externalities and holistic dynamics.
Economics, in present practice, evaluates efficiency with respect to the use of
resources to maximize production and consumption, not by the moral desirability of
the physical methods and social institutions used to achieve this end. The factors that
are included in an economic evaluation are limited to the tangible quantifiable costs
and costs are overlooked where either a market or regulatory oversight has not
provided a monetary justification (Shah 1999; Venkatesan, 2015). From this perspective, the impact of consumption decisions on the environment, economic disparity, or endangerment of other species is not an issue. The market mechanism
disenfranchises the consumer from the welfare of those impacted by his/her
30
M. Venkatesan
environment, human health, and animal welfare.
Every day consumers make decisions with the collective strength of aggregated
individual demand. These decisions influence supply and demand going forward,
including the ability of producers to develop new goods and services, as well as
resources and technological advances to satisfy both existing demand and projected
future demand. Demand is a powerful catalyst in the evolution of market outcomes.
However, to a large extent the power of demand is limited both by the fragmentation
of consumers due to limited opportunities for coalescing around specific interests
and by the consumer understanding of the inherent power of aggregated consumption decisions. From this perspective, understanding how the market functions and
the power of consumption in creating sustainable economic outcomes is one aspect
of developing into a rational economic agent.
The values embedded and communicated within demand and supply determine
the manner in which a need or want is attained. To the extent that there is no
discussion of the values and behavioral factors assumed and reflected in demand
and supply, arguably, implicit values, the values and the subsequent behaviors
become endogenous to the economic system. From this perspective, explicit awareness of present behavioral assumptions inclusive of the “unlimited wants” of
consumers, profit maximization motivations of producers, and the understated
resource depletion resulting from externalized costs offer the potential to modify
active and embedded behavior.
2.12 Conscious Consumption and the Social Norm
of Sustainability
The explicit discussion of the embedded assumptions guiding the behavior of the
decision-maker is typically not a part of the economic education process. As a result,
to the extent that individual economic agents, producers or consumers of a good or
service, are bounded by rationality that does not include addressing the impact of
externalized or non-quantified costs, the economic discussion does not promote or
position the assessment of alternative outcomes. Implicitly and endogenously, the
economic discussion establishes and maintains consumption to production circular
flow, focusing on the gratification of consumption and profit-taking from production,
seemingly eliminating assessment of externalities and holistic dynamics.
Economics, in present practice, evaluates efficiency with respect to the use of
resources to maximize production and consumption, not by the moral desirability of
the physical methods and social institutions used to achieve this end. The factors that
are included in an economic evaluation are limited to the tangible quantifiable costs
and costs are overlooked where either a market or regulatory oversight has not
provided a monetary justification (Shah 1999; Venkatesan, 2015). From this perspective, the impact of consumption decisions on the environment, economic disparity, or endangerment of other species is not an issue. The market mechanism
disenfranchises the consumer from the welfare of those impacted by his/her
30
M. Venkatesan