A study found that if corporations were held accountable for the damage they do, most of them would no longer be profitable.
Unless they passed those costs on to consumers.
Today when we buy things we do not pay true cost. If we did, prices would have to factor in all the environmental costs and other externalities.
Everything would get more expensive as we became responsible for the full extent of the things we buy.
Presently, no one is charged for the demonstrated damage done by the products we buy across their life cycle.
A movement is building to push our system toward charging the true cost of all products and services.
If it is true that overconsumption rather than overpopulation is the problem, then taking responsibility for the full effects of our consumption will help manage it more realistically.
Some say everything is too cheap because no one is paying the true cost of anything.
And no one is, except future generations.
#TrueCost (Adbusters)
"Once we add on the environmental cost of carbon emissions, the cost of building and maintaining roads, the medical costs of accidents, the noise and the aesthetic degradation of urban sprawl, your private automobile will cost you around $100,000, and a tank of gas $150. You’ll still be free to drive all you want, but instead of passing the costs on to future generations, you’ll pay up front.
Plenty of people will howl and moan – at least in the beginning. A bitter meme war will be fought about how true cost disproportionally punishes the poor.
But once true-cost pricing is in place, car use will plunge and bicycle use will soar. City skies will be clearer. Breathing easier. Ride sharing will spike. People will live closer to work. Demand for monorails, bullet trains, subways and streetcars will surge.
A paradigm shift in urban planning will calm the pace of urban living. Cities will be built for people, not cars.
Catastrophic weather events like hurricanes, floods and superfires will subside. The spectre of global warming won’t feel so ominous anymore."
I've been watching on youtube several channels that are walks around Tokyo. What strikes me so much about this huge city is how clean it is, and how many trains, buses, and bicycles there are! It's wonderful. For sure, Tokyo and Japan, as all other developed countries, uses far too much energy and uses far too many resources, but it does seem like Tokyo does have great examples of how to move people around without a car. - Mary
ReplyDeleteLove it! It's the same with buying ethically-made anything, it's really expensive. But it reflects the true cost of human labour, not slave labour. So if I really want and need the item, I have to be prepared to pay the true price. It sure stops over-shopping!
ReplyDeleteMadeleine
There are a lot of useless anti-plastic social media sites floating around these days. Some proclaim the solution to everything is hemp. Many don't seem to understand that bio-degradable and/or compostable plastics only decompose when they are exposed to the elements - and I cringe every time someone proudly proclaims they have tossed all their plastic household goods and replaced them with recycleable products. Strangely, I never seem to get a single "Like" or response when I suggest people simply write a letter to the manufacturers of all the goods they purchase that come in plastic packaging and let them know that they, as conscientious consumers, are more than willing to pay/absorb the increased costs involved with retooling entire plants that are currently spec'd to deal with the timing and weight of plastic and the higher costs of transport involved with converting to metal or glass. Don't think I've had any takers so far. The cold reality is that we are going to be forced to listen to a whole lotta whining in the next few years and those of us old-timers that have been waging the war now for decades are going to run the risk of losing our tongues from all the biting.
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