Comsumerism does more than deprive the poor

Making wealth history doesn’t always have to do with taking from ourselves, and giving to the poor. Our consumer life style does so much more damage then we might first think. While considering what effect our lifestyle is having on others around the world and trying to fix that, we must also realize the problems we are causing directly to the planet.

A combination of many organisations and governments have been telling Less economically developed countries (LEDCs) that they need to develop. The countries of the west demand an exceeding amount of resources from LEDCs, a lot of which have come at the expense of the poor, and of the planet. Even if you ignore how much rubbish we produce, or how much we pollute our atmosphere by driving walking distances, its our governments and our shopping habbits which are polluting the world (some can argue this contributes to climate change). Let me explain:

The majority of the products we buy come from enormous plantations and factories built in LEDCs and driven by the constant desire to be like the West. These LEDCs are pouring everything they’ve got into developing and becoming as “rich” as the West, but at what expense? Both to themselves (they can never reach our current level of wealth) and to the environment (hundreds of rain forest/coral reefs/fertile wetlands are being distroyed to make massive scale plantations to feed our demand). We are not only exploiting the people. . . we are also abusing their land.

(Palm Oil plantations in Indonesia/Cambodia have been planted where once rainforest grew. Most of the produce is sent abroad)

You can argue that the people chose to turn their rainforest (or whatever) into a plantation, but in many places people have no choice. You can also say that exporting the goods is for economic progress, however true this may be, the rules of the game aren’t fair. They have to compete with impossible trading standards set by the rich countries. They probably have to clear enormous amounts of land just to make the equivalent a farmer does in one of his fields here in the UK. In effect, we’re aren’t just paying them low prices for their produce. . .we’re paying them to ruin the environment too.

In summary:

Making wealth history will involve fair trade laws. With fair trade laws, there is less exploitation of people and resources. That is something we can all very easily support through buying fair trade products

Our lifestyles are at an unsustainable level, both economically and environmentally, both in how we treat our lands, and how we make others treat theirs. We are not creating a better future for generations to come.