"The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." -- Oscar Wilde
Over on the Dollars and Sense blog, I've got a collection of links that will, presumably, help you become a better-informed shopper and make it easier for you to gauge the real and hidden costs behind every consumer good. This is a follow-up to the Morning Edition segment on Monday, "Capitalism Overload and 'The Value of Nothing'," with The Value of Nothing author Raj Patel.
While I was researching so-called "ethical shopper" links, I noticed something of a consumer-ethics monoculture: nearly all of these directories take the stance that animal testing is bad, corporate social responsibility is good, sweatshops are bad, eco-friendly manufacture and farming is good. Which is all well and good if you subscribe to those principles, but what if your priorities are different? Where are your resources?
From a political perspective, it is not terribly surprising that liberals have staked a claim on "ethical consumption," as one of the philosophical underpinnings is that companies do not have the right to pursue profit at all costs, and this spells "government regulation." It's also not surprising that so many of the guide contents focus on lifestyle purchases made with discretionary income -- it's a lot easier to feel good about purchasing a bed made by real American artisans (and I love my bed) and shrug, "Well, I have to buy gas." (Also, for the truly cynical among us: You can see how green a class of consumables has to be by how big their lobby is in Washington, no?)
I do wonder why it's so hard to find non-secular ethical shopping guides. For example, where is the Christian buying guide that emphasizes companies practicing responsible stewardship?
And from a practical perspective: the first real challenge to determining the "real" costs of everything is that cost will never reflect value, because value is variable and subjective. I can sit here in my office job and deplore the terrible conditions of a sweatshop, but there's probably some worker in Poland (where the sweater I'm wearing came from) who is like, "Dude, it was this or life as an exported sex slave."
The second real challenge is making the premise "Knowing the full impact of your consumption is the right thing to do" a majority value among consumers. Anyone who's got any ideas on how to sell this? Spill them below.
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