in a world where multinational corporations vie for ultimate control over the markets they greedily saturate with products, the average citizen in a developed nation consumes these products with little or no knowledge of how or where that product came from. what s/he may not realize is that the workers who make those products in developing countries receive a mere fraction of the price that our first world consumer pays. the bulk of that money goes straight to the international corporation who builds a factory and employs workers at almost slave-wages, earning staggering profits.
while you may applaud the megacorporations for starting jobs, and boosting local economies, there is much these faceless moneymaking machines have to learn about the human and environmental sides of doing business.
take Shell for instance. they run massive oil fields in Nigeria, creating lots of jobs and investing some money into local community efforts. they also pollute the air, and water, and place oil wells and refineries so close to villages that the air is often thick with soot. how can they do this? because there's noone there to stop them.
the Nigerians organized themselves and founded MOSOP (the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People) in 1992, in an attempt at defending themselves from an oppresive military government grown fat with kickbacks from Shell. they did not succeed, in fact their situation was only made worse. many of the protestors were killed at peaceful rallies, and the leaders were executed by the government on trumped-up charges, while Shell stood by and made no public comment on the issue.
it's not right that a foreign company can take over a third world government, rape the land of its natural resources while causing massive and irreversible environmental damage, and take all of their profits elsewhere. but how can we stop this? with such global-minded economics at work today, and the MAI waiting in the wings, how can we stop this perverse balance of power, profits, and human rights?
bioeconomics. an economic model whereby the price a consumer pays for a product fairly and accurately reflects the environmental and human cost of making that product. what does this ammount to? the workers who made that product receive fair, equitable pay no matter what country they live in. it also means that the more environmental damage caused by the production of that product, the more expensive it will be.
here's an example: you could buy pricey brand X perfume for $200, but you might be surprised to learn that a full $150 of the cost of that perfume is due to the animal testing involved in its production. or, you could make the intelligent choice, and go for brand Y perfume that only costs $20 because it wasn't tested on animals, and has been made with as much care for the environment as possible.
bioeconomics would tilt the balance of power (and profits) away from the ugly corporations who would hapily drive species to extinction because its cheaper to clear cut forests, to the ones who realized the tremendous impact industry and consumerism have on our environment. it would encourage consumers to make wise choices about the products they chose, and reward them richly for making intelligent decisions that safeguard our planet.
wouldn't it be a better world with a level economic playing field for all of earth's citizens?
-chris { 4.13.99 }