BarkellWH -> RE: British Petroleum Makes me SICK (May 19 2010 18:22:28)
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QUOTE: Our society creates demands for resources and companies supply them at any cost. They can make massive profits but don't seem to shoulder any responsibility for their business practices. This is the biggest problem with our capitalist model...corporations can make as much money as they can for share holders without any responsibility to our environment or local communities. UNQUOTE. Pimientito, you are correct, but if corporations and businesses, all of whom make money for their shareholders (which include many of us who own stocks or mutual funds) were to pay the true cost of doing business (which would include the damage to the environment, the fouling of the air and water, etc.) either the cost of their products to the consumer would greatly increase or the stock and mutual fund shareholders would have to accept considerably less return, or both. I still maintain that we are as responsible as the corporations and governments for what is going on. How many of us would willingly and sanguinely accept much higher prices for food, fuel, power, and all those things that make our lives comfortable and easy, in order that companies use the additional revenue to offset the true cost of production by implementing much greener production techniques, reforestation at a sustainable level, cleaning up pollution levels, etc.? In the summer of 2008, the price of gasoline at the pump in the U.S. rose to $4.00 per gallon--and the public howled bloody murder! If the majority of the public consider that a huge imposition on their lifestyle, I can't imagine how they would accept even greater cost increases in other areas. Some on this forum have argued that the ordinary public is "vulnerable" and subject to "manipulation" by corporations and governments. I don't believe that for one minute. We all know what we want, and we pay for it, not because we are manipulated, but because we want it, plain and simple. No one is forced to buy a particular vehicle (such as a huge, gas-guzzling SUV), the latest electronic gadget, or anything else. We all have minds capable of making individual decisions. If the public wanted small cars rather than SUVs, all they would have to do is not buy SUVs, and Detroit and others would make the type of cars we want. Demand determines supply. I still maintain that we have met the enemy and it is us. Cheers, Bill
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