�The Effects of Consumerism in our countries and globally�
Effects of Consumerism — Global Issues
“You work in a job you hate, to buy stuff that you don't need, to impress people that you don't like.“
Our consumption of goods obviously is a function of our culture. Only by producing and selling things and services does capitalism in its present form work, and the more that is produced and the more that is purchased the more we have progress and prosperity.
The effects of the way things are prodused and consumed today have impacts all around the world.
Consumerism refers to the consumption of goods at a higher rate. The production and selling of goods judge the economy. The gross national product is the total of goods and services produced for a specific period at a specific time.
As hinted above, within the current economic system of perpetual growth, we've being locked into a mode of development that is:
-destructive, in the long run, to the environment
-a contributing factor to poverty around the world
-a contributing factor to hunger amongst such immense wealth
-and numerous other social and ecological problems
�A cycle of waste, disparities and poverty�
Into a global population where health is generally getting worse may result in more sales of medicines or a growth in private healthcare and other knock-on industries. Instead of these always being seen as a cost, they are seen as providing more jobs and creating wealth, and as a result it counts towards GDP and other indicators of economic health!
Consumerism is also a Greek phenomenon and responds to every "growth economy" to which the dynamics of the market economy inevitably lead. It is just that in Greece the economy of growth and consumerism came relatively late. The consumption of products, services, spectacles and various ideologies and irrationalities is the "alpha and omega" of our lives.
Our society, guided by the press and the broadcasting media, is constantly subjected to negative influences, brainwashing and systematic misinformation, which makes many Greeks, consumers of wasteland and harmful products, services, leading the herd of sheep to the cave of the man-eating cyclops Polyphemus and to the sheepfold of businesses and multinationals that dominate our lives.
There is, of course, no easy solution to the problem. A lot of call for green taxes (to reflect the true environmental costs of a product), take-back programs that require manufacturers to recycle packaging or goods, and consumer education and awareness programs.
But first and foremost we need to reorient our way of thinking, as humans.
"The goal is to focus not so much on sacrifice, but on how to provide a higher quality of life using the lowest amount of raw materials". "We need to change the way we produce goods and the way we consume them."
TO BE OR NOT TO BE... TO CONSUME OR NOT TO CONSUME...
REDUCE YOUR CONSUMPTION LEVEL, RAISE THE LEVEL OF THE PLANET
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
SOURCES OF INFORMATION: https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-development/consumer-society-environmental-impact-planet/
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/consumerism-earth-suffers
https://www.globalissues.org/article/238/effects-of-consumerism
https://www.youtube.com/watch