Rodolfo Luevano

Writing 114
29 March 2016
Consumerism and its Complications
For hundreds of thousands of years the only man made technology that humans had were
simple stone tools. Slowly, humans began discovering new things and thus advancing their man
made technology exponentially which eventually led to where we are now. Although much of the
technological advancement was achieved in the last couple of centuries. Most would agree that
these technological advancements have significantly increased the quality of life in many
different aspects. One of the main standards of living that our modern day technology has
allowed is that of a continuously consuming society thanks to disposable and cheap consumer
goods. Living in todays consumerist society has its benefits but it also has its faults. There are
many different ways in which consumerism has detrimental effects to both the people who
partake in it, innocent bystanders in other countries, and the environment as a whole. Countries
like The United States of America lead the way in a culture that consumes without regards to any
of the detrimental effects of over and unnecessary consumption. It is a problem that has to be
tackled by the people who partake in this over consumption but also by the countries as a whole
for its a problem within the government and corporations as well.
Government policies such as NAFTA created the ability for governments and
corporations to trade with each other. Thanks to this trade agreement is now common to find
corporations and companies outsourcing their work to countries that have significantly lower
wages than the country in which they reside. This decreases the cost of production of the
consumer goods and allows for higher profits. The fashion industry has outsourced 97% of its

labor as stated in The True Cost. An unfortunate side effect is that it has a significant negative
impact to the residents and workers of the countries in which the work is outsourced to. The
people who decide to work for these companies are subjected to unethical work conditions. In
some places they are exposed to numerous safety hazardous ranging from chemical exposure to
questionable structural integrity of buildings as seen on the movie, The True Cost in which a
clothing factory in Dhaka Bangladesh collapsed resulting in the deaths of over 1000 people.
Often the workers of these factories cannot afford for daycare and have no choice but to take
their children with them to work and therefore their children are exposed to the chemicals and
hazardous environment in which the factory workers work in. Shima Akhter, a Bangladesh
factory worker who was shown in the movie the The True Cost admitted that she had at times
had no choice but to take her daughter with her to work. This would not be allowed in countries
like The United States of America but corporations that outsource work to these third world
countries impose no regulations in the factories to keep workers and their families in safe
environments. Similar problems can be found in The United States as well. The meat packing is
one of the most dangerous jobs as seen on Food Inc.. Corporations employ minorities and
often take advantage of them and at times deport the illegal immigrants after they have worked a
certain amount of time.
The environment itself has taken a great toll thanks to the production and manufacturing
of consumer goods. This has created environmental problems such as the pollution of water
sources and the pollution of the atmosphere. This environmental problems have in given rise to
large scale phenomena such as global climate change that now affects the world as a whole. By
the outsourcing this work to countries that have lower environmental regulations, companies can
evade all the regulations found in countries which have adopted strict environmental regulations.

By evading these regulations they can save money and time. In the movie The True Cost
tanneries in India dumped the water used to process the leather straight into rivers and creeks
which in turn polluted the communities water sources with metals such as chromium. These
metals created many health problems for the people in these communities. People started
developing jaundice and the newer generations began having abnormally high rates of mental
disabilities. In The Pope and the Planet, it is mentioned that pope states that every human has
the right to a clean water supply. Yet this is not the case for a large population of the world and
even less likely when factories keep polluting current water supplies. There are also many
indirect ways in which the consumption of consumer goods affects the environment. In The
Conundrum of Consumption Mr. Durning mentions all the possible indirect sources
environmental pollutants such as the gasoline burned, electricity consumed, ect that it takes to
transport goods as well as the components used in creating the packaging of the products. Many
at times the goods we consume as well as the products involved in the production,
manufacturing, and transportation of the goods end up in landfills. Many of the components of
these landfills take thousands of years of to decompose or degrade and often at times these
landfills create gases which escape into the atmosphere furthering global climate change.
Landfills can often cause water contamination in part because of the chemicals and byproducts
from rain runoff from these landfills which leach into water supplies.
Animals found in modern day factory farms are also victims of the negative impacts of
consumeristic society. More than often the living conditions of animals ranging from chickens to
cows, are unethical. In the movie Food Inc, undercover footage of thousands of chickens
placed into packed into musty buildings littered with dead and sickly chickens. In The
Omnivores Dilemma Michael Pollan talks about the fact that cows are fed unnatural diets

consisting of corn. These unnatural diets of corn can affect the natural process by which cows
digest food by changing the pH of their stomachs thus allowing the possibility of creating super
e-coli, an e-coli that can survive human stomach acids and therefore be a potential hazard for
humans when consuming cow meat. Micheal Pollan also talks about how cows in factory farms
can be found to have very little room of freedom as well as living in puddles of their own feces
and urine. Living in such conditions allows for feces and urine to often contaminate the meat as
it is being processed in the slaughter houses. Slaughter houses are another place were unethical
treatment of animals takes place as seen in Food Inc.. Chickens are often thrown and shoved
into their cages for transportation and when having arrived at the slaughter houses are often
mistreated with brute force. The same holds true for many other farm animals such as cows. In
the movie Food Inc. downer cows could be seen to be pushed and dragged to their destination
by forks of forklifts. It is our responsibility to treat animals with respect and ultimately in an
ethical manner because they suffer just as much as humans and thanks to them we have sources
of food to eat. Animals also have feelings and have been seen to suffer from emotional distress
when separated from their families and when subjected to harsh treatment as seen in Food Inc..
It is a pleasure to know that the food products you are consuming arrived to your table in ethical
and responsible manner as suggested by Wendell Berry in The pleasures of Eating.
Living in our modern day consumeristic society is irresponsible because as consumers we
contribute to the degradation of the environment, the unethical treatment of humans and animals,
and the degradation of our very own lives which we sought to improve through the advantages of
a consumeristic society. It is important to take responsibility for our actions so that we may
continue to live for generations to come and decrease the suffering of all living beings due to
negative impacts of overconsumption and manufacturing of consumer goods. Society as a whole

will need to take certain actions and initiatives such as consuming organic goods which are
produced in ways which take into account the environmental effects of production and
manufacturing as well as the people who work directly and indirectly in these processes. Policy
making is another key factor with policies like the recent bill that Obama implemented in which
the import of goods produced through slave labor will no longer be allowed. It is with policy
making that it will be easier to combat the irresponsibility of the companies who take advantage
of the people and land and while still allowing access to the consumer goods that we as a society
seek to consume. Consumption in moderation and the implementation of a culture in which
goods are not viewed in a way in which consumer goods are not seen as something to be
disposed of readily in order to keep consuming new goods yet a culture in which goods are
valued and used until they ultimately not needed or obsolete. It is throught these methods that we
will see a change in the manner in which we live. Until both the people, governments, and
corporations work together, the distant future will continue to look the same.