ahalkon’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  what does this mean for poor people?

  After reading "Catch a Wave" and a number of other articles in Grist about the greening of large, corporate businesses, I want to raise two questions.

  Number one, the links that became apparant between workers, environmentalists and international human rights activists are in jeopardy if we jump on the green wal-mart bandwagon.  Wal-mart still refuses to allow workers to unionize and has an awful track record of race and gender discrimination among workers.  I can't imagine people concerned with making it possible for working class people to survive as the gaps between haves and have nots increase will really care that Wal-mart customers can now buy orgaic produce and high-end wine.  Also, the majority of cheap plastic crap that Wal-mart has to offer was made in sweat shops in countries that don't have much in the way of labor and environmental regulations.

  Some kinds of enviornmental reforms appeal mostly to elites.  Sure, large markets for organic growers is a good thing, but the economy of scale makes it more likely that this food will come from large corporate than small, family farms.  Also, is it worth turning on the progressive coalitions that are finally beginning to develop so that Wal-mart can make some small, incremental changes.  I would like to think environmentalism is about something more radical than that.

  Secondly, Wal-mart's popularity is based on its ability to convince people to buy more stuff.  They offer everything inexpensively, making their profits off an increase in overall consumption (plus their awfully low labor costs).  Is it even possible to have an environmetnalism that involves all of us in developed countries continuing to buy all of this needless stuff?  And is it possible to have a business that is not about, in some way, promoting this consumer mentality.

  Even if wal-mart is for real, it represents, at best, a small improvement in the current way of doing business.  This is a good thing, but we need to keep imagining totally new ways.On The ebb and flow of corporate eco-consciousness posted 4 years ago 3 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  what does this mean for poor people?

  After reading "Catch a Wave" and a number of other articles in Grist about the greening of large, corporate businesses, I want to raise two questions.

  Number one, the links that became apparant between workers, environmentalists and international human rights activists are in jeopardy if we jump on the green wal-mart bandwagon.  Wal-mart still refuses to allow workers to unionize and has an awful track record of race and gender discrimination among workers.  I can't imagine people concerned with making it possible for working class people to survive as the gaps between haves and have nots increase will really care that Wal-mart customers can now buy orgaic produce and high-end wine.  Also, the majority of cheap plastic crap that Wal-mart has to offer was made in sweat shops in countries that don't have much in the way of labor and environmental regulations.

  Some kinds of enviornmental reforms appeal mostly to elites.  Sure, large markets for organic growers is a good thing, but the economy of scale makes it more likely that this food will come from large corporate than small, family farms.  Also, is it worth turning on the progressive coalitions that are finally beginning to develop so that Wal-mart can make some small, incremental changes.  I would like to think environmentalism is about something more radical than that.

  Secondly, Wal-mart's popularity is based on its ability to convince people to buy more stuff.  They offer everything inexpensively, making their profits off an increase in overall consumption (plus their awfully low labor costs).  Is it even possible to have an environmetnalism that involves all of us in developed countries continuing to buy all of this needless stuff?  And is it possible to have a business that is not about, in some way, promoting this consumer mentality.

  Even if wal-mart is for real, it represents, at best, a small improvement in the current way of doing business.  This is a good thing, but we need to keep imagining totally new ways.On Two books explore the perks and perils of corporate social responsibility posted 4 years ago 3 Responses