Ethics of Consumerism free essay sample

Ethics of Consumerism Abstract: Consumerism is the economic philosophy that the increased consumption of goods and services by people above the commonly established level of basic needs is good for the society and economy. The question of ethics came into existence in this context because of the nature of the business interest groups to exploit the opportunity in the wake of increased consumer spending to their advantage irrespective of what would be the consequences over a longer period of time. Ethics are needed not only for sustained growth of a business but also the overall well being of the economic structure which is again linked to the long term stability of the businesses in particular and the overall economy in general. The ethics are not generally defined as hard and fast rules in any business domain or geographical area, but generally established as a consensus in a particular industry or country. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics of Consumerism or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Ethics followed as common practice in one country may not be applicable and practically feasible in another country. Likewise Ethics which are followed in one industry or business domain may not be possible to be honored in another business domain. Advertisements not showing the price less than what would be effectively be charged finally to the end customer may be the part of business ethics in a country and in a business domain, for example in computers in USA, the price advertised is the final price the customer pays excluding the sales tax while this may not be possible in a country such as UK where the advertised price cannot be given in all the counties and also in other industries like cell phones where the price of the cell phones shown does not show the price the customer needs to pay in case they want to opt out of the contract with which the price shown is effective. The Ethics in general and in context of the increasing consumerism culture are critically evaluated for contrast in the above factors as well as the opinions of the critics of consumerism are expressed in separate sections. The role of ethics in the consumerism culture is analyzed and opinions of experts are mentioned in context. The different faces of consumerism as mentioned above is described in various contexts with some extra emphasis being laid upon the healthcare industry in USA where the ethics of consumerism has got lot of significance with the need for private enterprise itself being under scrutiny. The Private business acting in USA in place of a Public funded social form of health care system which is its counterpart in most other developed countries in the west gave birth to lot of questions ethical and moral in USA and countries with similar setup of the industry. For example, Hospitals encouraging the people into unhealthy lifestyle for the sake of increased business is a very common question regarding ethics in private health care industry. There will be lots of similar questions which will be raised to the particular industry as well as the overall consumerist culture in the wake of the above findings in the essay to follow. Aims and Objectives: The main aims and objectives of the outcome of this project are going to be the different perspectives of consumerism as seen around the world at different times. The other aims of the project are performing case studies of diverse cases to give the reader a real world perspective about the ethics and the rising consumerism culture. Another aim of the project will be giving the reader an idea about the ethics of consumerism referred to different scenarios and business domains. The objectives of the project are literature review, case studies and various different topics that need to be discussed. The literature review is done about various diverse literature about the varied opinion about consumerism available in online and offline arena. The case studies are planned to be done about two topics yet to be decided which will be very diverse fields which will allow the reader have a look into different scenarios about the increasing levels of consumerism and ethics related. Introduction: The current topic, â€Å"Ethics of Consumerism† stemmed from the discussion of consumerism and its various faces in the current world where the creation of wealth and sustenance of the same has gained increasing significance. The consumerism discussion holds good as said above in various contexts and situations. The first known discussion of consumerism in dated history and modern times is believed to be stated by Thorstein Veblen. The consumerism is the concept that took birth from the excess or surplus of goods which was mainly the result of the industrial revolution of the 19th century. The Industrial revolution which gave rise to the mass consumption market, created a trend in the global business about the way in which the public consume the products since the trend existing until then naturally followed a consumption discouraging philosophy because of the shortage of most of the products because of the limited production capacities. The industrial revolution changed this philosophy in most of the areas with increased production of factory goods and similarly other major historic changes happened in other events like the green revolution which resulted in the increased production of agricultural produce. The trend follows in any other sector where the balance of supply and demand is tilted towards the supply not meeting the demand. For example the economy of communication in India used to follow a consumption discouraging way in the times when the exchanges were not enough to meet the total number of calls and the users being charged more for the calls made above a certain limit. The changes that subsequently took place that led as a part of technological revolution in India led to the change in this trend with the callers being rewarded with the lower tariffs for higher usage. The same can be noticed in the Electric power with the US being a market with surplus Generation and the users being charged less or at least at the same rate for higher usage which is in sharp contrast with the markets in South East Asia where the Generation rarely meets the demand and results in the users being billed at a higher rate for usage above preset limits of usage depending upon the prevailing local conditions. The case of consumerism is existing in the above cases with the businesses trying inadvertently to increase the consumption by the customers to make the most use of the available goods or services that can potentially sold to the customer for profit. The Ethics part in the whole discussion is whether it is ethical for the businesses to willfully encourage the increase in consumption and in what areas and to what extent. The methods adopted by the Businesses to carry out the increase in spending and consumption of goods and services in a surplus market is under question with also some goods and services themselves irrespective of the fashion under criticism for non business reasons. For example to increase the sales of the televisions the Companies in some companies encouraging the children to become couch potatoes , thus resulting in some problems like obesity in children in the West is under criticism for very long. Likewise other factors like environmental reasons make the consumerism in businesses like power and water unethical for a lot of activists and the self proclaimed â€Å"concerned†. The environmental side of the consumerism is gaining momentum in lot other business domains with the argument against consumerism being very predominantly heard with the increasing consensus in environment with the landfills worldwide being filled at a pace never seen before in the past. The ethics of Consumerism have encompassed various angles of the same thing with the reasons for each case being different, like in some cases the ethics being linked more to the overall well being of the society like the environmental impacts and other cases being linked to the a specific section of the target customers like the in the case of Liquor businesses in developing countries where alcoholism being major social evil and the liquor businesses inadvertently trying to push the sales irrespective of the evil it is causing. Another case which we will be considering in detail will be the cheapest internal combustion car in the world being unveiled in India which has the potential to cause a big hike in the Carbon emissions in India because of the highly affordable price tag it carries thus giving rise to lot of environmental concerns. This will be dealt in a separate section in the following parts. The need for Ethics in consumer culture, in a different perspective can be found in the health care industry in US where the debate is more about the existence of consumerism rather than the methods and extent to which it is practiced like in other industries. The health care industry in US which is in sharp contrast with most of its counterparts in developed countries is a predominantly free market enterprise system instead of the publicly funded system found in most of the Western European Countries. The Healthcare costs that are charged to the final end user are often debatable between both the cases, the question is more about the consumerism that exists because of the Lassies’-Faire system that the US so proudly upholds because of the country’s never dying belief in Free market Capitalism. The Consumerist policies of the US Healthcare allow for certain practices in the US market which are not possible in a single payer system in the rest of the developed countries. Literature review: Thorstein Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899 states-It is true of dress in even a higher degree than of most other items of consumption, that people will undergo a very considerable degree of privation in the comforts or the necessaries of life in order to afford what is considered a decent amount of wasteful consumption; so that it is by no means an uncommon occurrence, in an inclement climate, for people to go ill clad in order to appear well dressed. Thorstein Veblen is believed to be the first voice to raise the debate of the newly emerging Consumerist culture which was starting to be noticed by the speaker in the late 19th century. Though the term that was originally coined initially was conspicuous consumption, this evolved into a more widely known term today, consumerism in the post WW II Americas. The wide spread baby boomers culture in the US can be attributed a major chunk of the consumerist culture in the west which eventually spread out to other developed countries and thus almost the entire world. The basic theory of consuming more than the basic needs is not a modern era thing and can be dated back to very early times in history as back in history as the medieval Europe, Babylon and the Great Roman Empire where the people had wealth to spend in excess of their basic needs. However the debate about the trends in the consumer spending culture is believed to be seen only after towards the end of the 19th century. Consumerism in the UK super market culture: Jack Samways , 2007 states â€Å"Many nongovernmental organizations, such as Friends of the Earth (FOE) and so called ‘ethical consumerists’ are against the growth of supermarkets, often making claims that such businesses are un-ethical because their practices are harmful; to the environment, (Friends of the Earth Briefing 2005) society and local economies (Lawson 2005). While these arguments are not unfounded, they do appear to be very one sided. † The rise of the super market culture raised a serious debate in the UK about the spread of the consumerist culture in the region which was argued to have lot of impact on other issues such as the environment and local culture. The rise of the super market Giant Tesco is attributed to the rise of consumerism in the UK supermarket culture. The rhetoric against the spread of the super market culture in UK consists of lot of arguments like the traffic based one which states that the increase in the average miles driven by a customer increases with the increase in the miles that the goods take to reach the super markets. The argument is that out of town supermarkets result in the increased car journeys made by the customers. However this argument is countered by an opposing argument that states that the availability of an automotive I a bigger driving factor for the average driver than the distance to a super market in the increase of his average annual miles. This precisely means that the rise of super market culture is marked with a growth in the economy which is linked to the increase in the availability of personal transportation which results in the increase in the average miles driven by the customers rather than the location of the supermarkets.