No Other Option, Really??

The Story of Stuff ties in many of the topics we have been discussing in past few class sessions, healthcare, the environment, the plight of the lower and middle class individual, and control of the government. One of the things which stood out to me was the narrator’s statement that Dioxin is one of the most toxic manmade toxins that affects the environment and, as the readings also point out, people who live off the environment.
Another interesting point was how media narrows our vision and makes us thinks we have to keep up with the Joneses, the Joile-Pitts, and just about everybody else. Our compliance to the system is brought about by the fact that we work too much and have too little time for family, relaxation, and much less complaining or doing things to affect change that would require major time, effort, and investment. The work hard to spend lots of money mentality means the importance of capitalism is elevated over the right and health of the human to have a healthy environment. This shifting of values is similar to what we observed in out discussion about healthcare in the United States. Because there is so much focus on continuing production, lowering costs and increasing consumption, there is not enough attention placed on taking care of those who are involved in the production, distribution, and sell of the products. Workers are seen as replaceable either in the states or by exporting the labor to another country in which there are more lax work healthcare requirements and regulations.
Small businesses that would be instrumental in defeating the mindset of the linear system of from extraction to product cannot compete because in many cases, a great deal of the costs that goes into running a business is due to paying for employee healthcare.
So in making products that can be easily replaced and not made to the highest quality, wastes and pollution released affects areas that are not exactly the most affluent, so those in those neighborhoods get sick and possibly do not have the resources to address the small problems so the accumulate until it becomes something that requires major attention. In that instance, it becomes a toss up of whether or not they will be able to get the care. So then what do we do when those who should be limiting the ways people get sick are the same people who are taking actions that in fact much us sick? How are they to be held responsible, the article we are assigned to read touches on this subject using the example of Inuit women and Dioxin pollution is affecting their community/culture and the issues and pitfalls involved in taking the case to court. The article shows that how we can start to demand that government take action that is in the best interest of the greater majority of the population instead than catering to the small immensely wealthy minority population of big business and special interest groups.
I was talking with a friend about the domino effect of the issues we have been discussing and she pointed out to me that these matters seem big and beyond us but since each issue affects another issue and involves people in each process, one person’s action will affect the people they interact with and can lead to big waves of change.