You can post your responses here. Feel free to respond to someone else's post if you think it's the best way to do so. Remember:
- put your name on the post so I know who gets credit.
- a response needs to be more than 3 sentences to be substantial enough to get credit.
Alternately, you may turn them in during class tomorrow.
Thanks!
Ashley Stoll-Mackey
ReplyDeleteThis is mostly why I do not eat beef! It is outrageous to read the things that are done to raise cattle, not only in the US, but worldwide. I knew the beef and sugar markets generate a lot of money, but is it really worth all of the negative effects? I do not believe it to be. If the world population would take a step back and realize that it is more important to have safe air in your lunges rather than a steak in your stomach, this may not be such a horrible pandemic.
First off I knew that the united States used the most resources of any country but I had no idea by how much. The table on page 185 shows that even though china has a population of one billion more than us and is the second most consuming country, the difference between the two countries is outstanding. And these figures are from 2007, I know that as a country we consume more and more each year. And according to the reading, "globally, we are already drawing on more than the total biocapacity available to us, and, in effect, requiring almost one and a half earths to meet our total consumption needs." That is a scary thought. And I can't help but wonder when we will run out of natural resources. And with the population of the world growing more and more every year i wouldn't be surprised if this number has grown. Robbins goes on to say that capitalism is the cause of this, and uses the examples of how the sugar and beef markets grew to be what they are today. I believe that capitalism is a root cause of this, and i think we need to alter our system so that we become less wasteful and have save resources for future generations. But i get the feeling that Robbins is pushing more toward a social, communistic system. And I may be wrong, but thats the feeling I get from his writing.
ReplyDelete-Trevor Stewart
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ReplyDeleteCory Payne
ReplyDelete"Reading Response Week 2"
Chapter two really helped me to understand the relationship between the black box of capitalism and the working class. The working class in Malaysia reminded me a lot of the free zone that was shown in the movie "Life and Death". The fact that the Malaysian workers made less than what you could live on showed a parallel to the Jamaican free zone which was brought to help their economy. Both countries benefited slightly from the jobs but they were mostly taken advantage of for cheap labor with few regulations. While the women's rights and privileges were getting better by getting away from some of the suppressive traditions, I don't feel like this was the right way to do it. The girls were getting new freedoms but more restraints seemed to come along as well. It seems crazy that there could be government raids on local hotels or the fact that khalwat and zinah were both so severely punishable.
The chapter brought up another thing what I always wondered, why did the people not just go back to the land and make a living that way instead of through sweat shop like work? This would be possible except for the fact that in places like Malaysia, greed took over and the land is all used for single crops like palm oil for export. It really discussed me to learn that in Mexico everything was going fine until the rights to use land was replaced in order for land to be bought and sold. The land was bought up by none other that the rich white man, giving him a perfect opportunity to exploit the now landless farmer.
Reading pages 52 – 63 in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, there were a few things that struck me about how the author highlights the negative byproducts of modern capitalism. After mentioning how capitalism ravages the land and natural resources, squeezes as much labor from the laborer at the lowest amount they can pay them, the huge disparity between the super rich and the super poor, and how the working conditions for the laborer (namely before the rise of unions) were intolerable in inhumane, the author simply ends the discussion there. I will be the first to admit that capitalism has its inherent flaws, but as Winston Churchill said, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” The author, later in the chapter, then asks why all these issues came to be, but like many, many critics of capitalism, they seem to put the blinders on. Crooked corporations and businesses get away with these things because the common people, who the author feels so empathetic towards, empower them. Never have I met a critic of capitalism tell me that the reason that these businesses get away exploiting the third world by using their cheap labor to sell cheap products is due to the fact that lower classes buy these cheap products on their own accord. Nobody is forcing you to buy from the unethical corporations. Nobody is forcing you to work exhausting hours in grueling conditions. Nobody is forcing you to put labor before everything else in your life. I feel that the author treats the common citizen as a brainless entity not capable of conscious decision making. The “capitalism” we see today is not capitalism at all. What we see today is a corrupt marriage between government and business. I will say that the key to a successful and less turbulent capitalistic culture is being an intelligent consumer of goods and seller of labor-- know where your products are coming from, and know that your labor is valued.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you "Never have I met a critic of capitalism tell me that the reason that these businesses get away exploiting the third world" But I think we, Americans, have been indoctrinated to consume and that is what we do! We are told that we deserve the good things in life and we believe! What struck me in the Jamaican movie was how, in the "Free Zone", they assembled clothing that was all "made in USA" and I'm willing to bet that American's are told these items are American made! We are not informed just like food labeled "Natural" can mean anything! Also we can't get our own companies to label "GMO or not" on our food! We buy because we aren't informed of the consequences and the public doesn't believe in the destructive ways we consume. P.S. when I was a vegetarian people would ask why and then tell me they didn't really want to know. just my opinion
DeleteMichael: I do agree with your statement "Crooked corporations and businesses get away with these things because the common people... empower them." We as consumers have some control of where we put our dollars, we have all heard the mantra "buy local" and the dollars will not go to these corporations, however we cannot buy local for all of our needs. Many corporations own and operate under many other names and while we avoid a corporations name on some products we are consuming we may unknowingly provide them support through one of their other entities with a friendlier face. Nestle pops into my mind here. http://www.nestle.com/Brands/Pages/BrandsSearchList.aspx or here is the wiki page that has an easier to read list of products they sell. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nestl%C3%A9_brands While we are not forced to support these companies it is often difficult to discern connections these companies have with others and who owns who. The list of choices of who to support is much shorter than many people realize. As for people not being forced to work for these companies under extreme conditions I feel you are not considering the position these people have been put in. With limited options or unsavory options we will choose the lesser of the evils. Slow death due to starvation or extreme governance versus a slim chance of hope most people will side with the slim hope even if it is detrimental it is not as bad as death you still have the opportunity to overcome the situation. When the scales are tipped to far out of favor the people always have the option of revolt.
DeleteRegards, Josh Logan
Response #2 to Robbins Ch. 7
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that caught my eye was Figure 7.1 on page 187. This chart shows the number of earths required if everyone lived like a specific country. The reason that I was drawn to this was because I have heard a lot about how many earths would be required if everyone in the world lived like we do here in the United States and it was interesting to see how other countries consumption compared with ours. I also thought it was interesting some of the things that people used to think about sugar and it benefits which now turns out to be very far from the truth.
-Garfield Anderson
I found it interesting in Chapter 2 (not the pages mentioned because they weren't actually in the chapter, but on page 37 how it mrentiones that after farmers would lose their land and were forced to supplemt thir activities with wage labors, they believed in baptizing money ina catholic church as opposed to baptizing a newborn child. But when they did go to baptize a child, they would hold money up and have the money be blessed basically. Really this part doesn't bring a whole lot of questions to myself or anything, but I just find it so amusing how superstitious people are. And it's not just back then, but to this day. I know people who are so supersticious and I know that everyone is different and all and has their own beliefs but it amazes me (i suppose the word is) to believe that people wll only do something or will believe in something so strongly due to superstitions.
ReplyDeleteHeidi Schultz
Chapter seven
ReplyDeleteFor me, I would say that I've been extremely ignorant to how I consume. I've never really thought about the effects of what all goes into to me eating my candy. To see that sugar has caused and still does cause so much harm to not just the environment, but also to people, make me reconsider how I consume. After the reading in class and watching the movie, I cannot look at the meals I eat the same way.
Greg Haste
I love sugar more than I should. Reading about sugar in chapter 7 was interesting to learn about the history of sugar. I didn't realize that sugar was domesticated in New Guinea, then India, and the Middle East. I thought it originated in Africa. Finding out that sugar was used as a medicine, and cleaned out the blood and stregthened the chest, lungs adn throat was also a strange fact that caught my attention. The consumption of sugar is also outragous! Just from 1860 to 1890 it increased 500 percent.
ReplyDelete-Chelsea Wallace
-Readings to Chapter 2- Richard H. Robbins-
ReplyDeleteI see how the current capitalism evolved from trading merchants, but I have to wonder if there might have been other events in the world that would have changed how the current system works. What if instead of China cutting off trade they had stayed trading more? would it have been the same? To me it seems like it was a matter of time before we got to the current global system, since it seems to be mankind runs not on currency, but on power. -Jose L. Garcia-
The history of the rise in consumption of sugar and beef was pretty interesting and gives good context to how our culture has become such a heavy consumer of those two products. Given how much fat and sugar we as a country consume each year its not surprising that we are faced with an obesity problem. This chapter has definitely made me think about my consumption and how it effects the environment. I think solutions would have to start with education of the public which seems to me would be the hardest part in making a change for the better.
ReplyDelete-Mark Peterman
When I started reading the part of the chapter on sugar I was blown away at the fact that each American takes in 66 pounds of sugar a year. I mean it makes sense but I had never given it much thought. I also found it interesting how broad of an impact sugar has made in our society. It has “increased the exploration of labor, converted millions of acres of forest into sugar production and changed the dietary habit of most of the world”. It is amazing to me how something so simple as sugar can have such a lasting impact on the entire world.
ReplyDelete-Anthony Wood
In chapter 7 the author discusses China, India and the American model. The western business model was copied by countries in the East (China & India). With this surge of wealth from manufacturing causing rapid growth you also see a new set of issues caused by these industries. Some of these issues (also seen in western countries) like pollution, energy requirements, workers rights and fair trading practices began to move its way to the front of domestic problems in these countries. These growth patterns have been analyzed and seem to run in the same cycles regardless of culture.
ReplyDeleteOne of these patterns I hope the author will at least mention is the Lewisian Theory and the role it plays in the transition from unskilled labor to skilled labor. In chapter 2 I felt the description gave of unskilled labor was crude and one sided. Unskilled labor jobs are not intended solely for women in modern manufacturing. The term unskilled is used to describe a job that can be performed by a person who has little or no education. The Lewisian model also explains how and why the phenomena causes over time a shift of a major population of unskilled labor to skilled labor and in a nut shell causing unskilled based jobs to move out while skilled labor jobs move in.
- Tiffany Cogburn
After reading the assigned readings, as well as the responses above, I am curious as to why these statistics relating to the United States' resource consumption and waste is so shocking. None of the information provided in the text is "new", and should not be a shock to the general population. Given the environment our society lives in and the practices our government undertakes regarding consumption, it should come as no surprise that it is an unsustainable lifestyle. Rather than learning about the problem, we as a student body and Americans should be organizing a solution.
ReplyDeleteKelsi Swenson