[b said:
Quote[/b] (Est @ June 10 2004,1:48)]Conservation is so easy, I'm just amazed at the way that some people waste.... Oh boy, so, to prevent a rant, and to make sure that I get myself to bed, I'll cut it off here, and assume that everyone know what I'm saying.
So to sum, before we sit around and wait for the answers of the future to solve the problems of today, why not do something constructive with our time?
<span style='font-size:9pt;line-height:100%'>I agree completely with you, we all need to do a little more than we're doing to make a less wasteful society. I also agree that the most likely place to make a difference is with big developers and contractors.
Unfortunately, my experience to date is that many of the people really calling the shots that could make any difference these days(developers) are of the type of personality i call the 'businessperson type'. In my own personal version of the world (warning: the opinions expressed may not be rational, pleasant, or correct) there are two basic types of people: those who are "businesspeople", and those whose conscience prevents them from making a buck via exploitation. Disclaimer: i'm not saying that all people in business are "businesspeople", but that does tend to be where that personality type ends up.
For example, i was talking to an old acquaintance of mine a few weeks back. This is an amazingly successful man in his late 20s, who can wheel and deal like you wouldn't believe. He has so many inborn negotiating skills it's amazing; you have to admire how good he is with people. He works now as a high-up in a California land developing company.
We first met in southern Florida, and the conversation turned to the changes there since we lived there. I commented on how far inland the irrepressable march of development has come since then, with square mile after square mile of wetland being drained and filled to make way for more cookie-cutter houses. (Side note: the sad thing is that these houses are often so poorly built that they are 'discarded' after a dozen years or so for a newer house built in the advancing wave front.) I concluded by mumbling under my breath "that's gotta stop sometime". He said "That's funny. I was just thinking how i'd like to be the one building all those houses." And there's the fundamental distinction.
He's a sharp guy, and no mistake, but what he really has that i don't that has made a huge difference is his ability to work without remorse of exploitation. He's an upstanding citizen, model of a good father, etc, but his conscience seems to lack any degree of concern for the long-term effects of his professional accomplishments.</span>
Of course "people gotta live", as my grandfather, or many others would point out, and i fully agree. But unless all people (ie 'the consumers') change, or the 'businesspeople' exploiting the resources change, nothing is going to change, and ain't gonna be no people living as they'd like some day soon.
So, whatta we do?
When i first came to my current academic institution, i was pleasantly surprised to find that recycling bins are everywhere. The growing disappointment is that there are a lot of people here (at a 'good school', who really ought to know better) who would rather chuck a pop can in the trash than take an extra step to drop it in the bin.
What's a lone person to do?
I've concluded that the problem is that there will always be those willing to exploit and/or those too ambivalent to care, so we can't count on the entire consumer body to change (which is necessary: a few bad apples really do spoil the barrel in economics), and we'll never fully convert and/or eliminate the exploiters.
So what do we do?
As much as nobody likes to hear it, i think that legislation is the only way that anything meaningful is going to change. That's because it's something that affects all but requires less than all to enact. Let's take the 'bottle bill' that many states now have enacted for an example. This is applied economics: impose an entirely skewed economic condition on the system: make bottles worth many times the value of the component materials. Suddenly, that little extra effort to separate your trash from the recyclables is worth it. And those ambivalents, foot-draggers, etc. who don't do it will find others willing to do it for the pocket change. What if this concept could be applied to other aspects of consumer life? Could we alleviate waste with "bottle bills"? Thoughts?