The Mighty Dollar

August 24, 2008

I just recieved my copy of VegNews magazine and already I’m annoyed by the letters.

Christopher wrote,

“Eating organic is not splurging; it is voting with your dollars!”

Argh. I’m so frustrated by that notion that conscientious consumption is “voting.” Since when did capitalism and democracy merge? How did things get so green-washed that people can’t see the forest through the trees? Buying organic isn’t going to end pesticide use. It just isn’t. The few concerned citizens who feel that they can “vote with their dollars” aren’t going to affect much change when consumption is their only tool. Get real, dudes.

Dmitri wrote,

“[W]hen gay people are not given [marriage] rights, some straight people somehow think it’s okay to forge ahead anyway.”

Yeah, I forged ahead anyway, taking advantage of my hetero privilege to marry my beloved. If forgoing my marriage would have resulted in equal rights for gays, I would have done it. The only problem is that boycotting marriage doesn’t do shit.

What is it with everyone acting like our only tools for social change are boycotts and conscientious consumption? What ever happened to protests, sit-ins, letters to Congress, marches, rallies, and other forms of activism, both direct and indirect? Why has everything been reduced to the damn dollar? And why do so many people think veganism is synonymous with boycott?

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Miscellaneous 

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Comments

2 Responses to “The Mighty Dollar”

  1. Tracy on August 25th, 2008 8:40 am

    While I agree that Americans should be buying much, much less, I don’t consider buying organic to be conspicuous consumption. We need to buy food in order to live. I do believe in “voting with your dollar.” Corporations respond to money; it’s the only thing rich executives understand.

    And, unfortunately, our democracy is tied to corporations. They own the government, which is why we have the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act — to protect the corporations that profit from animal abuse.

    But I agree that the forms of activism you listed above are very worthwhile, but they need not be mutually exclusive.

  2. Elaine Vigneault on August 25th, 2008 9:13 am

    HI Tracy,
    Thanks for commenting.
    I didn’t say it was conspicuous consumption, I said it was conscientious consumption. They’re different. Conspicuous consumption is buying a Prius instead of carpooling - it’s doing something because it looks good, not necessarily because it is good. Conscientious consumption is doing what you’re talking about - voting with your dollar.

    I think we agree that conscientious consumption can be a good thing when paired with other actions. I prefer to buy organic and I think everyone should buy organic if they can.

    Here’s the trouble with conscientious consumption when it’s the sole action taken to create social change:
    Whenever some group announces that they’re willing to pay more for this or that product for this or that reason, there’s another group who is unwilling or unable to pay more. It sets up a dichotomy of markets - one for the higher quality product and one for the lower quality. It doesn’t end the lower quality product, it simply divides the two groups.

    For example, some people are willing to pay extra for safer vehicles. Those buyers created the market for Volvo, but they haven’t actually made most vehicles safer. Instead, car makers found other niches of buyers who are interested in speed, style, technology, etc. Though airbags have been developed and other technologies that make cars safer, the expansion of the SUV market has completely changed the entire industry. SUVS are terribly dangerous and put everyone at risk, yet car makers were able to sell them through appealing to market segments that weren’t truly interested in safety or who had been lied to about safety.

    This can and will happen with food. As the organic market grows and expands so will the market for cheap, pesticide-filled foods, particularly if Big Food comes out with a creative spin on it. Just look at how everyone is greenwashing things these days. Consumers are being misled into thinking that consuming this or that product is better for the environment, when it’s not at all better. All that’s better is the marketing.

    We can’t rely on the average person to make well-informed decisions at the supermarket. We can’t rely on social change to come from the consumer. It has to be broader than that. There have to be stronger influences on the producers than merely a niche market of organic or vegan consumers.

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