Black Friday And The Tragedy Of The Commons

To understand what it means to eat a banana, one must understand what it means to be a consumer. Nearly all of mankind is some type of consumer, with the exception of the few self-sustaining civilizations. The term “consumer” has been denoted as a negative consequence. When one thinks of a consumer, a picture of a greedy American normally forms in their mind. Black Friday is the picturesque of the stereotypical consumer. To be a consumer is to be ignorant of the environmental changes, and some say the “tragedy” of the commons,, that comes from the consumption of goods. The ignorance can both stem from a lack of knowledge and the refusal to accept the information about the goods which they are consuming.

E.D. Morel discovered that the latter

The banana consumers, and all consumers, need to understand their role as consumers. With their demand, they can either increase or decrease production. They also have the power to create massive change to the environment with their demand or lack thereof. Garrett Hardin, in the “Tragedy of the Commons,” tells the story of the herdsmen. Each herdsmen wants to add one more animal to their land in order to have a larger profit. While it does not hurt the land for one more animal, each herdsmen adding one more animal will hurt the land. Each consumer eating one more banana will not hurt the land, but the ever-increasing demand will hurt the land. That is the “tragedy” of the commons. However, there is hope, according to Elinor Ostrom. In her book Governing the Commons, she explains that man can use the land without total destruction. Man must learn to work with the land instead of against it in order to prevent the

In turn, their finished product is also cheap due to the unethical conditions, so consumers are also pleased with the price. However, the environment and laborers cannot be ignored simply because a product is cheap. By continuing to buy unethically sourced products, industrial consumers and typical consumers alike are condoning the alarming conditions from which their product came from. Buying food with the “fairtrade” logo on it, while the product will be more expensive, is a way to take a stand against poor ethics. Consumers must take a stand against unethical production. In the film This Land is Our Land: The Fight to Reclaim the Commons, the lack of public interest is discussed. Large corporations control massive amounts of the land and exploit it to their need, but if the consumers take interest in the commons, they can, in fact, control the production and use of the land. Consumers have much more power than they realize, and by using that power for good, they can stop exploitation of land and