I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)

We want to reward companies that are 'going green', right? At the same time, as I expressed on a comment on another post, we don't want our purchasing choices to be a kind of one-step-forward-two-steps-backwards situation. What to do? Well, I guess a good place to start is to educate ourselves on the consequences of different business models, and take a principled, philosophical approach to our spending. We're concerned that China is now building two new coal-fired power plants a week, and are thought to have now topped the U.S. in emissions - but who is financing it? Should we be helping over-sized industries get even bigger?

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

Part X

Part XI

 

 

Further Reading:

• Veiling Our True Predicament: Part II - Politics and Industry
• Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs
• The Wal-Mart You Don't Know
• Wal-Mart and Workers = Low Wages, Lost Jobs, Lawsuits & Anti-Unionism
• Wal-Mart, or Small-Mart?
• Wal-Mart Watch
• Wakeup WalMart