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From the point of the view of the public, we do not see all of the issues that come along with getting a product for a cheap price. We are actually extremely excited about a “bargain” or “steal” for a good deal. When in reality, it is a steal. It is stealing from not only the people involved in the labor used to make the product that you bought, but also from the environment in general. The major culprit to this negative feedback loop affecting the Earth is capitalism. Humans in this world are so concerned with the prices of everything and saving the money they get rather than putting it back into the economy or truly paying for the products that they purchase. There is no such thing as a good deal, people are just suffering the consequences in other places. People need to care about the externalized costs associated with production because of the effects that they have on people and the environment.

Moreover, one reason that people need to care about the externalized costs of their products is because of the effect that they can have on people in other areas. For example, in this reading from class, there was a story about how a woman named Rosa Moreno lost both of her hands while she was on the job and the machine used to cut metal fell on top of both of her hands and no one could get it off. Then, to make her situation even worse, the corporation offered her such a small amount of money that she would not be able to provide for her family. It is because of the world that we currently live in that they were so consumed with the success of themselves and the profit that they were making to even provide this woman with the money they she deserved after the accident that was most definitely not her fault. Furthermore, as mentioned in this article from class, someone was contemplating all of the externalized costs of a single radio and finally reached how much people are affected. There are so many parts to the production of technology and the people working with the machines were faced with the costs of increased rates of cancer and asthma as well as the loss of clean air in the area where they both live and work. These costs affect the whole lives of these people just for us to have cheap radios.

Another point that is worth noting is why people should care about these costs. There is now information about it out now and people are beginning to see the facts of these costs; however, they also need to know why it not only affects those people directly from the costs but also themselves in the long run. This company put out an article that discusses how they calculate the true costs of the foods they sell and they also have tabs of information that show how by doing this they are helping so many people across the globe. What they are doing is quite the opposite from the average citizen. This society is so consumed with having the best and the newest item that people do not seem to realize the effect that getting rid of technology and appliances before you need has on the environment. The image above is from a landfill full of cars that people have gotten rid of. If today’s society was not so concerned with the newest item then these landfills would not fill up nearly as fast. The negative effects of electronic waste are so awful and need to be slowed down if we want to be able to preserve precious land like parks and national forests. Just because people in certain areas and of certain socioeconomic status have the privilege of buying the newest phone when it comes out or that they can get the best new car when the model comes out does not mean that this is the best thing for the environment and people need to realize that when they make the choices that they do.

Another factor for people to consider is how these externalized costs of production are affecting the surrounding environment. The food production industry is one of the largest and also one of the most harmful and wasteful. This article about the true costs of food discusses all of the issues associated with the food production industry and gives people the facts on how our food is actually more expensive than it is being sold for in the local supermarkets. She pointed out that $20 million goes to subsidies for this industry and additional tax money is needed because of the harsh effects it leaves. This production causes the need for cleaning polluted drinking water, dead zones in the oceans and infertile soil as just the top three issues along with other general mess and disrupted land.

Finally, the effects that externalized costs of production have on both the people that work in the area of production and the environment of not only the surrounding area but in general are finally getting out to the public. It is a small step in a good direction but for people to move from just knowing that there is an issue to doing something about it will take some more education and hopefully just a little bit of time. As a society, we all need to care about the effect on the Earth because we all live here. There is no magical divide for some people to not have to deal with the issues of the environment and once everyone starts to see that then they might make some small changes to their lifestyles.

It’s not too hard to realize that the world is driven by the profit motive, the never ending human want to get more.  This is due in part to Capitalism, the economic system that drives profit maximizing down our throats. Capitalism is an economic system characterized by the private ownership of production, distribution, and the exchange of goods.  It exists as a worldwide system, making global capitalism a vital part to many economies around the world. Over time this has become a problem, as the externalized costs of global capitalism take their toll on our world. Externalized costs are the true cost of a good to society.  These costs can be both positive and negative, but tend to have a negative impact on our world. As global capitalism has taken over the world, increased profits have become the negative external costs of capitalism and are taking a toll on the environment around us.

Externalized costs exist as hidden costs of the goods we use everyday.  These are the costs not shown in that dollar value on the pricetag, they are the costs to society.  They don’t only cause harm to human health, but also harm wildlife, the environment, and social organizations.  While society has become much better about talking about these costs, we still haven’t done much to prevent them.  This chart even shows the constant decline in air quality:

This decline in air quality can be largely attributed to the increase in faster, cheaper, and dirtier modern production of goods.  In addition to harming the environment, these air pollutants are related to various diseases and sicknesses. A study about coal pollutants in this article even says, “A Harvard University study, which assessed the life cycle costs and public health effects of coal from 1997 to 2005, found a link to lung, cardiovascular, and kidney diseases—such as diabetes and hypertension—and an elevated occurrence of low birth rate and preterm births associated with surface mining practices”.  These are only some of the health risks associated with modern pollution. As global capitalism creates larger markets and stresses increased profits more, the true costs of production are increasing and damaging the earth more.

Externalized costs don’t just appear out of nowhere, they’re produced as a result of a decision made by firms.  These decisions are made to increase profits by any means possible with the cheapest production and the fastest distribution.  One example of this is the video we watched in class about Walmart’s intense supplier regiment. The video interviewed workers that were laid-off by a business in the United States after Walmart dropped their contract.  As the economists and Walmart executives explained, they simply could buy the same goods in Asia at a fraction of the cost. In my opinion, this is the epitome of global capitalism. Simply put, capitalism seeks out the cheapest possible goods, no matter the costs.  The only problem with that is the non-monetary costs. The externalized costs are increased greatly when production moves to less developed nations, or nation’s with less social and humanitarian based laws. As this article we got in class states, “Who paid for that $4.99 radio? Some people paid with the loss of their natural resources. Some paid with the loss of clean air, with increased asthma and cancer rates. Some workers paid by having to cover their own health insurance. Kids in Africa paid with their future: a third of the school-age children in parts of the Congo now drop out to mine metals for electronics”.  These undeveloped nations have little to no child labor laws, laws controlling work hours, work conditions, and laws controlling pollution and waste.  This allows firms to produce their goods at a greatly reduced monetary cost since their laws and regulations allow longer work days, and they’re able to pay their workers less.  This has resulted in a great deal of externalized costs affecting these nations, specifically nations in and around Asia. As stated in this article, “In 2010, 40% of the world’s premature deaths caused by air pollution were in China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide…The University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health reported more than 3,000 premature deaths in the city in 2013…A poll by the U.S. Pew Research Center found that 47% of Chinese citizens thought air pollution to be a “very big” problem in 2013 (up from 31% in 2008)”.  The deaths labelled in this article are direct costs of modern day production in these Asian nations.  Capitalism has created a craving for increased profits, but as we can see these increased profits to one side cost the other side their lifestyle and in extreme cases maybe even their life.

Externalized costs exist in every economy, not matter the structural or social aspects of it.  While global capitalism creates some of the largest and greatest affecting externalized costs, it may be argued that not all of these costs are direct effects of global capitalism.  Some say that externalized costs can be attributed more to humans and society than to Capitalism. They believe that these costs are created in any economy and are due to firms simply not caring about the effect they have on our planet.  While this is partly true, it doesn’t cover all the information. Without global capitalism we would have significantly less international production. If most goods we used were produced in our home nation’s, we would have a drastic difference in externalized costs and global pollution.  To only touch on the subject, the nation’s using the most goods that create the largest externalized costs have the most intense labor and pollution laws. This essentially means that if global capitalism didn’t exist and international production was minimal, we would have smaller externalized costs.  The only problem is that global capitalism very much exists, and drives the world as we know it, creating externalized costs everywhere it goes.