Blog 4 

            I think that the section for today was interesting where it discusses Capitalism. In the introduction, MacBride is talking about how Capitalism sort of encourages businesses to make waste disposal choices based on what they can gain for themselves and not what will actually be good for the environment. It really reminded me of my Women’s Studies class that I took last semester. We talked about Marxist and socialist feminists, which basically believe that it is not just the patriarchal but also capitalist ideals that create the problems and inequalities in our society. This relates to our readings because in the same ways that people are oppressed and taken advantage of, the environment is as well. In the capitalist society, success is based on how much money someone makes. In order to be successful, people have to make as much money as possible, and the easiest way of doing so is by taking advantage of both people and the environment.

            Much like the ideas of socialist feminism, it seems like MacBride believes that capitalism takes advantage of people and resources. In socialist feminism, it is capitalism that creates problems—it creates a trap for women. Because women were stuck in the private sphere and therefore could not get their own money, they were economically trapped. Similarly, natural resources and the environment is vulnerable to being taken advantage of, and because it is more economically beneficial to take advantage of it, people do. People tend to worry only about how they can gain capital and ignore the problems that they create for others and the environment.

            Big companies seem to take advantage of pretty much everything. They are often wasteful and overuse natural resources. In addition, they take advantage of people. Similar to how they do not look at the social consequences of their influence over the environment, they use their power in society to create unachievable body images to sell to people in order to get economic gains. Their apathy for how the environment parallels their apathy towards how people feel about themselves and how people in the workforce are treated.

            People focus too much on the money that they are earning and not enough on how ethical their path to success it. They ignore the fact that they are ruining the environment simply because it is more convenient, when they could be doing what is ethically best for other people. Often, people prioritize money over other people’s lives. They don’t seem to see the bigger picture, and by looking at the effects of their actions, maybe change is possible. In particular, in both the environment and in social and gender issues, large corporations  and institutions need to look at the impacts of their companies in order for change to happen.