It’s not too far away until the world we see illustrated in this video becomes a reality. In order to change this Capitalist consumer culture that we live in today, We need a Government that will set limits on Corporate power. By doing so, we can change what we neglected in the past and turn this into a more industrial, competetive society.
The first startegy in accomplishing this could be for the government to allow fair advantages to many more companies, thus allowing for much more competition and less “branding”. Many small business owners and entreprenuers today are going out of business or not getting the appropriate revenue to move forward because of the control that these large Corporations have over our choices as a society.
It’s a win-win for the consumer, not only would these mom and pop stores still be able to exist, but more money will come back to you from the community. According to AdBusters post in The 3/50 project, 68% of what you spend in an independently owned local store returns to the community through taxes and payroll. With a national chain, only 43% stays in town. By opening up the country to more products and a wider accepted variety of chioces, not only will small business continue to thrive, but the your community and the economy would recieve a giant boost.
We need Corporations that place the well-being of children OVER corporate profits, giving the children back their youth and letting them enjoy childhood, rather than raising them in this cutthroat world of consumerism. In General, we need to simply stop this advertising to children. allowing the FTC more control in regulating advertising, they can put a strong focus regarding marketing to children, and create large penalties to corporations that do.
Lastly, we could fund public media services, which would provide alternatives to commercial media programs. Services like PBS, that exist for the sole purpose of children learning. Children would then be watching informing television rather than half-hour slot commercials, slyly disguised as TV programming
None of these changes can take place, however, if we do not act upon them. We cannot just sit back and wait for it to change, because it will only stay the same. If we all take a stand together we can change this hyper-commercialized world and make it a more civil place for us as adults, and even for our youth.
Andrew Catalano
