We try to live our lives to the fullest, enjoy experiences with family and friends, eat amazing food and see things that excite us! A good cheap purchase can ignite the flame of happiness. When it comes to living a life we all very much want the same things. A good life.
We’re not only similar in our own wants and needs our physiology is alike. People around the world are buying the same things. We want gadgets and comforts that make lives easier. Making a cheap purchase releases the endorphins chemical in our brains.
Our brains give us a sense of identity and facilitate psychological growth like our bodies, they’re also physiologically alike. Compare the brains and bodies from two different parts of the world. It’s clear to see they’re not that different!
So, the next cheap purchase can actually contribute to our internalized identity. For instance, a knock off Louis Vuitton purse from China can give someone an ego boost. The brain’s connections and circuits are all acting under the same principals and fundamentally. Most people feel the same way after an exciting cheap purchase!
It’s really quite interesting that Science has shown genetics and our environment will create characteristically different people.
While looking for answers science can connect the dots and gives us a root cause. One which links our actions here at home, pollution and the lives of others. One Cheap purchase a day from 7 billion people drives the economy around the world. An economy that has contributed to the rise of CO2 levels and pollution into the atmosphere.
The overall cost of a cheap purchase on health
The children of the twentieth-century are watching the world undergo a physical transformation. One that affects the health of people around the world. How would you rate the world right now? Would you rate it as poor…? fair…? or good? According to Science, the answer is different depending on where you live!
Recently a team of investigators from the University of Harvard and the Australian University of Queensland had taken the insurance data of forty-five million people to analyze the effect of people’s genes and their zip code!
It’s the first time that an experiment of this magnitude has been done. It’s proven that both genes and the environment are equal drivers when calculating the costs of monthly health care spending.
According to the World Bank report, air pollution costs the global economy five trillion dollars annually in health welfare. That number would make anyone’s head spin and is a very good reason to change our spending habits! Spending money drives the distribution of goods around the world. It is also the driver that creates the CO2 gases causing poor air quality.
The true cost of a cheap purchase should include the total cost associated with the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint would include the annual costs of health care directly associated with air pollution. The price tags we see in the store don’t give us the full picture.
A cheap purchase not only kills…
Consequently, six and a half million people around the world, die prematurely from air pollution every year! Half of those deaths happen from outdoor air pollution caused by factories, powerplants, agricultural processes, and cars.
In case you were wondering the other half of the deaths are from the poorest communities of the world. The major indoor air pollutants are heavy metals, pesticides, radon, and asbestos. While slowly killing people it also affects their decision-making abilities.
A few neuroscience studies have found air pollution lowers the ability to attain higher education. Furthermore, reducing productivity and the reason why the poorest folks cannot live life to the fullest.
If our economic engine here in the developed world continues to spill CO2 emissions lives will continue to be lost. The poor around the world are fighting a losing battle for better healthcare, education and equal rights. If the local environment and air quality are cleaned up, they wouldn’t needlessly suffer. But we have to stop buying into a cheap purchase.
Almost half the world’s population lives in poverty and out of 2.2 billion children living on Earth one billion of them live in poverty every day. That’s one in every two kids living a life in poverty with their parents!
As a Canadian, I feel pretty darn lucky!
“I’ve won the genetic lottery by just being born into a rich and peaceful place”. Rachel
The above studies help to define the issues faced by humans and healthcare, but it won’t solve the world’s pollution policies, preventing corporations from dumping, polluting and over packaging.
Corporate ignorance
Unfortunately, the government’s ignorance or inability to change the way businesses run leads one to believe that there is either no hope or consumer choice is our only hope.
A simple example of corporate dumping doesn’t have to be earth or air contaminants. It can also be food! When a company handles a skid of packaged food, in this example let’s say the product is chocolate bars. Someone finds evidence that suggests the food has become contaminated from rat droppings.
If so, then the entire skid of chocolate is immediately thrown into the trash! The kids living in poverty are hungry and would’ve loved to eat that chocolate… Regardless, the company loses money and the product is totally lost. It’s thrown away needlessly because it has become unsalable. Where is the humanity? So far, Governments can control neither packaging policies or dumping.
The Solution is in our hands
Estimates show that Earth will be home to ten billion people by 2050! If humanity cannot be socially responsible and help the ones living in poverty now! Then what will the world look like in thirty years from now?
Even though we in the Western world don’t necessarily see the ugly side of life it’s important to know that we have the power to change the lives of the poorest people by changing how we shop.
We’ll reduce the consumption of fossil fuels if we stop consuming unnecessary things. It will reduce air pollution keeping our brains and genetics healthy. So, if we continue to hold on to our old habits of buying the same over-packaged products we will continue on the cycle of trash. Ultimately, this will be the cause of continued human suffering in the long run.
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