When as a society did we start being set up to fail?
After this weeks reading, I really feel as though companies, organizations and people who are players in the pollution game and the government regulations for that matter put a large majority of people in a position of being set up to fail. They assume that since they are following the rules laid forth that they are correct in their decision to build that new waste facility in a community where there is already two other sites there. How I see it is that, by them following the rules and saying they are going to give communities the chance to speak up and give their opinions, in reality for most communities they are just being set up to fail. Usually by the time the community finds out about a proposed site the decision is made, but the image the company or organization wants to show is that they gave the public a chance to speak up even though they already knew that the final outcome would be in their favor and the communities would lose.
It's so frustrating to see how people are being screwed over and its easy to see how some people just give up after awhile because there is nothing left to give, when you know you probably wont come out on top. When will there be a shift where these kinds of situations slowly stop happening? I really feel that people need to start to become more educated in all aspects of their surroundings, because it seems to me the majority of people are easily influenced and not to be mean but brain washed into thinking how they are treated or what is happening to other people around them is normal and is ok because they been told so.
My answer to my own question would have to be that who knows when this being set up to fail situations started, the sad thing is, is that no matter how developed and educated we become as the human race we still are not really learning how to stop a vicious cycle that hurts and hinders our potential for human sustainability.
My answer to your question is that when your economic system is capitalism you are bound to care more about profit, therefore money, as your bottom line. So it either takes a few rich people (like the 1%) or a ton of regular people (middle class, upper middle class, poor, working poor) (the 99%) to make a difference. And it's difficult to do with so many of us, and so many other distractions in our daily life. In a capitalist society you look out for yourself first and foremost. That's why it feels like we are set up to fail. On an individual basis people may very well care for the community around them, in which they place their businesses and corporations make decisions, but on a greater scale the capitalist machine can make you feel forgotten and insignificant.
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