why should we care?

In Wendell Barry's article, "Faustian Economics", he discusses how America has become very selfish and naive when it comes to the topic of wastefulness and greed. He argues that "We will keep on consuming, spending, wasting, and driving, as before, at any cost to anything and everybody but ourselves," and I completely agree with him. I do believe that we don't realize how much of what we do can affect another person. Frankly, I think that some people even do realize how bad some of the things they are doing can affect the environment or our surroundings and just don't care because it isn't hurting them directly. He also brings up the fact that we commonly believe in an assumed limitlessness. We think that we can use and use and use and there will be no consequences or shortage. We tend to overlook the fact that this is not the case and we need to consider what we are doing while we are doing it.

A very strong claim that Barry argues is expressed when he states, "the real names of global warming are Waste and Greed." He is bringing up a very valid point when he makes this claim because it is our waste and greed that is worsening the global warming issue. We are driving around, polluting the air, and not thinking twice about it because that car is getting us where we need to be. He labels this activity as foolish and I feel that this word choice is very sufficient. It is the little things in life like this, that seem so simple to correct, but yet so hard to get the world to compromise and participate.

The word free is very ironic when talking about a "free market". Barry brings up the irony when he states, "And yet in the phrase “free market,” the word “free” has come to mean unlimited economic power for some, with the necessary consequence of economic powerlessness for others." When "free market" is looked up in the dictionary, it can be defined as "A completely free market is an idealized form of a market economy where buyers and sells are allowed to transact freely (i.e. buy/sell/trade) based on a mutual agreement on price without state intervention in the form of taxes, subsidies or regulation." This definition is not exactly what our "free market" has turned into nowadays. It is not a fair bargain on both sides anymore. He brings up a story about a man who rents out his land and told Barry that when his renter has good year, he has a good year. If the renter has a bad year, he has a bad year. This "free market" has become relying on the other person within the trade. One side of the trade has become almost powerless.