Do you want it or do you need it?

I just found this video on YouTube. It's an interview with Australian Julian Lee, author of Clean Living in a Dirty World. As a journalist, he was assigned to do a story on consuming ethically, and for two days he had to consider every single purchase he bought. Two days, as he says, was "long enough to realize that there was something there, but not nearly long enough to uncover it."

The focus of the interview was helpful in that Lee acknowledges that it's difficult at first, but once you learn to question purchases it becomes like a second nature. Because right now, consuming ethically is hard. There are few regulations for marketing, which allows companies to take advantage of consumers who want to do the right thing. The message a company puts out does not necessarily reflect their actual values. Part of purchasing ethically is reading the label, but you also have to decide if you can trust that company.

At this point in time, aligning your purchasing with your moral values also (for the most part) costs more money. Society is not yet at the point where "eco" is mainstream, so to truly buy a green product is often times more expensive. The manufacturing world has not caught up yet to the demand for ethically made materials. So it is hard for businesses to source enough variety of eco options to sell, thus they may end up offering items that may not be as ethically sound. And as responsible as anyone wants to be, we are all still so used to low prices, convenience and variety to give that up.