Here is how America is making the Third World a better place with Globalism. Congratulations!

[Boojatta]

28. Let's be realistic.

It's cheaper for a company to give itself a good environmental reputation using relatively insignificant environmental initiatives along with a significant investment in PR than it is for a company to actually be environmentally responsible. Keep in mind that companies are in competition with each other. When substantive progress is expensive, and consumers prefer lower prices, the winning company is the one that makes the least substantive change while exaggerating, as much as it can get away with, the extent of the change.

How many consumers are going to do research to determine why brand A is more expensive than brand B? Maybe brand A was produced in an environmentally responsible manner. Maybe the maker of brand A merely spent more money on PR campaigns to make people think that they're environmentally responsible. Maybe the maker of brand A makes a higher profit or pays higher compensation to its management. Maybe the maker of brand A is simply not well managed and the extra money paid by consumers for brand A is simply wasted money.

If specific claims that can be proved to be true or proved to be false were provided in writing at the point of sale, then companies could be sued for fraud when they make false claims. That would be a mechanism that might ensure that the claims are almost always reliable. Alternatively, governments could impose regulations that create minimum environmental, employment and other standards for the making of any product sold in its jurisdiction, regardless of where the product is made.

However, as long as people rely upon a combination of information and disinformation that is dumped into the chaotic "marketplace of ideas", companies will be rewarded for spreading disinformation that is biased in their favor.