Social Inequality, Treadmill Of Production, And Overconsumption

Environmental issues are distributed unevenly across human communities; however, social inequality is inherently important when examining these issues. Social inequality can be linked to the distribution of pollution, the treadmill of production, and overconsumption. Social inequality can also be influential to how society determines what environmental issues actually exist. For instance, individuals, such as minorities, that reside in highly polluted areas are usually concerned about pollution whereas as higher class individuals are not since they are not usually affected by pollution. In this way the distribution of pollution has a greater effect on minorities or third-world nations since they have to deal with pollution on a regular basis. In many cases large industrial areas are usually built in areas near minorities since it is socially acceptable. This means that higher class neighborhoods or areas do not usually have to deal with the increased traffic and pollution that is caused by industrial areas. Minority residential areas are usually located near industrial areas due to the fact that the residents do not have as much knowledge about what can be done to
stop this practice.

The treadmill of production is also influential in social inequality since manufacturing organizations are concerned with producing more goods at a more cost effective rate than their competitors.
Firms also need to continue to maximize their profits or investors may transfer their resources to another organization. This concept then results in an increased amount of production which in turn increases the demand on the environment. The increased amount of available products also means that consumers will continue to buy the relevant products even if they do not need them. A key example of this is anytime an organization, such as Apple, releases a new cell phone or tablet. Individuals that owned a previous model will want to have the newest version even if there is nothing wrong with their current
device.

The constant demand for new products plays an inherently important role in the overconsumption of goods and materials. In general, society has determined that an individual’s value can be based upon what material goods they own. This information means that society has a constant demand for new products and services. In turn organizations attempt to keep up with demand by building new products even if the resources needed to build the products are being consumed too quickly. Society in turn keeps the cycle going by increasing the demand for products in order to buy more. This overconsumption also results in organizations increasing the pricing of their product lines since it is socially acceptable to pay the higher prices. A key example of this is the rate at which the price of cell phones is constantly increasing. The new Apple cell phone that is being released in the future has a drastic price tag but will be rapidly sold since the organization has a huge consumer demand.

Capitalism is in part to blame for the constantly increasing costs of both goods and services. Within a society based on capitalism privately owned organizations increase how competitive their relevant market is. This in turn allows them to constantly increasing the cost of a specific product or service since it is highly likely that consumers will pay the initial cost to have the product as soon as it is released. However, within a free market society the price of product or service is regulated by supply and demand. Organization can attempt to implement a price hike on a product but may lose revenue if society decides that the price is too high. In this way some limitations could be placed in order to have a better influence on social inequality. Regulations could be implemented to ensure that organizations cannot charge a high cost for their relevant products or services. This would result in some products, such as housing or health care, becoming more affordable which would start to lower the amount of social inequality which is present in today’s society.