97 What is Consumer Social Responsibility?

Before wrapping up this text with two summary questions, we end with two final Questions. The first switches the lens of the class from business to each of us as consumers. Because the economic foundation of business depends on customers, customers collectively retain great power over how businesses operate. In the long-run, what consumers want, they will get. Thus, if consumers desire products made free from child labor, and are willing to pay for them, markets will respond. If consumers desire products made under fair trade principles, and are willing to pay for them, markets will respond. If consumers want fashion made in sustainable ways and free from sweatshop labor, and are willing to pay for them, markets will respond.^[1]

On the other hand, if consumers shrug off reports of unsafe or oppressive conditions in warehouses and keep paying for fast shipping, profit-seeking companies will respond.^[2]. If consumers purchase items produced in linear economies, and can outsource the waste to other places, profit-seeking companies will respond. Thus, to a great extent, we have the type of business operations in the United States that consumers, collectively, want. Modifying troubling business behavior at the macro level begins with modifying one’s heuristics, changing purchasing habits, and acting in line with one’s values in the marketplace. CSR, which we often take for Corporate Social Responsibility, will only become what it can be when CSR as Consumer Social Responsibility takes it there.