incentitve

I got to wondering why companies like GE or GM keep making stuff
that burns up so much energy and creates so much pollution. If
you are out of money, you would do without some things but
stuff you gotta have, food and transportation for instance, you
would go to great lenghts to find or make as your resources
permitted. You do whatever you have to in order to survive.
The thought thats with me today is that the GM's of the
world, every bit as much as persons or families, are trying
to survive. To the extent that they can buy or bend the
political powers that make the laws and taxes which affect
business makes them different from individuals but in so far
as their well being depends on coming up with goods people
will pay for and doing so at less cost than their competitors,
they are like individuals. WE are still part of the equation
and can't hope to reform the great, visible waste of industries
whose goods we still keep buying. So perhaps, rather than waiting
for the smelters and foundries to burn up the skies and dry up
for want of coal, we consumers should reform ourselves. What
we demand, the smart company will supply...I hope Toyota eats
GM's lunch by selling a ton of hybrids [to cite a hopeful trend]
The next or perhaps at least, the ultimate stage of the consumer
led revolt for sustainability might be less painful than collapse
and spotty self sufficiency by primitive means.