TiesMorskate.nl

Stunning article on one of the most out-of-sync websites of the net. And one of the biggest!

Read the entire Craigslist article on Wired.com!

And I think the word that leads to both is responsibility.

You are behaving responsible if the social profit of your business exceeds its cost.

You are behaving responsible if you minimize the footprint your business leaves behind.

Why is this something that people feel should be discussed? Because the laws and regulations were made before we had any awareness of the fact that pollution has a very long-term effect? It seems that way, and only when public opinion threatens to affect the bottom-line companies feel obliged to take action. The current green movement is just as much a marketing trend as the next thing but at least we are neutralizing our carbon footprint. It’s just too bad that there are all these other possible footprints that are not in the public eye.

For example, the electric company trying to sell me green power, but I still have a choice, when they’re convinced that is the best way, why leave us a choice at all? Or why doesn’t the government use the huge percentage of tax on our energy usage to make it ‘green’?

Same goes for social profitability; a business that can only thrive by exacting a cost on its social surroundings is not thriving at all; its costs are bigger than its  profits. The gambling industry comes to mind for example.

I do understand that it’s very hard to determine what the social profits and costs of doing business are, at least in some cases. The Salvation Army for example, probably has a bigger social profit than cost, while a gambling club does not gain anyone but the owners anything. For all the businesses in between things can be more grey, but it being grey is no excuse for exacting it anyway.

And why wouldn’t it be, profit is what makes the business world go round and what gets you that ferrari. (If that’s what confirm’s you’ve made it, even if it’s just for yourself.) But could it be that profit is not worth striving for in the long run? What if profit is just our current scorecard and only justifies its strive for it because its the only scorecard we have?  I could be on the wrong track here, because clearly the strive for profit is the result of the events that have formed our world in the past few centuries, but I’m thinking stuff will keep happening and the world will change some more in the time to come.

Still, I think there is some middleground to be found. In the past, profit was there, ofcourse, but there were multiple other goals; honouring your god(s), bringing honour to your name/family/parents/father/mother or just provide for your tribe by bringing home a deer you’ve killed to be eaten. Sure enough, money seems to have replaced all these values, the few values we have left are remnants of the in my little world dominant christian background. Ofcourse some people still bring home money just to feed their family.

While we are sort of changing (evolving would imply this is a good/bad thing rather than just a change) towards a stage were money is just the best means to the goal we strive for, wether its happiness, material posession or some kind of transcendence. I still think its going to stick around for a lot longer. But that does not in any way mean we should just accept the current train of thought as written in stone.

It’s definitely not money that makes the world go round, it’s the effort people put in. For money ofcourse, but what would happen if you would think of another incentive?

As most of you will know, I visit Spain, especially Barcelona and a coastal town near it, quite regularly. Being there, exclusively on vacation for varying amounts of time (long weekend or for multiple weeks), I might not get the most correct impressions but hanging around a lot with locals should counter the vacation attitude I might have and should reinforce my credibility in me stating the following.

The Dutch attitude seems extremely lacking when it comes down to simply enjoying life.  (more…)