"The Idea of a Local Economy" is a very interesting essay that does a great and unique job at arguing about what we are doing that we think is changing a lot but is really doing very little. Specifically when he talks about people thinking they made a significant change when changing their values or something a long those lines when they've really made a change that did relatively nothing to affect anything or anybody but themselves. the quote "What has happened is that most people in our country, and apparently most people in the "developed" world, have given proxies to the corporations to produce and provide all of their food, clothing, and shelter." Wendell Berry is saying how we are relying to much on corporations to do things that we used to just do on are own or used to be a lot more inexpensive than what it is now. This really hit me because I've never thought about this since I have basically been raised by getting everything from companies but people used to do this all ourselves and it shows how lazy we have gotten since we would rather pay high prices rather than making it or raising the cattle ourselves. I agree also with Chris when he talks about the environmental harm with the exporting and importing of our goods and that when a certain area only has one thing to offer they usually sell a lot of it at a reckless pace that will really hurt the environment.
Something that is still a huge issue in the United States that has been dropped when it should be pursued until its elimination is smoking cigarettes. Every year cigarettes are killing more and more people, giving others health complications, and taking so much money from all these people. At a hefty $6.00 a pack average in Ohio it is making great profits in which the people are basically paying these companies to kill them. We are trying to make America healthier with better eating selections but that won't matter if they are all dying from lung cancer, how has this drug that has taken so many lives not been banned by the U.S. yet? We need to get cigarette out of America to truly make our nation a better place. This isn't just a problem for the smoker either, even if you are just a bystander this smoke is harming us. 42,000 people die every year from just secondhand smoke. This addiction has even caused babies to be born with health defects due to the mother not being able to stop smoking or just being open to the second hand smoke. I don't understand how we are accepting of this potent habit that has been robbing people of their lives and ones close to the smokers. These Companies are so corrupt and rich though that they can basically get away with anything they want now. I have not heard a single thing from cigarette companies saying anything about their efforts of how they are trying to make it any bit healthier. We need to ban this product for a healthier world that is still getting new addicts everyday even though everyone is educated on the harms of cigarettes. Just warning and educating the populace on these dangers aren't enough since people are still picking up this dirty habit, we need to stop this problem before it takes anymore loved ones.
I agree that smoking is awful and how these companies are profiting off people's lives is disgusting. In no way do the goods outweigh the bads in regards to cigarettes, especially when smoking can become addictive to some users which can end up with them receiving cancer and other health problems. The only real solution to this is just to simply educate its current and future consumers of the perils that some of the long-term smokers go through because of their consumption of cigarettes to persuade them from smoking.
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