Published in Truthout on March 5, 2017
On a near daily basis, we are inundated with messages about the benefits of buying. In 2015, $180 billion worth of advertisements polluted our spaces, radio waves and TVs in the United States. These high-dollar promotions insist that an all-inclusive vacation will annihilate anxiety, and a chocolate bar can take the place of a significant other.
Rarely, however, do we hear about the negative effects of our purchases on the environment, other humans or ourselves. We tune out the sped-up list of negative pharmaceutical side effects. The small fine print is too small to bother reading. An article about the exploitation of young children by Hershey’s can be scanned and conveniently forgotten.
MAYA SILVER 