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We have only ourselves to blame

DANIEL F. MUZYKA

Globe and Mail Update

Latest comment posted at 5:56 AM EDT 18/05/08

Saving consumers from, ahem, themselves ...Read the full article

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  1. First Name: View, Last Name: Middle from Canada writes: Interesting, makes sense.
  2. W M from Canada writes: Unfortunate, but true - especially in an age when we all pay (via higher health costs, higher food prices, more environmental damage, etc.) for each other's errors. Equally true that people who benefit from this weakness will fight efforts to curb their ability to do so. Then again, in many ways, marketers who push too far are much like people who can't stop eating. It may be satisfying in the short run, but in the long run, they may be their own worst enemies (in that it is the ones who can stop pushing the envelope who ultimately provoke a backlash).
  3. Billy Tubawlz from Lost Wages, United Kingdom writes: This just in from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious - people overindulge because they're often greedy and stupid, but we have only ourselves to blame for our individual greedy and stupid decisions.
  4. Dig Deeper from Canada writes: In addition we have a media that continue to feed the "victim" mentality when it reports stories where people have been hurt etc. by their own stupidity.
    We continue to perpetuate this "not me" ideal. Well it is us and no one else. We drive like idiots and blame the police, we consume too much energy and whine about prices, we go to emergency rooms for stuff we could go to a clinic for and complain about wait times, we are fat and blame the fast food chains, we are dying of lung cancer and blame (even sue) the cigarette companies and on and on.
    At some point we need to realize the buck stops here, with us. We need to take responsibility for our actions and make changes to our behavior.
    And we need to ban lawsuits brought to the courts by stupid people who are looking to blame someone for their own demise.
  5. Hugh Draper from Vancouver, Canada writes:
    This has nothing to do with marketing, which is obviously doing its job just fine. Our education system is meant to teach us how to think and not just train us to march blindly backwards and forwards with the rest of the worker bees humming our slavish subservience to our mindless industry leaders.

    Must buy lumber...
  6. Zoltan Karpathy from dismayed, Canada writes: "Lauren Block, marketing professor at Baruch College at the City University of New York, has shown that the mere presence of a healthy item on a menu of unhealthy food choices “licenses&8221; us to make unhealthy choices. When salads were on a menu, people were more likely to choose French fries."

    ================================

    Ummmm ... then what do people choose if there are no healthy choices on the menu, imaginary items?
  7. Zoltan Karpathy from dismayed, Canada writes: Beyond limiting availability, companies and organizations need to deliver easy, practical alternatives. Humans will continue behaviours if confronted with difficulties in switching. ...

    Practical solutions also mean looking “upstream&8221; for solutions the consumer doesn't even have to deal with. ...

    Practical also means easy. If you beat up the consumer with information and difficult alternatives, they revert to old bad behaviours. ... "

    ============================

    These are important kinds of insights that advocates of recycling and policy-people worried about population decline desperately need to start paying attention to.
  8. The Central Screwtinizer from Ottawa, Canada writes: ...and there you have it in a nutshell...
  9. Michel Frechette from Kapuskasing, Canada writes: Does this apply to relationships?

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