The Past, Present, and Future
Many people would say that America has progressed greatly over the last century, from abolishing slavery to winning the space race. Indeed, America has progressed greatly since the early 1900s, but there are always new issues that must be addressed. Although the US is doing well socially and economically, many countries are not. Outsourcing is becoming a huge problem both for the United States and for the countries where these corporations are moving.
In developing countries, people are practically being tricked by huge corporations into working far from their home for years in factories with horrible condition, and nothing is being done. Mind you, these corporations are raking in billions of dollars in profit a year. Although some make the argument that these working are making well above the average monthly salary, they are still making less than $60 a month. For the long hours these workers put in, it is practically slavery. This is unacceptable behavior by any corporation, and more so by the companies that make tons of yearly profit. In order for that third world country to ever develop, the working class’ salary must go up to drive the economy forward. Only then will progress be made to a more developed nation.
Until that day however, these outsourced corporations will continue to pollute the environment around their facilities. I mean, that is precisely why they outsourced the jobs in the first place – to be able to do what they want, where they want, when they want as cheap as possible. Until these nations realize that there will be extreme repercussions in the future, nothing will be done. All nations should be able to agree on a set of laws that they see fit so that tomorrow’s world is not environmentally compromised. Although Americans might think that mercury filled rivers in Asia would never impact them, one day, that mercury will end up on your plate containing a deadly concentration of poison.
To address these environmental issues, I feel that there should be worldwide organizations that maintain the environmental well being of the world as a single entity. By establishing a set of guidelines to follow, progress could be made towards sustainable development. However nations that are already developed, such as the United States, would have a hard time to move towards environmental sustainability simply upon the fact that there would have to be a total shift in the manufacturing processes. Infrastructure would have to be rebuilt, and some things would even be less efficient than they are today. In my viewpoint, this is one of the largest problems that any nation would have in moving towards environmental sustainability. This progress would take much longer to achieve than it did to abolish slavery in the United States and even longer than getting a man on the moon, I believe, all because of a single fact. All humans are wired to seek instant gratification. With environmental sustainability there will be no instant gratification, which is something we must accept as a reason to push even harder towards going green.
In the case of slavery, steps were taken at a slow pace to abolish slavery, but each of those steps had immediate effects. In comparison, getting a man on the moon was practically instant – build a rocket, put a man on the rocket, and he will reach the moon given that scientists had a good knowledge of physics. However, people will not be able to appreciate the steps taken towards sustainability. Yes, the initial costs will be high and unpleasant, but if we leave things the way they are now, the total costs of living in the future will be higher than possibly imaginable.
