Selfish Economics

Selfish - "a person, action, or motive lacking consideration for other people; concerned chiefly with personal profit or pleasure. Having no regard for how behavior impacts others. Consistently acting in ones own self-interest instead of meeting the needs of others. Having no empathy for the suffering of other people. Showing no remorse when others are hurt".

My dilemma is that it seems to me that many human actions are revealed to be selfish in the face of the Climate Emergency & the impact our actions have had & are having on the world we inhabit & everything in it. So things I did in my life, without thinking about the impact they had, have now adversely affected everything. I spent years after early retirement travelling all over the world several times a year. My husband & I were a two car family & commuted long distances to work. We had 3 wood burning stoves in one of our houses. We ate red meat & food imported from all over the world. We both had far more clothes than either of our parents. We took all of that & more as quite reasonable & normal.

Economics is the study of how consumers, firms and governments make decisions that together determine how resources are allocated. The study of scarcity and its implications for the use of resources, production of goods and services, growth of production and welfare over time, and a great variety of other complex issues of vital concern to society. There are 3 Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian. There are 5 concepts of economics - Scarcity, Supply & Demand, Incentives, Trade Off & Opportunity Cost, Economic Systems.  At this point I glaze over. So if you want to know more, then research for yourselves.

The real difficulty I have is reconciling the fact that countries have to generate income to support their populations. Some countries have more natural resources than others. Some have a more highly skilled workforce. Some have a larger young working population as opposed to a more ageing demographic. But all countries need growth & income to raise the standard of living of their people. In order to do that unsustainable companies, which pollute the earth or use finite resources or decimate the landscape & habitats are tolerated.

To take just one simple point. I now feel that any air travel for leisure purposes is unacceptable because of the impact it has on climate change. (I can hear you saying, that's fine, "you have travelled the world". Very true). The thing is there are benefits in seeing other cultures & lives. Not least if rich Westerners are forced to really face up to true poverty. Holiday makers contribute a lot to the wealth of the countries they visit. (Unless they stay in all inclusive ghettos or 5* hotels, where very little of the money goes to the local population).  The fact remains that if all leisure air travel ceased the economic repercussions would be enormous. 

But ultimately can humanity continue to take leisure travel as a right? Has the imbalance between benefit & harm reached a tipping point? I feel it has. Whatever we do, something has to change pretty soon. Is it so bad to be forced to holiday in your own country or somewhere you can travel to on land? 

https://www.narasolar.com/en/the-most-and-least-polluting-means-of-transport/

None of this is simple. We have very difficult choices. But those choices have to be taken by everyone. Or our grandchildren will live with the consequences.