Social Responsibility

All forms of the media, including blogs such as this, are constantly on the lookout for a good story and the best ones of those are when we find someone to blame for something. But perhaps it is time to take a step back and look at what we do ourselves.

Perhaps it is not the bankers who are to blame for the current financial situation. It is more likely our fault. We are the ones whose ceaseless demands for cheaper this, that, or the other, has caused the problem in the first place. We have not stopped for one moment to calculate the effects of our insatiable demands.

Why do we blame the banks for letting us have mortgages we could not pay for or credit that costs us a fortune and why do we complain about the huge salaries and benefit pakages that some of the directors and executives of these banks receive, hang on a moment are we not in most cases the shareholders of these institutions in one way or another?

We blame the supermarkets for destroying our high streets and clearing our market towns of the independent stores that used to make them a delight to visit. Everyone I speak to says they don't like or don't use Tesco's or the other huge supermarkets but why then are their car parks full and why are they still in business? I wonder too how many supermarket shares are owned by our own pension funds? So collectively we are responsible for them too.

We sit in our cars and complain about the traffic and that fact there is no where to park when we get to our destination and if we do find somewhere to park it costs the Earth. The usual excuse is that there is no alternative, how lame!

We complain that our nation has lost its industrial and manufacuring base and all the jobs and wealth that these businesses used to provide. Why? It was us that stopped buying the products that they made!

Well, the bill has finally arrived and we're all having to tighten our belts but that is not going to be good enough we're going to have to change our habits. There is no magic wand that is going to wave this situation away, the World is not going to go back to how it was before this crash - ever! It is no good waiting for the politicians to "sort it out", we need to take a deep breath and start in a different direction and that would be better if it is one of our own choice.

Me, I'm taking the bus into town, having lunch (and a few beers, no need to worry about drinking and driving or parking for that matter) and then doing some shopping in my local shops for some, in the most part, locally grown organic produce and if I end up with too much to carry I will get a local taxi to bring me home. What are your doing?