Lauren Stevens, Introduction, Question 5

As humans, we're selfish beings. We want what is here, what is now, and most importantly, what is the best. To a point, many people don't care about what the consequences of their actions or the effects their purchases have. Wheelan puts this very well in the example of "The night on the town with Dad's credit card" (xxii) using this to further explain societies use of SUV cars with less than average gas mileage. Individually we're paying for the use of these luxuries with our money, but the environment and the rest of society is paying for the repercussions of the use of gas-guzzling cars mixed with long commutes. This is such a true fact that is avoided by so many people, including myself. This is a good example of how economics crosses paths with ethical decisions. Should we really be using all of these unnecessarily large cars if we know that it will end up hurting everyone in the long run? Probably not, but we do anyways. This idea really caught my attention because I fall a victim to it too and I think many other do too and maybe if other, economically illiterate people were aware of these facts, not only would the environment be in a better position, but we would also be more economically sound as a society.