Political economy

Political economy is the political choices that frame economic (buying and consuming) choices. Usually political parties and ideologies claim to have a ethical or moral system|clear ethical or moral system]]. Consumerium may help them do that.

The following was deleted as speculative after sitting for a year as part of the Wikipedia moral purchasing article, and having been edited by many people: Links are to Wikipedia articles to retain the original context of the section:

This text was prefaced by that on moral purchasing and an analysis of amoral purchasing. It proceeded to speculate on politics:

a new political economy?

Recent events suggest that asymmetric warfare remains effective even against the most developed nations, which are necessarily more "open societies" and thus more subject to such threats as biowar. Liabilities which were never accounted for in global business or military dealings are now moving from threat to a probable risk - and therefore altering many economic decisions.

Various unusual threat scenarios, e.g. flooded farmers in Bangaladesh blaming U.S. CO2 output for their loss of land to monsoons, e.g. Chinese peasants moved out of the way of the Three Gorges Dam flooding holding the Canadian bankers who seeded the project liable for their loss, are often suggested, especially in the anti-globalization movement. Although scenarios are often far-fetched, the mass mobilization of many bodies in protests where there is shared risk of bodily harm suggests strongly to leaders that people in developing nations affected by their choices have not only sympathizers, but active agents, in the developed nations.

It remains to be seen if these pressures will ultimately mold a new and global political economy, or if the existing system of global capitalism can stand the strain. This seems, to some, an inseparable goal from that of world government or global justice. And, indeed, advocates of moving towards such goals do often support moral purchasing - and a new political economy that would hold each of us ultimately responsible for all that we consume.