Confusion

Recently I was discussing a question with my student during a tuition session. It was asking abt whether one agreed that the free economic system eoncourages the ills or problems we find in the economical side of a society...

And my first response to it is "sure, it does"...but I later realised, at least theoretically, the invisible hands of the mkt economy actually also limits negativities such as "profit motive"...since it is due to consumers' unwillingness to pay too high a price for gds that producers cannot fully satisfy their insatiable desire for profit by setting the prices way too high...

But I stand corrected...or rather...I was corrected...I attended a talk on vegetarianism...a very gd account or summary of it is presented in http://hip2horay.blogspot.com/2007/01/vegetarianism.html ... and it left me thinking...

During the talk...a video showed how inhumane conditions were where we raised the animals that we find everyday on our plates...in Yuven's words..."Live 'imprisoned' in a very tiny cages where they can't even turn their bodies, injected by chemicals which make them grow faster till their legs can't even support their weight again, electrocuted and tortured when they don't move in the right direction, immersed in a tub of boiling water while they're still alive or even shot when they are too weak and can't give any benefits for the company.. "

And why such conditions? because of cost savings? because of profit motive? because even if we wanted to b humane, the demand is so huge that we can't afford free roaming animals?

It really sets me thinking...is it that our free economic system limits the ills of society? Makes me see economics in a wider picture...it's not just economic problems that we have to talk abt in the course of studying econs...but social ones...values...beliefs...courage...mayb even philosophy...

But I see a glimmer of hope...demand changes everything...if people aren't willing to pay for meat that came tortured...and full of intoxicants and fear and depression...then mayb the situation can b made better...

So the key is not only vegetarianism...it's also education and telling people how impt this is...we can't go on living as if we didn't know about other living creatures suffering simply to satisfy our desires...just like we can keep thinking that the earth can support our demands for long...