I think a big issue with lots of vegans is that they don’t know how capitalism works. People think that capitalism is just supply and demand, so if people don’t buy dairy or meat less animals will be slaughtered. But that just isn’t how it works. They can just raise the demand by making Got Milk campaigns and lobbying the government. Not buying a steak at the grocery store is not going to change the behavior of a multi-million dollar company even if hundreds of people go vegan.
Well obviously hundreds of people going vegan isn’t going to make much of a difference, because we have billions of people.
That doesn’t mean an individual vegan can’t make a difference by spreading their lifestyle.
It’s just like any moral improvement: an individual should not expect that their individual actions are going to change the world.
Also yes, there’s no 1-to-1 correspondence between more vegans in a particular neighborhood, and cows not being born and then slaughtered. It’s understood that these two pools are too far abstracted for tracing farm animals to meat eaters.
But the same problem is true of voting too. So if a vegan shouldn’t expect to make a difference by converting others to veganism, then a citizen shouldn’t expect to make a difference by voting either.
I think a big issue with lots of vegans is that they don’t know how capitalism works. People think that capitalism is just supply and demand, so if people don’t buy dairy or meat less animals will be slaughtered. But that just isn’t how it works. They can just raise the demand by making Got Milk campaigns and lobbying the government. Not buying a steak at the grocery store is not going to change the behavior of a multi-million dollar company even if hundreds of people go vegan.
Well obviously hundreds of people going vegan isn’t going to make much of a difference, because we have billions of people.
That doesn’t mean an individual vegan can’t make a difference by spreading their lifestyle.
It’s just like any moral improvement: an individual should not expect that their individual actions are going to change the world.
Also yes, there’s no 1-to-1 correspondence between more vegans in a particular neighborhood, and cows not being born and then slaughtered. It’s understood that these two pools are too far abstracted for tracing farm animals to meat eaters.
But the same problem is true of voting too. So if a vegan shouldn’t expect to make a difference by converting others to veganism, then a citizen shouldn’t expect to make a difference by voting either.
Voting through an actual voting system is much more direct then the “voting with your wallet” approach that many vegans talk about.
It may be “direct” but it’s not a real form of power. Nobody’s vote changes the world, unless they’re in an election with a spread of one.