Economic Forces Against Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: On Intended Overuse of Natural Resources

This chapter discusses the phenomenon of Manipulated Durability and Maintainability of goods (MDM). It is argued that it is driven by economic forces in favor of short term economic effects of companies, while sacrificing interest of customers and society, as well as sustainability. Hence it is in opposition to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A holistic conceptualization of MDM is presented, which provides a basis for systemic and sectional countermeasures against it. It considers insights from analysis of economic theory, customer and social interests, sustainability aspects, and existing regulations and policies. The systemic component addresses the settings of economic system. It is based upon the idea of Pigouvian taxations and focuses depletion of non-renewable resources together with renewal of the others. Effectiveness and practicality of its use is emphasized by mimicking VAT and CIT taxations. The sectional component incorporates a wide but consistent range of various policies. An emphasis herein is given to completeness and synergy of the whole set. The distinctive novelty of the proposal is in addressing the whole socio-eco-economic complexity of the studied phenomenon and its context. It is also argued that the EU and China are particular regions of the world with regard to the topic due to the proven goodwill and power, at least at the top levels of governance, concerning policies and regulations in relation to the topic.