Non profit
The face of responsible America
The Responsibilty Revolution is under way in the US according to a new TIME poll
di Rose Hackman
The face of responsible America? Female, married, educated and African American.
This, according to the results of a new TIME poll on volunteering and consumer responsibility, which appeared in last week’s edition of the magazine dated September 21 2009.
The results show that although some Americans may have moved away from volunteering and direct giving in the recession, more and more are instead moving towards responsible consumerism.
TIME’s poll numbers clearly prove this claim. Indeed out of the 1003 polled adults this summer, 82% claim to have consciously supported neighbourhood businesses and 40% claim to have purchased a product in 2009 because they liked the social or political values of the company that produced it. A further 60% have bought organic food since January.
Heedless self-interest is suddenly bad economics apparently and companies are following the demands of this ever-growing party of “consumer citizens.”
Walmart, Cadbury, Mars and Timberland are all corporations which are increasingly taking the CSR buzz seriously, having discovered that being good pays. Simple as that.
Perhaps one of the most surprising findings of the survey, particularly in this age of economic hardship, was that half of the adults polled thought that the environmental agenda was more pressing than the economic one, and almost half thought stores should charge for plastic bags to encourage the use of reusable ones.
A new dimension to American civic duty is starting to emerge that combines both its free market and Quaker ideologies lead by a Diktat of ethical consumers.
Unexpected to some may be the typical profile of the responsible new citizen consumer. First of all because they do not fit into any particular political category – 35% liberal, 38% conservative, 28% moderate. Second of all because their face shows the future of America 20 to 30 years down the line:
Young, diverse, well-educated and modestly well-off, with a stronger probability of being female married and African American.
