Thank you for linking to that article. I need to study it carefully and change my purchasing habits accordingly.

I don't agree with your conclusions, though. Economic utility is not an "all or nothing" unit of measure. Many people, for example, say things like "although it pains me that animals suffer in factory farms, what difference can one person make?" The answer is... quite a lot. You can easily save hundreds of animals by voting with your wallet for just a few years. You can wait for the government to pass certain laws that partially alleviate the issues, but the consumers can make a real difference right now. The average consumer knows about these issues and simply ignores them. The blame falls on the consumer, and not the governmental agencies or businesses.

Please note that my argument is not about the pros or cons of vegetarianism; I was just using it as an example of how one individual can make a difference.

Although it appears that the fair-trade system is broken, the consumer can still make a difference by buying food locally, reducing their demand for chocolate, buying second-hand electronics, holding on to that 2-year old smartphone a bit longer, reducing their usage of gasoline, etc. I simply don't agree with the statement that "individuals are small fish and have essentially no impact on that kind of scale." After all, consumers are the only fish. And we have the information we need to make informed decisions.

I, for one, am very reflective about the products that I purchase, their origin, their impact on others, etc. Nonetheless, if I have a choice between a good that caused little harm to the producer and a good that caused a lot of harm to the producer, and I decide to pick the latter, I can and will only blame myself. I am guilty.