This film reveals the inequities of global capitalism, particularly, the "disposableness" of "cheap" labor from overseas that is embodied in almost all "lucky charms" and "exchange" beads thrown by carnival motorcades during New Orleans' Mardi Gras. A central message this film poses has to do with the somber alienation of dignity surrounding human work which lies behind "global capitalism". This is wake up call to leave our contemplative state (at best) facing a morale-impoverished reality by not recognizing how our increasing levels of instantaneous material gratification come at the expense of minimizing others' work, dignity, and further aspirations in life. We must bear in mind and practice the dignity and potentiality of labor in others along with our strenuous claims on natural capital, which is embodied in basically all goods and services that we consume and/or desire, if we are to avoid turning global capitalism against us.

This essay proposes a systemic model to address changes in students' business perceptions through short study-travel abroad experiences. It is argued that these short study/travel experiences, particularly to a developing country like Mexico, lead to changes in students' perceptions concerning business practices at home and abroad. Moreover, student's perceptions regarding business protocols and behavior in the context of a developing country can have an influential effect on how businesses, especially corporations, respond to the wellbeing of individuals and communities, which aims at igniting further discussion in regard to corporate social responsibility at home and overseas. The model proposed herein suggests that changes in these perceptions contribute partly to further equipping future leaders with awareness on the struggle for basic needs in several developing countries, namely: access to potable water, food, shelter, healthcare, literacy, and a sound management of natural capital, among others. This essay aims at fostering a vision of social and environmental stewardship in leaders by addressing the interplay between how businesses operate and behave in a foreign country, and the socioeconomic conditions prevalent in that host country, e.g. Mexico. The ideas reflected in this paper are mainly based on a one-week intercultural study/travel experience that took place in May of 2005 and was lead and coordinated by the author.

This essay gives a definition and a conceptualization of different approaches behind each one of the three concepts that designate its heading: consumption, wellbeing, and sustainable development. Rather than quantifying or measuring these three concepts, this essay attempts to interconnect them and ask how is it that alternative approaches discussed herein connect consumption and wellbeing in their peculiar approaches to the third concept: sustainable development. Lastly, the essay calls for conscientious changes in human ethics concerning the use of natural capital and alternative means for its exploitation.

We use the Encuesta Nacional de Ingresos y Gastos de los Hogares, years 1996, 2000, and 2004, which is a large household survey in Mexico, to assess the impact of the flows of remittances (mainly from the U.S.) to Mexico since the mid 1990s. The essay provides a household expenditure breakdown of these flows. There are several striking facts that surface from the observation of income, saving, age dependency and economic dependency between those households that receive remittances and those that do not. First, the inflow of remittances is negatively correlated with real income per household, which suggests that remittances act as a compensation to income. Second, while remittance perceptions show steady increases at the national level between 1996 and 2004, there has been a change in the composition of remittance perceptions between rural and urban households. Third, households that do receive remittances have higher age and economic dependency ratios than households that do not receive remittances. One explanation behind this third observation lies partly on a higher rate of households that do receive remittances but have no head-of-the-household residing at that time. Fourth, heads of households remain predominantly male; however, in 2000 there is a subtle increase of female heads in households not receiving remittances. Fifth, household expenditures are increasingly more concentrated on final consumption goods and services than on investment and capital goods.