Consumers don't as a group "choose" anything independently in the sense that their biases and psychological faults and the structure of incentives in our society are all used to make consumers act against their own interests and the interests of the whole. When our "best and brightest" are only committed to profit, we cannibalize ourselves. It isn't progressive. There is no scenario where shitting on the masses to help yourself results in a win for humankind. Not at this stage in history.