This was a very interesting video of how we spend money on cheap goods from third nations and consume at rocket speed.
As I see it, this is the ugly backside of the capitalist society that we live in. Corporations have become so powerful that nobody (goverment) can stand in their way, they do what they want, when they want to. And somehow we accept this fact, it’s all about the money, where ever you look it’s money this and money that. How can we save money? When can we close down the production and move it to China? etc. Where does this stop? Because the greed that the leading corporates in the world is showing right now, it will have to be appocalyps to take back the power.
Something that really got to me was the fact that their was toxics in the breastmilk of mothers wich they later gave to infant babys. This fact makes you want to cry, we are supposed to be humans the most evolved beeing on the planet, yet theese things happens.
Also how the corporates wants consumers to shop as much as possible, now a days you can’t find any product that will last a lifetime. And the corporates have found ways to shorter the life-span of products by making it impossible to use it longer than what they want it to.
And last I would like to say that it’s a shame that we can’t stop the pollution of Dioxin, god forbid the ceo:s of the largest companies don’t make that extra dollar.
There are some aspects I would like to comment on your last blog entry. First of all, to my mind it is very positive that you think the situation we all live in is outrageous; because it is indeed. Regardless of the logical explanations we can attempt to find in order to justify the current situation of the world, it is undeniable that some practices cannot be tolerated. You mention some of them, probably the most shocking ones. For instance, the one of the presence of toxics in breast milk. That is unacceptable and something worthwhile fighting for. Companies hold sway on most of the relevant political decisions; therefore, the prospects of us being able to bring about a revolution are to some extent dreary. However, to complain and not to submit ourselves to the state of affairs mighty firms continuously try to force on us, is the right direction. Only by creating awareness and discomfort with how things are, we will establish the right circumstances to cause a revolution that will transform the model, we now have, into a fairer and more balanced one.
SvaraRaderaI completely agree with your post when you say that companies are constantly looking for new needs that could be satisfied by their products. And if they don’t find any of those, they make a new one up. Undoubtedly, an appropriated amount of advertisement carefully designed can make miracles in the behavior of consumers. I think that the distinction between that stuff we need and those we just want is progressively disappearing. This uncontrolled level of consumption is what is leading us directly to destruction.
SvaraRaderaHowever, at the same time, it is the authentic founding of our system. All our economies are based on an unceasing consumption. It is an unrestrained consumption what allows companies to keep the current vertiginous level of production and activity. Actually, it is pretty representative the fact that the worst recessions we went through were those leaded by a slash in the consumption.
This conflict put us in a difficult position: if we want to avoid the destruction of an unbridled economy, we have to start by removing the very principles that sustain our actual economy.