by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The economy, oh my G-d! The stupid economy.
The problem with the economy, global and national, is that it is all but a giant ponzi scheme, only that no one seems to realize it.
The talk is always about economic growth as an indicator of a healthy economy and this is all dependent on people buying and buying more and new. But what was in all those old days when goods lasted and people did not buy as much. How did it all work then, for working it did and just fine.
For some reason ever since the beginning of the 20th century and especially since after the two world wars the idea of the economy need to grow and grow moths by month, year by year, through permanent consumption, hast taken root.
It is a mad race by manufacturers and vendors to sell ever more products and to sell more next week than this week; never satisfied with just selling enough to make a reasonable profit and living. More and more it has to be, until everything goes south, finally.
The adage of “what goes up must come down” also holds true in this case, though not necessarily for prices; they seem to be for ever rising.
Everything is geared to growth but what is this growth? It is built upon factored in obsolescence in products in a way that would not have been the case somewhere around fifty years ago. Then things were made in such a way that they would last and could be repaired. Now everything is made with the view of breaking down not long after the warranty expires and then being irreparable – often due to a repair being several times the costs of a new product – and needing to be replaced.
Thus we have factored waste into the economy and this waste is causing us much grief in more than one area.
How did the people function in days gone by when this obsolescence was not factored into products; when in fact longevity was the aim? They worked and were happy with what they could make from the sale (and repair) of their products without even a thought of having to create a growth in the market.
Growth came in when they designed and made new products, maybe, and people bought those from them too, but not by making products in such a way that the customer had to buy new soon after again.
They would have lost customers in those days because quality and reliability were the watchwords, and people demanded that products they spent good money on lasted.
When a product said “Made in Hon Kong” you knew it was going to be cheap and nasty and for a time that also applied to “Made in Japan” and “Made in Taiwan”, but that changed when industry suddenly realized a way of exploiting the labor force in those countries, especially in Hong Kong and Taiwan, as they do now in China.
In addition to the products being made cheap, though not as cheap to the purchaser, they are expensive in the long run, due to the environmental costs and the need to being replaced all the time, as they no longer last much further than a few weeks or months after the warranty expires with the resualt of needing then to be replaced.
Another common problem nowadays is obsolescence of the consumables part of, say, computer printers. You may have only bought the printer a few months ago but suddenly find you cannot get any ink cartridges for it, neither as originals nor as generic ones. Both printer and cartridges have been superseded and that's it. You need to buy a new one.
Those are just the few examples of the stupid economy that commercial greed has created without any concern for the consumer and with less for the environment and the Planet and we must change this stupid economy back to a sane one, an economy where people and the Planet matter and not simple “growth”, as it is called, and profit to shareholders.
It is up to us, each and every one of us, to force this change. We can do it.. Every action can force change.
© 2010
