Consumption
It all started in Tesco this morning (For all you US readers, Tesco is the UK equivalent of Walmart) after I dropped my son off at school.
Tesco had their new spring clothes collection with £5 off kids clothes if you spent £25, so I had just loaded up the trolley with all the latest shapeless, unstylish Chinese imports in varying shades of pink (because the 2 yr old daughter will only wear pink), and I had enough for my voucher off, and then I had one of those moments. You know what I mean, one of THOSE moments. The “what the hell am I doing here?” moments.
I felt physically nauseous, the daughter was screaming blue murder in the throes of an ear-splitting tantrum about heaven-only-knows-what, and (not for the first or last time) I hated Tesco and all other supermarkets with every fibre of my being.
There are four big supermarket companies in the UK. They count for 85% of all food in the UK, and are rapidly killing off every other small shop in most rural areas. One in every ten pounds in the UK is spent in Tesco. Most people buy their clothes and dirt-cheap electrical goods from either Tesco or one of the big department stores, and all of these omnipotent companies get most of their non-food supplies from cheap labour in China and/or India/Taiwan etc.
I could write you endless political and social essays on cheap foreign imports and how much western society relies on them. The information on this could fill an entire blog of its own. My poor boys often have to put up with me ranting on about poor exploited starving Chinese workers. But still I buy cheap imported products. Despite my conscience, like 99.9% of every other person in the UK, I have no choice. Our dear beloved Government has taxed us into extinction. We have to buy cheap food and Chinese clothes and electrical items, because that is all we can afford. And frankly, there isn’t any other cost-effective option. Ebay is an option for cheap and fashionable clothing, but then you just end up buying second-hand, recycled Chinese imports. Or, as the fashion industry loves to call it, “vintage” Chinese. I’m not sure if that makes it more green or socially acceptable, and it makes my head spin just to think about the morality of vintage Chinese.
I had thought that the photography world was exempt from the creep of cheap foreign imports, but Rich just blew my bubble by telling me about Holga, the cheap imported Chinese medium format camera. As with most cheap imports, the quality is apparently somewhat lacking, and Rich has entertained me with stories of how the apparently unpredictable results from a Holga are sometimes classified as Art. But because it is medium format, it is therefore automatically more prestigious, so it must be Art.
And my favourite love of the moment, the world of latex fashion, is also rife with the Chinese-import disease. Cheap, affordable, but absolutely dreadful quality to wear. Not authentic latex, but the uncomfortable and thick Chinese alternative which came from a recycled Chinese tyre and smells like it, and which gives you a rash in places you rather wouldn’t have one.
Is it possible to only source goods from your own country ? The answer is definitely yes, for food, but as for clothes and electrical goods, it would be nigh-impossible, if only on the grounds of cost.
What makes things worse is that all this debt-fuelled consumption, this bloated twisted desire in our modern society to buy, buy, buy, get a bigger car, fancier clothes, the next model plasma screen t.v., the next whizzy model of digital camera, just results in screwing us up, so that we confuse what we want with what we truly need. Because we always feel that our lives should be better, and because of our underlying fear of being labelled a failure, we resort to consumption, thus medicating our unhappiness with spending power. And the more we consume, the more the Chinese (and other countries supplying cheap imports) serve to feed our greed.
I have to believe there is a way out of this. I have to believe at some point, decades from now, Western Society may reach a point where its culture suffers from the existential angst about consumption that only a rich society can indulge in.
And then things may change.
But don’t hold your breath.
Sorry about the rant folks. So much for the yummy mummy makeover. I really blew it, didn’t I ?
Moral of the story: Support your country’s economy. For UK readers, that means buy British latex. Not as cheap, but the quality speaks for itself. And no nasty rashes either.
And talking of pretty girls in Latex, here's Roswell Ivory again, in a gorgeous picture which adorns the wall of our office !
Tesco had their new spring clothes collection with £5 off kids clothes if you spent £25, so I had just loaded up the trolley with all the latest shapeless, unstylish Chinese imports in varying shades of pink (because the 2 yr old daughter will only wear pink), and I had enough for my voucher off, and then I had one of those moments. You know what I mean, one of THOSE moments. The “what the hell am I doing here?” moments.
I felt physically nauseous, the daughter was screaming blue murder in the throes of an ear-splitting tantrum about heaven-only-knows-what, and (not for the first or last time) I hated Tesco and all other supermarkets with every fibre of my being.
There are four big supermarket companies in the UK. They count for 85% of all food in the UK, and are rapidly killing off every other small shop in most rural areas. One in every ten pounds in the UK is spent in Tesco. Most people buy their clothes and dirt-cheap electrical goods from either Tesco or one of the big department stores, and all of these omnipotent companies get most of their non-food supplies from cheap labour in China and/or India/Taiwan etc.
I could write you endless political and social essays on cheap foreign imports and how much western society relies on them. The information on this could fill an entire blog of its own. My poor boys often have to put up with me ranting on about poor exploited starving Chinese workers. But still I buy cheap imported products. Despite my conscience, like 99.9% of every other person in the UK, I have no choice. Our dear beloved Government has taxed us into extinction. We have to buy cheap food and Chinese clothes and electrical items, because that is all we can afford. And frankly, there isn’t any other cost-effective option. Ebay is an option for cheap and fashionable clothing, but then you just end up buying second-hand, recycled Chinese imports. Or, as the fashion industry loves to call it, “vintage” Chinese. I’m not sure if that makes it more green or socially acceptable, and it makes my head spin just to think about the morality of vintage Chinese.
I had thought that the photography world was exempt from the creep of cheap foreign imports, but Rich just blew my bubble by telling me about Holga, the cheap imported Chinese medium format camera. As with most cheap imports, the quality is apparently somewhat lacking, and Rich has entertained me with stories of how the apparently unpredictable results from a Holga are sometimes classified as Art. But because it is medium format, it is therefore automatically more prestigious, so it must be Art.
And my favourite love of the moment, the world of latex fashion, is also rife with the Chinese-import disease. Cheap, affordable, but absolutely dreadful quality to wear. Not authentic latex, but the uncomfortable and thick Chinese alternative which came from a recycled Chinese tyre and smells like it, and which gives you a rash in places you rather wouldn’t have one.
Is it possible to only source goods from your own country ? The answer is definitely yes, for food, but as for clothes and electrical goods, it would be nigh-impossible, if only on the grounds of cost.
What makes things worse is that all this debt-fuelled consumption, this bloated twisted desire in our modern society to buy, buy, buy, get a bigger car, fancier clothes, the next model plasma screen t.v., the next whizzy model of digital camera, just results in screwing us up, so that we confuse what we want with what we truly need. Because we always feel that our lives should be better, and because of our underlying fear of being labelled a failure, we resort to consumption, thus medicating our unhappiness with spending power. And the more we consume, the more the Chinese (and other countries supplying cheap imports) serve to feed our greed.
I have to believe there is a way out of this. I have to believe at some point, decades from now, Western Society may reach a point where its culture suffers from the existential angst about consumption that only a rich society can indulge in.
And then things may change.
But don’t hold your breath.
Sorry about the rant folks. So much for the yummy mummy makeover. I really blew it, didn’t I ?
Moral of the story: Support your country’s economy. For UK readers, that means buy British latex. Not as cheap, but the quality speaks for itself. And no nasty rashes either.
And talking of pretty girls in Latex, here's Roswell Ivory again, in a gorgeous picture which adorns the wall of our office !
posted by Lin at 10:09 AM
2 Comments:
Hello lovely buddy,
I have two thoughts surrounds todays missive...
On cheap imports
----------------
For many years I have had exactly the same hangups and worries about cheap labour and expoitation of overseas workers as you. I did however hear an interview with an international economist once that made me think twice. 30 years ago, Singapore was a desperately poor country with a peasant economy. It started economic changes and engaged in exactly the sort of cheap labour that we complain about. Workers slaved horrendous hours in sweatshops for a pittance of wages. But trickle by trickle, the money was reinvested into Singapore's economy and workers' conditions improved. Today, singapore has a higher standard of living than the UK. What the economist as arguing was that it's all very well to complain about workers conditions in one country, but if they are improved too fast too soon, the work will go to another country instead and the money will be lost. After all, hasn't singapore done exactly what occured in the UK during the industrial revolution? In the short term, it's grim in sweatshop labour countries. Managed well, it can lead to long term improvements for a whole country.
That is only one take on the issue however. I'm sure it's equally possible to demonstrate the exact opposite.
The only answer to this impossible dilemma that I can see is to make rigorous use of the fair trade movement. At least that way, the money earned goes directly to the workers and not lost to international middlmen pirates. Tescos are supposedly introducing fair trade clothing soon. Now there's irony for you!
The consumption rat race
------------------------
This book was a real eye opener for me. The Origins of unhappiness by David Smail. It is all about exactly the angst you descibe and where it comes from.
>>I have to believe there is a way out of this.
There is
1) Understand the difference between what you want and what you need. 2) Identify what you have in your life that is there in order to satisfy the judgements of others. Identify those things in your "wants" list are there to satisfy the judgements of others.
3) Recognise that many of these judgements are based upon desires that have been deliberately manufactured in order to meet the needs of a permenantly expanding economy. This is the function of advertising - to create "want" where there is no genuine "need".
4) Let go of the fear of judgements that are based upon those illusory needs.
5) Decide which needs and wants are REAL and GENUINE to you.
6) Work out what feeds your soul and what diminshes it.
7) Choose to "want" less and let go of what is illusory.
8) External reality partially mirrors our view of ourselves. As you loose the need to satisfy others, you let go of their judgement of you. External reality shifts accordingly and different people come into your life who reflect this and who have no need to judge you as they are comfortable with who they are.
Hopefully the end result is less time, energy, effort, money and stress wasted on things that really don't matter.
Thus endeth this morning's gospel according to Grommit. xxx
Very eloquently put as usual, my dear!
But did you read the recent article in the Economist recently, which blew the Fairtrade movement wide open?
"But perhaps the most cogent objection to Fairtrade is that it is an inefficient way to get money to poor producers. Retailers add their own enormous mark-ups to Fairtrade products and mislead consumers into thinking that all of the premium they are paying is passed on. Mr Harford calculates that only 10% of the premium paid for Fairtrade coffee in a coffee bar trickles down to the producer."
As far as I can gather, Fairtrade has major problems as well. I've read equally good and bad things about it.
The argument rages on....
And yes, I've been reading too much David Smail too !
xx
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