STORY OF STUFF
Chris Johnson
After watching this video I was introduced to a concept that I already knew to be true: as Americans we consume too much, and in turn we waste too much. As a capitalistic country we are so concerned with acquiring capital and being wealthy. As we continue to build more and more capital it is only in our nature to spend and consume more and more. I thought the ideas of planned and perceived obsolescence were very important because they are so true. Producers build things so they can break and make people buy new things. Also producers make products and advertise them so that we think we need them, when in fact often times we would be just fine without them. These practices have been around for a long time, and it is this very thing that fuels our economy. I am just as guilty as anyone in doing this. I can’t tell you how many things I’ve bought, not because I needed them, but because I wanted them. For us to continue to thrive in this capitalistic world I believe a lot of this is necessary. However, I believe the waste issue is more of a problem than the consumption. It is ok to want the newest things or the newest technology, but we need to find a better way to turn old things into new things. With a much more efficient and thorough recycling system our we could change much of our trash into treasure. I’m not just talking about paper, metals, and plastic, I’m talking about everything from clothes to home appliances. Just like the video said, many of the new products created only change one small part from the previous model. If we could find a way to better turn our trash into new goods we could get a jump start on preserving our natural resources.
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2 comments:
from Ikhwan Jamaludin
As Chris wrote " I believe the waste issue is more of a problem than the consumption. It is ok to want the newest things or the newest technology, but we need to find a better way to turn old things into new things” , I agree with his statement. Nowadays, technology grows faster under our expectation. Every day, new cool stuffs will be advertised or will be sold in the market. We as consumers should think on what we do need and or what we don't need to buy. If it is necessary to buy, it does not matter if we buy it. But if it is not, that what we have to think twice before we buy it. Trashes come from things and stuffs that we used. It is our responsibility as consumers to decrease thrashes or to reused our stuff back or whatever thing that we can do with the stuffs besides we throw it. Maybe, it will help a bit in order to save our nature.
Chris: the proposal you make here is a good one, I think. Too often people think that saving the earth (and hence also humanity) will require some heroic effort of self-denial, that is, that people will have to consume a heck of a lot less. But I'm not so sure that's necessary. As you point out, we would make great headway in preserving the natural resources we require for our survival if we learn how to convert discarded products into the ones we'll eventually produce. There's much work to be done to create more sustainable ways of producing and consuming things. Fortunately, more and more people are getting more interested in, and demanding, sustainability. I sometimes have doubts about whether sustainability and capitalism are can coexist. In any event, it seems that sustainability is crucial, so we must do whatever is required to achieve it, regardless of whether that means transcending capitalism or simply transforming it.
In case you're interested, Paul Hawken is a fairly well-known thinker who writes on the topic of sustainability (and appears to think it can be done in a capitalist world). His most famous book is called THE ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE: A DECLARATION OF SUSTAINABILITY. More recently he wrote a book called NATURAL CAPITALISM. I've read only a few pages of the first book and have heard decent things about the second one.
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