Thursday, October 18, 2007
Burp!

The American economy, which many other countriestry to emulate or embrace, is self detructive. To me this is not meant to be a discussion about the American way of life being better or worse than other ways of life. I beleive in freedom. What this is about is the basic premise of the American economy or at least as it is currently interpreted.

The American economy is entirely based on consumption, which as I said before, is self destructive.I understand that human nature is going to generate a certain amount of consumption that increases the use of raw materials as the population grows, but I think the American style of economics accelerates the issue. If Americans and/or the worldare not constantly buying new items, the American economy falters, or worse, crashes. So the business world is constantly looking for new ways to create consumption. A lot of the time companies spend large amounts of dollars to create in the consumer a need that was not really there just tobuild a new market.

The economy is set up to continuously increase momentum. The idea is to make something a lot of people want or to get a lot of people to want something. The product starts out small, only using comparitively few resourses. Then money is pumped in to increase the consumption and; thus,decrease the costs. In most cases, large quantities have to made to make the item cost effective. It does not matter if it was really a necessary item, the companies will campaign until it is. Now the ball is rolling. As the sales increase, more resources are needed. Remember the more used, the cheaper it gets. Next, if sales begin to drop, or better yet grow, spinoffs are created to extend the line. More resources are needed.Some efficencyoccurs to make the item cheaper, but in most cases it comes down to saving money by buying larger quantities of raw materials.

I may not be able to clearly state all of my thoughts on this issue because I find it slippery. I realize many of the responses that can come from my opinion and beleive I can counter them, but trying to state all of them in an entry and refute them is not easy. Soencourage questions.

Where I see the biggest problem is in durable goods. I beleive better products could be made that would not break down as easily and be more recyclable, but twoissues work against that. Fisrt, if it lasts longer, you are not buying more and not supporting the ever increasing economy. Last,working out how to make something truely recyclable is costly, which again slows down comsumption. Companies find it easier to make large quantieties of short lived items that are thrown away regardless of their damage to the enviroment. In addition, they are constantly seeking new items to continue thecycle.

I look at the problem as an issue of true cost. People are taught that by buying more costs can be driven down; thus, making the item cheaper. What they aren't taughtis that there are hidden costs. The real cost of thatinexpensive radio isobscured by a haze of consumptive joy. The customer does not see that larger than needed quantitieswere made to drive the raw material costs down. They do not see that plans were not made for when the product was no longer useful or to extend the life of the product without costing more than buying another.Consumers aren't shown the lost resources that rot in landfills while existing resources dwindle. People are not shown thelost jobs due to companies lookingto cheap labor instead of efficencies and planning to reducecosts. Theyare not shownthe increase in saftey risks becausethe item was made in a country with weakerconsumer safety laws. Customers don't see the people hurt by inappropriate business practices.

What is truely sad about most Americans is thatwe let this happen. How many recalls have to happen beforewe changeour ways. How manyinjuries and/or deaths haveto occur. How much bigger does the gap between the rich and the poor have to get. How long will we continue buying eccessive amounts of things we do not need to maintain our way of life.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-10-18 19:23:32

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Bad Month and Perspective

Talk about having a bad month. My dad has a heart attack then has heart by-pass for 5 blockages. I get two speeding tickets. I fry my hard drive on my home computer and to top it off my main CD drive is unreliable making things even worse. High pressure at work pushed me to drive faster and led to the tickets.

Finally, I decided it was time for a change because I was pushing myself harder and harder whether I could handle it or not. The American way, got to do it all, have all the junk while missing out on what is really important. I am going to try and take the recent hints and change my priorities like America as a whole should.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-08-01 18:39:05

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The Cost of Cheap

Anti-freeze in our toothpaste

Lead paint on our toys

Ratpoision in our pet food and maybe ours

Hepatitis in our vegetables

Wake up America. China and Mexico don't have the safety regulations that we do. They are where we were at the beginning of the industrial revolution, before we decided some things weren't worth the savings. If we keep supporting cheap then we only have ourselves to blame.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-06-20 15:47:23

Monday, April 23, 2007
Global Costs

The other day I was talking to an opponent of the Global warming issue. One who believes there is not a man made problem. Although I seriously do not believe in his viewpoint, he did make some valid points I wish to address here and in some other entries.

Cost and profit I will look at now. He thought that it would cost to much for people to change and that there was no profit for them to change. I feel that it is profitable for people and businesses to change. Thevalue is unfortunately not so easy to see. People and companies tend to think in the short term such as that light bulb cost ten times more than what I use now. They can't see that in the long term they will get a return in energy savings, which will increase as energy costs grow. We need to continually get this point across to them.

Also, oppenents can't see the value to them for the added costs,which is why they stick to their beliefs. We have to show them that they can benefit from lower costs gained by saings in gas costs through fuel effciency and energy coststhrough effciencies like insulation, lights, and energy star. Instead of ramming our ideas down their throat, we should show them that they can keep their beliefs and stillbenefit by joining with us. They can save money by working with us whether they beleive us or not.

Another argument was that green items don't sell well. companies can't make money off of them. I beg to differ with this point of view. I see more and more green items gaining a foot hold in the market. I am not saying that they are not struggling to gain momentum, but some companies are making a profit on these items. He did have one valid point though. Instead of pushing our ideas down on them hard by making these items mandatory, we need to make these items stand on their own by buying them. We need to put our money where our mouth is. We need to make sacrfices to support these items and make them profitable to companies. We need to use our money to change their minds.

Finally, I believe I see a certain resentment by our opponents to the way we push the government to support our views through laws. I don't feel there is a problem. Government has had noissue in the past supporting industries such as auto, oil, steel, etc. I see no problem with them being made to help the Green industry. I do feel that we need to not only push our government, but also live by the very standards we wish the government to adopt. This may have more affect than pushing it down their throats. Lead with a carrot not a stick. Again, show them the profit.

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-04-23 06:56:47

Thursday, March 15, 2007
Global Warming is in the Grass Roots

Lately I have been digging into history and politics more than I ever thought I would. As a result I have been wanting to do more. Until recently, I have only given a passing thought to global warming but I watched the movie "An Uncomfortable Truth" the other night and began to think. I looked at the facts they presented and compared them to my own observations over the almost forty years of my life. I did not like what I saw.

Not just the problem, but our handling of it. I am saddened and embarassed by my countrie's (America) lack of commitment to the resolution of the problem. In particular I am disgusted by the current administrations method of attacking the messenger because they do not like the message. I love the fact that they say it is hard to fix and would cost too much to the people. What they mean is that it would cost too much for the rich or that they have not figured a way to pass it onto the middle class.

The sad truth is that these same people probably could find a way to make fixing the problem profitable if they were willing to take a little risk and maybe a little less profit. That; however, is outside of their comfort zone. For my part, I do try to be eviromentally conscious, but I don't feel I do enough, thus I thought what could I do. I don't have the fortitude to dive into politics but maybe I could still do something.

Well, what about a grass roots task. What if I asked the readers of my blog to take on a project. one that I have been doing for years and maybe just need to expand on. Plant a tree. I am raising two moderate sized trees in my house along with a small pot of house plants. My idea sprung from the victory gardens American made during WWII to supplement food supplies, which were being diverted to the war effort. Why not take the same principal with Global warming. CO2 is the big problem. What do trees and plants do to CO2? Make into oxygen. Well, why don't people and companies make a small change in their routines and expand on the tree life in and around their buildings.

Governments can encourage the activity by providing the trees. If people with large open yards could be enticed to add small victory groves, think of the effects on the world. I know this does not address the more fundamental issues of the problem, but it can be a vital part of the whole solution. Not only are we polluting the air we breath, we are also slashing and burning whole forests in the name of progress. We are destroying the very filters that clean our air. Take the responsibility and plant an airfilter for the world. Plant a victory grove!

Posted by Rob Garbin 2007-03-15 17:39:51