Parade of Junk

I’m grumpy. That means that this post will come off as something of a rant, but don’t say you weren’t forewarned!

Why am I grumpy? Because I’ve taken a liking to peanut butter and jelly on toast for breakfast, and my toaster oven died. The problem isn’t so much having to change my favorite breakfast, as it is our continual parade of junk consisting of things we’ve purchased, such as drip pot coffee makers and laundry baskets, that are kaput after about six months or a year. Many readers will likely nod their heads in sympathy over this problem.

The modern world has a disposable mindset. The irony is that it rallies behind “green” products and recycling, but for all the talk and hoopla about these things, nothing really changes except that prices go up and quality goes down. It seems to me that we have something of a 3-ring circus going on, with everyone pointing the finger at someone else. We have industrial manufacturing and agriculture in one ring, the economy in another, and the environmentalists in the third.

Let’s start with the third ring, since global warming, climate change, carbon emissions, and petroleum dependence are so much in the news these days. It’s interesting that the target object for all of this is usually emissions, mostly automobiles. Rarely is it pointed out that the majority of plastics and all their cousins are petroleum products. And what, in the parade of junk, isn’t made with at least some plastic (or all) these days? Then there’s the energy cost to manufacture and transport those goods, plus all that packaging which must be dealt with. But don’t get me started on that.

In the second ring, business people tell us they only sell what the public wants. Baloney! I mean, who really wants to keep buying a new coffee pot or laundry basket every six months? Or a new toaster oven every couple of years? The truth is that we can only buy what they offer to us. Don’t show it to us and we won’t even know to want it. So called “better quality” costs more, but is it really? Somehow I doubt it.

Then there’s the economy, which is based on the industrial model. It’s so called “health” revolves around “growth.” In other words, they have to keep making more and more money to keep their investors in dividends and their CEOs in bazillion dollar bonuses. There’s the real culprit! Let’s just all grow a little garden and be satisfied and content with living simply and modestly – problem solved!

Don’t even bother with the government. Every time they pass laws to make things “better,” it only means things get more expensive, with all that expense passed on to the consumer.

This is madness. How long can it go on?