In class we had a discussion (sort of) about how with premium items we buy the brand instead of the actual product. I can say that I neither agree or disagree because both sides seem to have some truth in it. I think if anything we buy it for image. There is so much pressure from today's society for us to suddenly be saints. Like if we're not vegans we're suddenly this heartless, carnivore who eat baby camels for breakfast or if we don't drive a hybrid we're equivalent to psychopathic serial killers who target black and white animals with beaks and the inability to fly. So being nice is actually more expensive than most would think!
I'm not saying about the times we have to give money to some random homeless in the streets, because you've been staring for more than 5 minutes and nobody else has the compassion to give their spare change, only to realise later that we'd just given away our bus money. Try a slightly bigger scale, the things we buy. We all seem to have this urge to buy designer items or whatever. When you see a Vuitton bag in the stores costing as much as how much you normally pay for a month's worth of electricity and more and then a similar one in china town for a significantly lower price, it's only instinct that we choose the latter. Knowing full well that the quality will be terrible, not to mention the fact that it's illegal so you might get into bigger trouble. So because we wish to get better quality items in the hopes of saving more in the long run and not be in kerfuffle with the authorities, you're forced to choose the authentic bag, not really because you can just as easily walk away.
That's no question, but suppose you find a similar bag, that's brand new and let's say it was sold in a lower end store like Target (unlikely, whatev) so the quality is better than the bootleg version --though not as good as the original-- and of course it will be sold at a lower price. This is also no question, you buy the one at Target, but what you'll be paying for here would not be the quality or the design but rather on the blood of the illegal Mexican labour in the south of the states or the blood of the Indian children who are forced to sew the stitches of your bag with hands that are supposed to be writing stupid, pointless essays in school or by other workers who live in housing provided by the factory in some remote location that's not even fit for a chicken. So when you buy cheaper items of similar quality and design instead of its more expensive counterpart, not only will you be humiliated by the accusations of being cheap but also that you are a Nazi who is against humanitarian ways.
There are things that are cheaper despite it being better though, like music and books. With the invention of mp3s and ebooks, you can now purchase songs and reading material online and have it in its digital form. This way you don't pay for the transportation therefore cheaper than if you buy it's bricks and mortar counterpart. Transportation is bad for its engine exhaust that endangers the environment, just thought I should clarify, and then there's the packaging, oih! So not only will you be considered an efficient, economic fella by your peers, you are also an environmentalist who just helped slow down global warming and saved the world and its organisms as we know it. You're a freaking hero!
Then again, if you really think about it, not using transportation means you might have just put a loooooot of people in that industry out of work. So you care about the environment but not the people who live in it. What's the matter with you? You sick monster!
Nice costs! So here's what I propose, or rather what my sister proposed to me once, live in a farm and live self sufficiently like the freaks who live in the secluded, small town in horror movies. Sure, you'll breed cows that emit greenhouse gases but if people want to complain about it you can turn them into wax statues and no one will know.
Thoughts:
Past Thoughts
Thursday 25 November 2010
Nice costs!
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