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Okay, I have a discussion question for you guys, so I'd really like your input.
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but somewhere along the line I became really concerned about ethical spending. I didn't think of this as too obscure, because, I mean, who allows themselves to be subjected to scams and stuff? And shouldn't you be monetarily supporting that which you only actually support? But it seems like recently I've come to realize most people just aren't aware. And I realize part of awareness is stumbling onto topics, and I spend a lot of time online stumbling onto things, so it would make sense that I know a bit more than your average person on the street; but these sort of things are things we talk about in Environmental Ethics, too, and I'm finding it hard to believe people make it through school without philosophy or some sort of ethics thing.
What reminded me of this was a madTV (ugh) skit about those "name a star" gifts. Those are a total scam, you're basically paying for a random star and name printed on a piece of paper that gets stored in a database that has nothing to do with actual technologies involved in studying stars, and I'm guessing they will sell repeats. I'd find it hard to believe they haven't run out of stars by now--I know there are a lot of them, but people are going to want to buy stars they can see with the naked eye or a cheap telescope.
SO ANYWAY. The other reason this came up is that Laura came up to me the other day and said that through boredom she and Savannah had found the wedding rings they wanted some day, and I went off on my whole diamond/wedding-ring spiel. To me, there are so many things wrong with that market that I just can't support it. Human rights violations, monopolization of a market (leading to prices tens or hundreds of times the actual value), and all the anti-feminist angles including "it's what women should want", it being a status symbol, men should spend twice their monthly salary on it, "it means true love", the fact that the market was MADE UP in the 1930's, all that jazz. How about diamonds don't actually last forever? They're not even the hardest material on earth known to man anymore, sorry2say. And you may say, oh, well, there are still cruelty-free diamonds (usually from Canada, for some reason? or are there actual mines there?), and lab-created diamonds, but how about the monopolizing "natural" diamond market sending mobsters to kill lab technicians and send threatening letters? Or the fact that recently they've started marking what used to be "imperfect" diamonds as colored and "chocolate" diamonds and stuff? (By that I mean the "colored" ones that aren't supposedly "rare".) I mean, good on them for choosing to have less "waste", but then marking up the price and everything... It seems like a huge farce, to me. Even if you're buying an "ethical" diamond, I don't understand why people choose to ignore the other issues at hand.
Anyway, this just continues onto my ethics class--why don't people recycle? It's so easy--throw your paper and plastic and glass in a different wastebin than your food and unrecyclable material. And why do people waste so much? I try to buy stuff with less packaging, or use fewer utensils, or that sort of thing.
And as for packaging, why isn't more packaging efficient? Or made of recycled material?
I dunno, I could go on and on, but I'm not really feeling "ranty" right now, I'm more curious as to other people's spending habits.
For example, one of my favorite blogs is youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com, and through it I've learned that places like Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, and if I'm remembering it right, Anthropologie as well? I'm only about 25% sure on that one though-- steal designs willy-nilly from independent artists, and because of that, I choose not to shop at their stores. But, for example, if I point that out to Laura, she just says "meh". What does it take for people to realize they are just supporting a destructive sort of business model?
Is it just that I think too much, I read too much, I'm too aware?
I've started trying to buy safe organic stuff, if I can, because 1) it removes a lot of toxins from the entire business cycle, and works just as well if not better, 2) the business are more likely not to have extreme animal testing/abuse or pollution issues and tend to use recyled/recyclable materials (amognst other things--basically, better business ethical practices), and 3) it may be more expensive but I feel like that is not a sacrifice to make for ethics AND, to me, it demonstrates what capitalism is all about. Plus I've started preferring business based on their practices in general; I've read some skeevy things about Coke, for example, so I'm glad I'm a Mountain Dew (a Pepsi product) person, and I was even more happy to find out Pepsi or one of the top guys there had donated a lot to the gay marriage initiative in California. I realize I'm not 100% of everything that goes on, and I'm just starting down the rabbit hole, as it were, but it seems like such small choices per capita can have such a hgue impact, that people's decisions to ignore/remain ignorant of them truly make me curious. The world can clearly not go on with so much human chauvinism.
Basically, I'm curious-- to what extent do your ethics/awareness play into your shopping?
I'm not sure exactly when it started, but somewhere along the line I became really concerned about ethical spending. I didn't think of this as too obscure, because, I mean, who allows themselves to be subjected to scams and stuff? And shouldn't you be monetarily supporting that which you only actually support? But it seems like recently I've come to realize most people just aren't aware. And I realize part of awareness is stumbling onto topics, and I spend a lot of time online stumbling onto things, so it would make sense that I know a bit more than your average person on the street; but these sort of things are things we talk about in Environmental Ethics, too, and I'm finding it hard to believe people make it through school without philosophy or some sort of ethics thing.
What reminded me of this was a madTV (ugh) skit about those "name a star" gifts. Those are a total scam, you're basically paying for a random star and name printed on a piece of paper that gets stored in a database that has nothing to do with actual technologies involved in studying stars, and I'm guessing they will sell repeats. I'd find it hard to believe they haven't run out of stars by now--I know there are a lot of them, but people are going to want to buy stars they can see with the naked eye or a cheap telescope.
SO ANYWAY. The other reason this came up is that Laura came up to me the other day and said that through boredom she and Savannah had found the wedding rings they wanted some day, and I went off on my whole diamond/wedding-ring spiel. To me, there are so many things wrong with that market that I just can't support it. Human rights violations, monopolization of a market (leading to prices tens or hundreds of times the actual value), and all the anti-feminist angles including "it's what women should want", it being a status symbol, men should spend twice their monthly salary on it, "it means true love", the fact that the market was MADE UP in the 1930's, all that jazz. How about diamonds don't actually last forever? They're not even the hardest material on earth known to man anymore, sorry2say. And you may say, oh, well, there are still cruelty-free diamonds (usually from Canada, for some reason? or are there actual mines there?), and lab-created diamonds, but how about the monopolizing "natural" diamond market sending mobsters to kill lab technicians and send threatening letters? Or the fact that recently they've started marking what used to be "imperfect" diamonds as colored and "chocolate" diamonds and stuff? (By that I mean the "colored" ones that aren't supposedly "rare".) I mean, good on them for choosing to have less "waste", but then marking up the price and everything... It seems like a huge farce, to me. Even if you're buying an "ethical" diamond, I don't understand why people choose to ignore the other issues at hand.
Anyway, this just continues onto my ethics class--why don't people recycle? It's so easy--throw your paper and plastic and glass in a different wastebin than your food and unrecyclable material. And why do people waste so much? I try to buy stuff with less packaging, or use fewer utensils, or that sort of thing.
And as for packaging, why isn't more packaging efficient? Or made of recycled material?
I dunno, I could go on and on, but I'm not really feeling "ranty" right now, I'm more curious as to other people's spending habits.
For example, one of my favorite blogs is youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com, and through it I've learned that places like Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, and if I'm remembering it right, Anthropologie as well? I'm only about 25% sure on that one though-- steal designs willy-nilly from independent artists, and because of that, I choose not to shop at their stores. But, for example, if I point that out to Laura, she just says "meh". What does it take for people to realize they are just supporting a destructive sort of business model?
Is it just that I think too much, I read too much, I'm too aware?
I've started trying to buy safe organic stuff, if I can, because 1) it removes a lot of toxins from the entire business cycle, and works just as well if not better, 2) the business are more likely not to have extreme animal testing/abuse or pollution issues and tend to use recyled/recyclable materials (amognst other things--basically, better business ethical practices), and 3) it may be more expensive but I feel like that is not a sacrifice to make for ethics AND, to me, it demonstrates what capitalism is all about. Plus I've started preferring business based on their practices in general; I've read some skeevy things about Coke, for example, so I'm glad I'm a Mountain Dew (a Pepsi product) person, and I was even more happy to find out Pepsi or one of the top guys there had donated a lot to the gay marriage initiative in California. I realize I'm not 100% of everything that goes on, and I'm just starting down the rabbit hole, as it were, but it seems like such small choices per capita can have such a hgue impact, that people's decisions to ignore/remain ignorant of them truly make me curious. The world can clearly not go on with so much human chauvinism.
Basically, I'm curious-- to what extent do your ethics/awareness play into your shopping?
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 01:53 am (UTC)From:Well, no, I didn't know that about Microsoft, but I've been into open-source projects lately and I'm planning to make the switch to Linux eventually, so that's kind of a moot point at this point, for me persoonally. And, a bit of a tangent, Macs I think are popular because their marketing and design divisions did a great job of making them popular, especially now that they no longer have the graphic-design-capabilities-advantage they once had over Windows, and they're being marketed as a fashion accessory. Which, personally, I don't like being ripped off for the sake of fashion if I don't particularly LOVE the style (say maybe, retro?), and I'm one of those people who shops around anally for good deals. Which is why my new laptop is a $300 EEEPC with more capability and carryability than a MacBook Air, and all at a TENTH of the cost. Though it doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, which I'm fine with, but the next models will so that's good too.
Also, no, I don't believe in burning books, or destroying things just because they're bad. People should be educated about why they're bad, but they should still be exposed to them.
On a similar topic, I loved Ender's Game but it came to light recently that the author, for writing a book famous for being about accepting the outliers in life, is garishly homophobic. Does that make me love Ender's Game any less? No, but because of "the power of money" I'm less likely to want to buy his books, and more likely to borrow them from a friend.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:08 am (UTC)From:And why educate people on a book that's bad if the book itself isn't bad?
Everyone HATED American Psycho. Read it and you'll see why it was banned and burned. But it's a fantastic book.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:18 am (UTC)From:I think I said that before, but no, I definitely don't think him being homophobic affects his books being good. But if you have Speaker for the Dead, I'll definitely borrow it. (Thooouugghhh it might be awhile until you get it back...)
And sorry, I didn't mean to say the hypothetical book was bad, when you clearly said it was good. hurf durf. If the book is good, it should speak for itself, but it clearly doesn't imply that the author is necessarily as good. I mean, I kinda hate to pull Godwin's Law, but people seem to take enough interest in reading Mein Kampf, at least for curiosity's sake, and he was clearly not a great guy. Haven't read it though, so I can't say how good it is, but I will say I am curious to read it. =) I'm a sucker for learning what I don't know.
Also, I will also be borrowing AP assuming you haven't sold it back to the bookstore. I loved the movie and I'm at least interested in the book, though if it reads anything like a history book I will probably not make it through the first two chapters, lol. BUT then again I have a really high tolerance for graphic stuff (even though I'm a flincher) so that's just another angle in its favor, I guess. I mean ffs my favorite jokes are dead baby jokes. =P
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:26 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:31 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:34 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:49 am (UTC)From:I mean, my education is thus:
1) has seen the movie
2) has read its wikipedia article
3) has discussed in a humorous tone with people
So, as much as I can say, that's what I got out of the movie. And I know movies are usually radically different from the book, but I'm just trying to apply what I get from it... D:
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 03:43 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 04:03 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 04:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 05:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:11 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 02:46 am (UTC)From:Though this is kind of an exception since it's a personal journal, in which case I give myself free reign to talk about whatever I feel needs talked about and I try to be brutally honest, even to myself because then I can learn my own flaws.
If you don't mind posting here, I don't care, or I can friendslock a post for discussion, or you can just email me or whatever...
Also, sorry for disappearing, my roommate needed meds.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 03:44 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-16 03:46 am (UTC)From: