Corporate profit before all else.

Certainly there will come a time when the "corporate profit before all else" mentality has to come to an end. The questions are: When and how are we going to get there?

As a younger, more idealistic version of myself, I used to think that I had a strong dislike for "corporate America" but didn't completely know what that meant. Now that I'm a little bit older, I realize that I still don't know what it means.

I remember standing in a corporate bookstore flipping through a copy of Adbusters magazine, but (of course) not buying it. (Aside: How can you justify buying something with the whole profit model based off of convincing you not to buy something else? Wait, isn't that how a large portion of our consumer culture works? "You'll certainly be happier if you buy this brand of dishwashing liquid instead of that cheap ass one that's sure to leave your dishes dirty and make you the laughing stock of the whole neighborhood!!!") I'm sure I stood there for a few minutes in my [brand name] sneakers also flipping through a stack of magazines about mountain bikes, cars, running and whatever else I was interested in at the time thinking about "culture jamming" and the destruction that corporations were causing the world.

I remember eventually coming to the conclusion that it's hard to walk the line between feeling like a socially conscious, responsible person and a complete hypocrite... and the days I feel like I'm more on the former side, it's just complete and total ignorance.

The fact is that it's close to impossible to opt out of the "system" and still survive. Even if you pick an area of focus and do something that you think is a better, more responsible choice like buying "organic" foods at the supermarket from smaller companies, chances are good those brands are now owned by giant corporate conglomerates that have snatched them up for the brand name and the increased profit that comes with them.

In this example, larger companies snatch up smaller companies with good ideas / market share / turf that they desire and then slowly kill them off internally, fold them into their massive corporate structure and then "downsize" or just grab the brand and/or patents and sit on them. There are hundreds of things that are done purely in the name of profit that are much more questionable or unethical than buying up your competition, but I don't want to turn this into a massive list / rant.

Now usually when people become outraged by something they clamor for "increased regulations" but that usually just makes things worse. Tying shit up in bureaucracy for years and trusting someone that somewhere up to half of the population didn't vote for based on the side they label themselves as or even just how familiar their name is. Then these "representatives" hopefully ignore their convictions, biases and contributors and do the right thing for the country and the majority of the people. Yeah. That sounds like *exactly* what happens. (/sarcasm.)

There have been some headlines in the past few years about "corporate personhood" here in the United States (in light of a recent Supreme Court decision regarding Hobby Lobby, contraception coverage by insurance and religious convictions) and how it's probably time that it's ended. Many of the comments about these type of articles tend to lead to the conclusion that if a corporation was actually a person it would be a heavy-handed, greedy, money-driven psychopath with no empathy, sympathy or conscience.

That's the whole game, though. If (corporate) profit drives all available choices, and every one of those choices is a bad choice for someone or something else, why not just pick the best choice for you and get on with your day? Why care at all?

Acknowledging this isn't me giving up. This is me realizing that just saying you don't like something isn't going to change it. It's time to break free of conspicuous consumption and unchecked corporate profit and power.

We need to find better ways of defining what it is that makes us happy and better ways to get there if we want to have any sort of a future.

• We need to figure out how to destroy the notion of corporate personhood.
• We need to take away incentives to destroy everything (the environment, people's rights and freedoms, etc.) in the ruthless pursuit of profit.
• We need to tweak the legal system to end frivolous lawsuits.
• We need to stop funding government organizations that don't have the best interests of the people they serve as their only reasons for existence.

Most of all, though, it starts with making better choices as individuals. Some things that will help:

• Stop coveting other people's stuff.
• Pick some concerns that you're passionate about to focus on (environment, local business, etc.) and try to work them into all purchasing decisions.
• Take a few extra minutes to consider whether you really need something when making purchasing decisions.
• Try to buy secondhand goods, when possible.
• Donate or sell things that you've accumulated that someone might make better use of.
• Look for more durable, locally made products as an alternative to the mass-produced junk at the local big-box store.
• Services aren't exempt, either. Find a local Credit Union to do your banking. Skip chain restaurants, haircuts, stores...

The more we can shift power (money) back into our local economies and businesses, the more quickly change will come.

What is suburbicide?

This really should have been an introductory post written years ago when I started this blog but the truth is that I really didn't know what this blog would evolve into and, honestly, I still don't. Every now and then I'll get a little bit of inspiration and write a few posts and then forget about it for varying lengths of time...

The story begins simply. Anyone who's tried to come up with a .com domain name in the last 10+ years knows that it's a frustrating effort to come up with something that can be easily remembered but isn't already taken and being used or held for resale way more than it's worth.

One day while thinking up possible domain names the word "suburbicide" came to mind. It seemed simple enough. Somewhat easy to remember. Not (too) bad to spell and it was available! My thoughts on the "meaning" of the word suburbicide are already written on my about page so I won't rehash them again here.

These days, I'm finding myself more and more interested in the idea of trying to break down old ideas and find better, more responsible ways of doing things. I'm tired of hearing people blame problems on others while never taking responsibility as their role as a cog in the machine. I'm not excluding myself, I'm definitely guilty of this.

Waaaaaay, back in March 2009 I read a feature that I found interesting on TIME called "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now" and in particular a portion called "Recycling the Suburbs".

I had already owned this domain at the time and had been working on trying to tie ideas like this into my blog, so I filed this article away for a day that I felt like writing a post about "suburbicide" and why the idea stuck in my head.

I live in an area that is a perfect example of suburban sprawl. there are three "cities" within 30 minutes of each other and suburbs in between and all around. At the place that I work in one of the three cities, most have a commute from suburbs of one of the other cities.

What would bring people back to the cities? Is that what we want? If we did go back to cities what would happen to all of the unwanted things in the suburbs? Are we just going to continue to move and expand leaving a trail of unwanted buildings and decay in our wake?

Want - Energy Star Certified Gasoline-Powered Alarm Clock

On Inhabitat today there was a story that was reported on NY Times [paywalled link] about the US Government Accountability Office looking into the Energy Star certification process and how easy it was to get an Energy Star label. They created a few fictitious products including a gasoline-powered alarm clock and put them through the system and received Energy Star certification.

The articles made a few good points, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all well and good but now I want a gasoline-powered alarm clock. Make mine a supercharged LS9 from a Corvette C6 ZR1. I'd wake up to that!

On a serious note, though, it's kind of good that we have government organizations to keep an eye on stuff like this. I mean, Energy Star certification, that's super important! Wow... What's wrong with me? I just can't be serious today.

[02/13/2024: Removed broken inhabitat story link. Noted that NY Times link is now paywalled.]

FairTax, anyone?

I just finished reading The Fair Tax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS by Neal Boortz and John Linder. My brother actually lent it to me months ago and I finally got around to reading it this morning.

At the time he lent me the book, we were in a heated discussion as to whether the Federal government or the State governments needed more (or less) power compared to each other and which should have more responsibility. Honestly, I can't remember how the discussion even started. I believe we were talking about Nationalized health care or something to that effect and we kind of trailed off...

Back to the book, though. I chewed through it pretty quickly. I did find that there was some repetition in the writing which kind of made it a little bit annoying to read in spots, but I understood the need to drive certain concepts home by repeating them.

The main purpose of the book was to explain the FairTax plan of taxation compared to the current web of taxes we're currently paying here in America. FairTax is a consumption tax on all goods and services in place of every other Federal tax that we currently pay. This would mean no more income tax or payroll deductions for Medicare/Medicaid or Social Security. Instead you pay tax when you purchase something new in a retail environment or you are buying a service.

The plan was created to provide the same level of revenue to the government but in a much more simple (but harder to evade) system.

A few of the benefits of this system are:

• the ability to take home your whole paycheck
• the end of the IRS and complicated tax code
• everyone who buys a good or service in America pays into the system (including tourists and people who, through usage of the current tax code, have managed to avoid paying taxes but still benefit from living in or visiting America)
• a "prebate" offsets the amount every individual would be taxed up to the poverty level of consumption (doesn't hurt the poor)
• should (if all of the theories pan out) help lower costs of products and services by eliminating all of the "hidden taxes" that are passed along from companies through products and services - which, even with the added FairTax, should allow the price of things to stay close to the same as they were before the tax
• doesn't tax ANYTHING used/pre-owned which would provide a slight incentive to purchase pre-owned products where possible (better for the environment?)

It sounds almost too good to be true... but I still haven't managed to put any big holes in it.

Anyone out there as interested in this as I am?

Where is this magical place called out?

I saw an interesting story on Time Magazine's website this morning about a guy named Dave Chameides who is not throwing any trash out for an entire year to help him visualize what his "waste footprint" is. I think this interesting because not too many people stop to think how much trash they throw "out" or where this place called "out" really is.

I've thought about how much garbage my girlfriend and I throw out and where it goes on a few occasions. (Mostly as I'm lugging it down from our third floor apartment and across the parking lots to the dumpsters at the edge of our apartment complex.)

I don't think that we throw out as much as the average partially because our apartment complex recycles most recyclable plastic, glass and cans but we still throw out quite a bit.

It seems to me that a good portion of our waste is the plastic and printed cardboard packaging that pretty much everything is packaged in. It wouldn't be so bad if all of that packaging was actually necessary but in MANY cases it's not even close to necessary.

I'll have to look into ways to help reduce this. (Buying in bulk and things like that will probably help a lot!)

[05/19/2026: Fixed Time link.]

On capitalism and conspicuous consumption

I've said before that I dislike capitalism but I've never really clarified or elaborated on that general statement here. However, I've been thinking more about it lately (thanks mostly to my boss) and I've edited my "shit list" on the main page of my website today to say "conspicuous consumption." instead of "capitalism. (why do we make so many shiny, awesome things?)"

I think this better reflects my views on capitalism than to just say that I don't like it and the many awesome products that it produces. I think that, as far as economic systems go, capitalism tends to be one of the better ones in practice, compared to other major economic systems that have been attempted. Human nature tends to completely kill any notion of the various socialist or communist economic systems. People aspire to improve their status in life as well as to strive to appear better than or, at the very least, to differentiate themselves from everyone else. This is where the whole notion of "keeping up with the Joneses" (which is also known as conspicuous consumption) comes in. (There are other proposed/theorized systems out there such as Natural Capitalism but they also seem to be compromised by human nature, as well.)

Pure Laissez-faire capitalism is an amazing system where the people who purchase products and services determine what is available (and at what price) by either purchasing or not purchasing that product or service until it becomes attractive or advantageous to do so. Competition between different providers helps to bring prices down and quality up among everyone offering a particular good or service. In this system the government (or regulators of any sort) should only step in to protect consumers from harm. (This system, however, is also not without it's own major drawbacks or problems... but that's a subject for another time.)

Our present system, however, seems to be a bastardization of that system where huge mega-corporations (economies of scale), government regulations/subsidies/taxes, price-fixing, monopolization/mergers/buyouts and intense advertising and marketing all are thrown in with a million other factors and shuffled up leading to a system that is unbelievably complicated but still called "capitalism".

Take that mess and factor human nature and the notion of conspicuous consumption into the whole mix we end up with a slew of products that people are led to believe will make others think that they're of a higher status than everyone else which leads to much more expensive (and exclusive) products (of no better quality) so that there can be something better still.

It's a vicious cycle that no one wins aside from the giant companies who sell us the crappy products (with the trendy brand name of the day) that are made in countries where workers aren't paid a fair wage with materials that are probably barely, if at all, different from the crap that you can buy at Wal-Mart. The only difference is that the one with the brand name commands a huge premium over the generic because we have been convinced to pay more for it just because of that brand name.

That is (part of) the side of "capitalism" that I dislike. I know that I (somewhat hypocritically) play into the whole system even just by purchasing anything that goes above and beyond just meeting my basic needs of food, water and shelter. Maybe I am a hypocrite because there are people out there that aspire to buy the products that I have, or things that are better.

I don't expect (or want) us to shift to communism. I don't want to have exactly what everyone else has, no more or no less, based on my needs. I want to be able to purchase the best quality product that I can afford and have many choices when I am shopping for something. However, I don't want to be bombarded with advertisements constantly. I don't want people to look down on each other because they don't drive a BMW/Bentley/Ferrari/Porsche or live in the biggest house in the best zip code. I don't want us to continue to pillage the environment in the relentless pursuit of bigger and better products and higher and higher profits.

I'm not sure how we can change the economy, government and human nature to achieve this... or if it's even possible... but that's how I feel about "capitalism". It's better than many of the options out there but it's not without it's own set of problems. Human nature tends to make these flaws worse as we exploit the flaws in an effort to make more money and be better than the next guy...

The Ecology of Commerce - Paul Hawken

I just finished reading The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken which my girlfriend bought me for my birthday last week.

It was a good read if you're into economics and the environment and you like to think about shaking things up and making the world a better place. However, I found many of the major concepts in the book to be a little too idealistic to make it to the real world without being forced in some major ways. I'm not sure who could or would step up to the challenge and force some of these concepts into practice, such as a shift toward green taxes in place of income taxes and a large reduction in military spending. If they could be implemented, there is little doubt in my mind that they would help us move towards a more sustainable economy that doesn't completely destroy the planet in the name of ever larger profits, meaningless products and never ending conflicts. Large corporations wield so much power in our current political system that making the large changes that are suggested in the book isn't a likely scenario.

One key part of the plan that doesn't seem practical on a long term basis is the entire concept of green taxes. My particular problem with them is that the government in America seems to be inclined to just keep getting bigger and more out of control and the overwhelming majority of Americans don't care or don't know how to change anything. The idea of adding green taxes into the mix but taking out income taxes in an equal amount to encourage work but discourage the use of resources seems like a good idea on paper. However, I'm sure that instead of taking away income taxes in favor of green taxes, we'll end up with both and much less real money in our pockets which will just hasten the downward spiral.

The book also seemed to place the lion's share of both improving the economy and the condition of the environment upon the idea that business (and the government) had to make gigantic sweeping changes that would (at the very least, in the short term) cause them to lose money. It also made the assumption that human nature was something that could be retrained into a state where people didn't over-consume and would be satisfied with a more simple life. I'm not sure that there is any way to go back to a more simple life at this stage of the game.

My views on the future are not all gloom and doom, though. I do think that we do need to start heading toward a direction where our progress into the future is much more sustainable. However, I am coming to the point of understanding that little changes that individuals can make such as separating out their recyclables and driving hybrid cars hundreds of miles to work aren't enough to do much good in the big picture. We do need to work out ways of improving the world we live in that do more than put a little dent in the problem. We need to start looking at the bigger picture.

Staycation?

Does anyone else hate the non-word "staycation" with a fiery passion? Every time I see it written or hear someone say it I cringe.

Why can't people just say "We're not going on vacation to [insert some some far-away, probably tropical destination] this year. We're going to just go on a few short local trips to save [some money or the environment or whatever the case may be]."

Instead marketers, advertisers and other hype-masters have noticed the trend of people saying that they're not traveling as much because airfare and other vacation costs are increasing (on top of their day to day costs increasing) and are trying to make it seem hip and/or eco-friendly to not go on vacation by giving it a stupid name. Now that they've got your attention they can push long forgotten local destinations (that have lost favor to bigger, badder, more distant places) and new barbeque grills, slip-n-slides and inflatable pools on you for your awesome backyard "staycation" and you won't feel so bad about not going anywhere.

It's not a bad idea to stick close to home and do a few short trips or just have a barbecue by your inflatable pool instead of going on a long, far-away vacation if you can't afford it (or for whatever reason you have) but please stop calling it a "staycation".

Now that I got that little rant out of the way: I don't think my girlfriend and I are going on an actual vacation this year. We've already been talking about possibly doing an overnight or two somewhere on our week off. I'm trying to save money to pay off debt and to possibly buy a house while property values are heading down to more reasonable levels. I don't think it was the cost of gas (or anything like that) that made the decision for us. For me, at least, I think it was more a decision as to whether it was worth it to spend $1,000+ for a few days away from home or to use it for something more long term... and I think I'm at the stage of the game where I need to focus on the long term a little more.

Home Depot to offer CFL recycling

Home Depot is going to offer recycling for Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs in all of their stores.

Many people and companies have been pushing CFL's because they use less energy and last longer than traditional light bulbs but they contain a small amount of Mercury. This isn't a problem until you have to dispose of one, though, as it was pretty hard to find a place that recycled them...

Hopefully this announcement will lead to other places that sell CFL bulbs to start recycling programs of their own.

We've switched over to CFL's in almost all of the lamps in our apartment and I have nothing but good things to say about them these days. Years ago when they first came out I wasn't a big fan of the color of the light and the fact that they didn't seem as bright or as sharp as the regular bulbs they replaced but the newer ones we have are awesome.

T. Boone Pickens to build large wind farm

Yesterday on cnn.com I saw a headline that read Billionaire oilman backs wind power and was intrigued. It seems that T. Boone Pickens is investing in wind power to create a 4,000 megawatt wind farm in Texas scheduled to be completed in 2015.

I hope I'm not the only one out here that thinks this is an awesome thing. It's not too often that you read about people in the oil industry being interested in anything besides making money off of our dependence on oil. At the very least, hopefully this gets other people (with the means to make large investments) to see that there's money to be made from wind and other less destructive energy producing technologies, as well.

More thoughts on fewer choices

Earlier this year I read a book by Barry Schwartz called The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less and gave a quick overview of it.

I've been thinking about this book (and some of the main ideas in it) more and more over the past few weeks and I wanted to write down a few more thoughts on the whole concept of simplification and having fewer choices.

Like most people I have things that I care about and want to have tons of choices and things that I just want to be simple that I don't have to put a lot of thought behind.

I looked at reviews on hundreds of different tires before I picked the set I wanted. However, walking down the cereal aisle in the supermarket and being presented with plain Cheerios^® in three different sized boxes (8.9, 14 & 18 oz.) just seems a tad ridiculous to me. How much of a waste is it to have three different package sizes, three different cases that have to be shipped to the store, three different spots on a shelf that have to be stocked, three different UPC's that have to be maintained in computer systems and on and on... all for the SAME EXACT product. Now expand this thinking to all of the other cereals... and then on to all of the other products available in a typical supermarket.

Do stores really need to carry a half dozen or so different brands of pasta? (I've never had pasta that tasted any different than any other pasta.) How is "pizza sauce" different from "pasta sauce" or "tomato sauce"? Aren't they all just basically tomatoes and spices? I'm not going to lie and say that I don't have preferences or favorite products and foods but I'm usually so overwhelmed when I walk in the supermarket that I don't pay attention to different prices or sizes and just grab what I'm used to eating but I can spend many hours spread over a few months researching tires for my car beginning months before they're even ready to be replaced.

I don't really know how to justify what I'm thinking and I'm sure that Cheerios^®, pasta and various sauces are important to some people in the same way that tires are important to me. I wouldn't just walk into a tire store and say: "I'd like to buy some tires." the same way I walk into the supermarket and grab a random box of rotini and jar of Prego^®. However, I think I'd have a meltdown if I tried to compare Prego^® to Ragu^® to Bertolli^® to Classico^® to Emerill's^® to Hunt's^® to Newman's Own^® to Muir Glen^® to Gia Russa^® to the store brand (and I could go on and on and on here...) the same way I obsessed about tires.

The whole concept of having too many choices is such a tricky situation that we've gotten ourselves into in pursuit of the almighty dollar... everything is a balancing act. Retailers don't want to piss off customers by taking away their choices and they want to keep adding new products to their lineup to relieve you of some of your cash while you're picking up your necessities but at the same time they want to save money and increase their profits. New brands pop up to take a share of your pasta sauce budget. Retail stores just keep getting bigger and more overwhelming. At many Wal-Mart stores you can have your car's oil changed while you purchase Miller Lite, shrimp, boxer shorts and a big screen TV.

I know there are other people out there that feel a lot like I do. The same simplification argument applies to pretty much everything from the supermarket example to computer software user interfaces. Sometimes having too many choices is overwhelming and wasteful... but how do we go back to a more simple existence? How do we remove choices without taking away a person's freedom to choose?

America's Energy Policy?

Remember that time I mentioned that we need to work on our energy policy?

Well all of the recent news headlines about the increasing cost of food, gasoline and, well, pretty much everything... lead to one thing. Yeah, we REALLY need to work on our energy policy.

Is this the end, suburbia?

I read an article this morning on BusinessWeek entitled "Good-Bye, Cheap Oil. So Long, Suburbia?" that seemed to be right up the alley of my blog.

The article is about the predictions of a writer named James Kunstler who lives in nearby Saratoga Springs, NY. Mr. Kunstler seems to believe that the increase in oil prices is going to bring an abrupt end to suburban sprawl, strip malls and Wal-Mart.

As much as I feel that the suburban way of life is doing massive damage to our planet, I'm not sure that it's just going to end because of gas/oil prices. I'm sure that there will still be people that feel safer in a small neighborhood away from large amounts of other people. How many families will want to sell their property in the suburbs and a move into an apartment or house on a tiny city lot and send their kids to inner city schools and to play in public parks and community swimming pools instead of letting them play in their reasonably safe back yard? How many people will change jobs to be closer to work if the company they work for is located in a city with a higher cost of living or higher crime rates than their current suburb? (Or the business is located in an industrial park in a different suburban area?)

I'm definitely not anti-city. However, the argument can be made that the draw of "suburbia" isn't going to end just because gasoline is expensive. At least around here suburban neighborhoods have schools with better reputations. Residential property values are higher and seem to retain their value better. Crime rates are lower. Many large local businesses have offices that are outside of downtown areas probably because commercial property values are lower. Two income families have to find a central location between both people's respective jobs which, quite often it seems, are in different directions. Some cities have higher tax rates than many suburbs.

I guess what I'm saying that when the company I work for relocates to a nearby city (from the suburb it's in now) in about a year and a half I would love to move to a house in that city that I can walk to work from. However, that would still leave my girlfriend with a commute that's about the same distance as mine is now. We'd be saving a the equivalent of a 20 minute car ride (her approximate current daily round trip commute) for more crime, lower property values, less personal space, higher taxes, etc.

I just don't think that suburbia is going to end any time soon.

The high price of cookies. Only you can end it.

I just came across the blog called Conditional recoil of a guy who I used to work with on a pretty much daily basis in my last job (through a link on facebook) and I think it's a great read. He doesn't have that many posts up there yet but the ones he does are the type of posts that make you think.

In particular, though, there was a post from last November titled "Where does it end?" that I felt I needed to respond to. If you know me, you'll know why. ;)

I agree with what he is trying to say which is basically that corporate America is hosing the consumers that buy it's products because in many cases they are. However in (slight) defense of the particular industry he picked as an example (and in turn, all other industries). There are many direct costs that people neglect to take into account when figuring out what things really cost. In this exact example:

* He didn't account for labor to bake, package, label and put out said package of cookies. (Plus don't forget the ever increasing cost of benefits for the workers.)

* Then there's the cost of the actual package. (Which due to energy and material costs, which you guessed it, are increasing.)

* Don't forget the energy to run the ovens and keep the lights, heat and a/c on. (Which also increases in cost from year to year. Are you seeing a trend?)

* Transportation costs to get the case of cookies from the warehouse(s) to the stores. (Fuel costs aren't going down, you know.)

* On top of all of that how much is your time worth? How much would you pay to not have to bake the cookies you'd like to eat? Your time and convenience are also worth money...

I'm not going to detail what it costs for the above things. Instead, I'm going to simplify the equation.

Companies ARE in the business of making money and that's exactly what successful companies do. The more money they make for their owners or investors the more successful they are and the longer they stay in business.

So the answer to the question "Where does it end?" is that it all comes back to the consumer. Things tend to cost what people are willing and able to pay. If there are people out there that are willing to pay $3.99 for a package of ready to eat cookies, that's exactly what they're going to cost.

[So now that we simplified everything down to the statement that things cost what people are willing and able to pay, I'm going to re-complicate it if you're willing to continue reading.]

All of the other cookie providers that are competing for your cookie purchase also know what people will pay. How the different businesses differentiate themselves is how they gain your business over the other competitors.

* They can charge slightly less on cookies and hope that you'll buy something else that they make more profit on while you're there. (How much profit is in a cup of coffee?)

* They can have a better location that makes it easier for them to get their cookies in front of you.

* They can advertise.

* They can play up the quality of their cookie and/or how they're freshly baked (and directly or indirectly that they're better than the other guy's cookies).

It goes on and on... but the end result is the same. You want the cookies, you don't want to bake them yourself and the companies that are selling cookies want as much of your money that you're willing to let them have.

The ONLY way to make the price of cookies come down is really just to stop buying them. If nobody is buying cookies the price will either go down to a price that the customer is willing to pay (at which point the customer will resume cookie buying) or the cookies will not be available any more if they cost more to produce than the customer is willing to pay. You'll have to buy the ingredients separately and make them yourself.

The things like the cost of the raw cookie dough or ingredients, packaging, energy, transportation, labor, benefits, etc. do factor back into the equation if you can lower the tangible costs of producing and supplying the cookies in order to get them back to a level where a lower price for finished cookies still leads to an acceptable profit for the company selling them. However, if we attempt to go down this path we'll see that there are many more deep "root causes" for why the cost of everything keeps increasing which makes lowering costs difficult.

* America's "energy policies" (if you can call them that) are a little bit frightening. I'm constantly reading stories about people fighting against wind turbines ("I don't want that eyesore in my backyard." and "What will happen to the birds that fly into them?") and stifling other promising energy production methods for other ridiculous reasons. On top of that there are the people who think we should take over the Middle East by force because we're entitled to drive gas-guzzling SUV's powered by imported oil. We need to find ways to lower the cost of energy and don't involve direct conflict (which costs a lot of money).

* The cost of health care and insurance really needs to be addressed. (That's enough about this one.)

* Property costs were rising at rates we're now beginning to see weren't sustainable. (Which leads to increases in cost for rents, leases and purchases of property which also leads everything to cost more.)

There are tons of issues... I really could go all day on this topic but I keep coming back to the fact that if you really don't like the price of something the only thing you can really do is stop buying it. That'll send a undeniable message that you're not willing to pay what the seller is charging. If others do the same then things start to change...

(Broken links removed March 24, 2010.)

The World Without Us

I was just flipping past Current TV and caught a mention of a book by Alan Weisman called The World Without Us.

The brief description that I was able to catch on Current was VERY interesting to me, so I immediately went to the website for the book. The basic idea of the book is what the world would look like if we were no longer here and how long it would take for all traces of our civilization to disappear. This is something that I don't really find myself thinking about but I must admit that I found the whole premise of the book fascinating.

The website also included a link to a segment from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart which I thought was pretty funny...

Anyway, I guess the purpose of this blog entry is to say that I found yet ANOTHER book to add to my Amazon.com wishlist.

What should I do?

I've decided that I hate my job completely and that I'm not going to get anywhere by sticking around here any longer. I was due for a review and a raise in June and it still hasn't happened yet, mostly because I haven't pushed the issue because I'm not looking forward to another shitty review saying that I'm not doing a good job at doing other people's work on top of my own. I'm going to wait a few weeks until my review is done and I get my back-pay for my raise before I decide to leave for sure, though. I'm going push for a decent raise this year. If it doesn't happen I'm definitely gone sooner rather than later.

My MAJOR issues are that I haven't found a job that:
* pays what I'm currently making or more.
* I'm interested in AND well qualified (on paper) for.
* I'd enjoy doing more than the boring office work that I'm currently doing.
* is "entry-level" but doesn't require experience. (Don't get me started on this one.)

I don't want to do any call center or help desk type jobs. I'd consider tech support stuff as long as it didn't entail TOO much travel. I don't have the experience that employers are looking for when applying for programming jobs or the art-school education for creative jobs. After all is considered, I basically think I'm pretty much limited to stupid office type jobs.

I did find ONE job that seems interesting and appealing to me as computer recycling tech. It appeals to my desire to do something that's a little more "green", it's ONLY about a mile from where I live and it is related to computers. The issue is the pay SUCKS VERY MUCH, even more than my current job.

I currently make about $27K/year and I have to drive about 12,000 miles a year JUST to get to and from work. With gas at it's current high prices and the likelihood to stay that way, would it make sense for me to take a job that's interesting to me and only about a mile from my apartment that only pays around $23K to start (with some sort of a bonus after 120 days)? 12,000 miles at a rough average of 25MPG with gas at around $3.00/gal. equals roughly $1,500 spent on gas for the year that I wouldn't have to spend. I'd be working basically the same Monday - Friday hours I'm currently working but I'd be taking apart computers and sending them out to be recycled instead of dealing with all of the office politics at my current job.

I guess I'll have to see if it's possible for me to even live on the lower pay. I'm sure I could if I sold my car and got a beater but I don't know if I want to do that.

I hate making decisions related to big life changes. I just wish I didn't hate my current job more...

Little excitement left in "green" movement?

A news story about the "green movement" popped up today on ABC's website today.

The basic premise of this article seems to be that the reporter feels that excitement of the "green" movement is basically over before it even began. The article seems to feel that many companies are jumping on the "green" bandwagon more as a tool to drive sales with little plan for the future or no desire to actually do any good.

There are a lot of points that were brought up that do make sense.

From my point of view, it is kind of crazy that people buy things based on a label such as "all natural", "organic" or "hybrid" without understanding the benefits, impacts or costs of what they're doing. It's more of a fad than doing something for a benefit. People are willing to pay extra for something that's labeled "all natural" or "hybrid" because that's the in thing right now. Actors and other pop culture "idols" spout off their ideals and people hang on their words and rush out to go "green".

I think we need to find a way to help people understand the impact of the things they're doing. Sometimes it's not better to buy a brand new hybrid to replace your well maintained '92 Honda Civic hatchback that gets 38MPG. It's not better to throw out all of your clothes and replace them with organic cotton and hemp clothes. Why do we have to spend extra money at the supermarket to buy organic tomatoes grown thousands of miles away when there's probably a farmer's stand or market close to where you live?

Things like this annoy the hell out of me but on the other hand, when was the last time I stopped at a farm stand for fruit and vegetables? Hmmmm...

We finally got some snow...

After a warm start to the winter and nothing more than a couple pitiful dustings of snow we finally got hit with a pretty good storm. There's probably a couple feet of snow on the ground with drifts up to about 4 feet. We got pretty lucky, though, because areas west of us got slammed again on top of the snow they got over the past couple weeks.

I was kind of excited to see the snow so I could finally try out the AWD on my new car and it's pretty fun. I love that the AWD system seems to feel slightly rear-biased to me. It does seem to be pulling more with the front end when going straight ahead but around 90 degree turns the car loves to throw the tail out but it can be straightened out quickly with a gentle push of the throttle. It definitely feels much more fun compared to the FWD cars I'm so used to driving. It almost brings me back to the RWD - GMC Safari days of learning how to drive on my parent's van.

It's a little nerve-wracking to drive around in a brand new car in the shitty weather with all the other assholes out there on the road... but luckily (for the most part) the roads haven't been too bad considering the amount of snow we got so quickly.

On a "green" note. We replaced all of the bulbs in our kitchen ceiling fan with GE compact fluorescent bulbs and I must say I was very tentative about spending a little more money on them, taking into account my past experiences with the bulbs. I remembered hating the dull, yellowish light that the ones we had in the past gave off... this new batch, though is incredible! They're brighter and whiter than the bulbs that were in there and they were only a little more expensive initially than the regular bulbs... So, needless to say I'm impressed. I'm definitely going to go ahead and replace all the bulbs in the apartment with these as they fail.

'06 the hottest year on record?

I mentioned to someone at work today, that he should watch "An Inconvenient Truth" today after bringing up the news that it seems to be official... 2006 was the hottest year on record in the US.

I've been reading a book by Naomi Klein called No Logo which reminds me VERY MUCH of the spirit of Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge--And Why We Must by Kalle Lasn. Lately I've been very much in the spirit of trying to make a difference in the world and one of the things I keep coming back to is "adbusting" or "culture jamming" or attempting to subvert the "cool" of brands and advertising. I've been somewhat interested in this whole idea since taking classes on Mass Media and Advertising in college as a part of my second major. I try not to be a slave to brands but it seems that I end up doing it anyway. I tend to be enthusiastic about things I'm interested in such as cars, computers and music. So I end up being a member on automobile related forums. I buy Apple computers and I brand myself with Thrice, Every Time I Die and Thursday t-shirts. In these ways I tend to strongly support things I'm interested and that makes me conflicted in the fact that I'm supporting the culture that is branding and selling EVERYTHING we come into contact with. (Aside: I find it very ironic that I also buy books on anti-consumerism. It should come naturally to someone who's interested in the whole idea of anti-consumerism.)

Anyway, I think that this weekend is going to be the weekend to get some compact fluorescent light bulbs and an increase in intensity to find a job closer to home.

On "An Inconvenient Truth"

I just finished watching "An Inconvenent Truth" and I must say that it was an awesome documentary. It appeared very well researched and I loved the digs that Al Gore snuck in there about the current administration... Overall the movie pushed me into leaning more towards the ideas that I've been writing about over the past few blog entries. Check out their website at http://www.climatecrisis.net for more information.

One of the first things that I've been going back and forth on is buying compact fluorescent lightbulbs. After seeing this movie, I'm going to try to make it out tomorrow to get some for my apartment tomorrow...

I also found a link on Wal-Mart's website about their "sustainability" practices and I must say that I'm a little bit impressed by that...

More tomorrow. I'm tired.