the story of stuff

[jAQUAN]

BRILLIANT!

[creativeinsomnia]

That's depressing.

[lefteyewilly]

wow. that couldn't have been more slanted.

i was into it until she got to the $4.99 radio and then started going into our consumption needs of 'you suck' through advertisements. She fails to mention that the more we buy the more jobs can be created thus creating a better economy. She completely left that BIG chunk out of the economics of production which is key to the entire puzzle.

I'm not opposed to her main point of less waste, I know that was the crux of the entire presentation, and i'm for the recycle, reuse...who wouldn't be? It just sounded like anti-corporation, tree-hugging BS the way it was presented.

[gerbick]

I want to put bananas up the tailpipes of any corporate jackass in a 20 mile radius.

[pea3698]

Bleh bleh bleh It is always good to have an extra MP3 player on hand.

According to the tightness of her shirt, she should really consider her own problems with food consumption.
Plus she is depending on all this waste we own to spread her message around. Damn Hippy

[gerbick]

How much extra can you get?

Phone, video game system(s), computer(s), portable mp3 players, car radio, dvd/hd-dvd/blu-ray... hell. I can play music on just about everything in my house if I decided to.

[jAQUAN]

wow. that couldn't have been more slanted.

i was into it until she got to the $4.99 radio and then started going into our consumption needs of 'you suck' through advertisements. She fails to mention that the more we buy the more jobs can be created thus creating a better economy.

which would accelerate the whole thing right into a slave class. We can't use this thinking where we just need to reassemble the pieces at hand. The best thing for the economy is smarter people, not praising the mill wheel. That said, like most sounding boards, she does not illustrate a solution that serves both sides.

The real importance is mass understanding and since the vast majority of any population is stupid, I'm eased a bit by the existance of something even people this clueless could understand.

[gerbick]

that youtube link... wtf. I feel like I lost some of my IQ.

[jAQUAN]

The sad part g, I didn't have to search hard at all to find a video supporting my argument.

[lefteyewilly]

she does not illustrate a solution that serves both sides.

now that. i'll agree with.

[gerbick]

I think you'd be hard pressed to disagree that we've indeed become a land of consumers. Which is pretty damn sad in itself.

[silverx2]

i bet she throws a hissy if she doesnt get a birthday card from each of her friends. or a vday card.

Those clothes also looked like something made over seas.

lots of talk not alot of walk.

[lefteyewilly]

I think you'd be hard pressed to disagree that we've indeed become a land of consumers. Which is pretty damn sad in itself.

i'm not going to disagree with you here. But the issue i have is... how has our mindset changed over the past 500 years? We didn't just magically become consumers, our entire existence has hinged on the buy, sell, barter, trade mentality. The only thing that has changed is the amount of monetary value we put on these things and how fast we get them.

We shouldn't be asking why we do what we do, and there sure is hell no way we're going to change our buying habits. The only way that can happen is if for some reason we tip the scales. And the only way that's going to happen is if the system we're living in fails on it's own. It's not going to reset the counter to zero...if you make the drug disappear, the drug addict will have no other choice to find another drug. And hopefully that drug is 100% natural goods which becomes 100% recyclable.

[FlashLackey]

Maybe he was meaning it more in the sense that our level of consumption exceeds our production? In other words, we've always bought and sold things. But, we all used to be farmers, hunters, basket-weavers, etc.

Now, a whole lot of us base entire careers on building web-sites or simply talking. And at the same time, we still eat and drive.

[jAQUAN]

Good point, but even that system should still be able to work. I always try to step back and look at the biggest or global problems from an evolutionary view point as if we were larvae and the earth a host.

I always question exactly where we are or more meaningfully, how close we are to the next big change. It seems right now we're growing out of a linear instinct into a more lateral one. For instance the "right thing to do" is evaluated against more factors today. As it was the best company was the one who made the most money regardless of how, the best corporations were the ones who owned the most stuff regardless of what. I'd like to think we look in more places than just straight up when basing our values or are at least moving that way.

My point is, if everyone was committed to being the best at what they do, a web developers consumption wouldn't be a problem due to goods manufactures striving to be the best (by todays standards) at what they do by producing low impact items.

IMO, wanting immediate rewards is perfectly human. Hopefully we can just grow up about what we consider rewarding.

[pea3698]

Here is an example of more crap better price .

[nordberg]

I still think her message is on point, but tough to hear. As a hippy-dippy parent, hearing that stuff about the breast milk really hurts me (and it's totally true BTW).

I am way more of a sustainability environmentalist (like her) than a climate change, all natural, or conservation-focused environmentalist. I really think we only have one problem - overpopulation and all that comes with it. With less of us running around, overconsumption, climate change, wildlife destruction, and ever day toxicity disappear.

The bad news is that no politician or leader will ever talk about this issue. The good news is that mother nature is probably already working on the solution - a viral remedy to treat her human infection.

[gerbick]

i'm not going to disagree with you here. But the issue i have is... how has our mindset changed over the past 500 years? We didn't just magically become consumers, our entire existence has hinged on the buy, sell, barter, trade mentality. The only thing that has changed is the amount of monetary value we put on these things and how fast we get them.

It's more than that. We went from a country where most people had gardens to where we buy fruit from Costa Rica... for example.

We just have become the country that says "charge it" instead of "doing it".

And in my lifetime - only 33 years, it's gotten even worse. There are things we can do that will change our ways; but nothing radical. Just don't buy crap you "want"... buy what you need. And this comes from a notorious gadget-hound. For 3 years, I avoided buying gadgets to see how well I could get along.

My Dreamcast, my old ass G4 cube, and a few other things have lasted quite well. Hell, I still have games for my Dreamcast that haven't even been fully played yet.