Reply #30: Maybe, just maybe...

[TygrBright]

...if prices on cheap extraneous crap go up, people will buy less cheap extraneous crap. Less cheap extraneous crap will end up in landfills, water tables, etc.

Food prices? The food that's really cheap is the processed, chemically-enhanced garbage loaded with high fructose corn syrup and hormones and antibiotics. If we had to pay more for food, maybe we'd make better choices, buying relatively inexpensive grains and legumes, in-season, local fruits and vegetables, limiting the amount of meat in our diets, etc., and take the time to actually prepare them ourselves. Make three meals at once and put two in the freezer for when you need "convenience."

Clothing prices? Please... when was the last time you cleaned out your closet? How much stuff is in there that you'll never wear again? Why won't you wear it again? What will you do with it? If we had to pay more for clothes, maybe we'd think twice about buying that "cute" outfit that will look ludicrous next season, and probably fall apart at the sixth wearing. Maybe we'd buy clothes to last, take care of them, and recycle used clothes among family & friends. Maybe we'd mend a tear or sew on a button instead of throwing the garment away and buying a new one.

Gas prices? Maybe we'd start carpooling, biking, taking public transport to work. Maybe we'd start screaming long, hard, and loud for quality public transit that would actually meet our needs. Maybe we'd think twice about buying a house in the 'burbs that entails a 70-minute commute (on a 'good' traffic day.)

Housing prices? Please. If you're poor, they're already so unaffordable you can't possibly be any worse off, and maybe when masses of people start sleeping in parks and storage units and constructing cardboard shanties in front of City Hall someone will decide to address the affordable housing issue. If you're not poor, maybe you'll think twice about whether you really NEED a mudroom, in-house workout room, cathedral-ceiling 'great room,' and a bathroom for every bedroom plus an additional bathroom on every floor.

Bring on higher prices, say I. My parents lived through the Depression and I learned from them about the REAL value of money. What it can and can't buy, how to stretch a dollar until it plays a high a-flat, and how to squeeze a nickel until it leaks blood. Maybe if prices went up, but jobs paid a REAL living wage, families might feel free to work out an arrangement where one household member contributes their share and then some by doing the things that make for economical, high quality of life home living-- preparing food, budgeting, making & mending, coordinating transportation, and providing high-quality emotional and social support to improve the whole family's quality of life.

No, I'm NOT advocating for sending women back to the kitchen, ferPetesqueaks... it doesn't have to be a woman who takes on that role in the family. It doesn't even have to be the same person from year to year... why not swap off? I just know darn well that the value of an adult spending the equivalent of a full-time job on household maintenance and domestic quality of life is worth at least as much as another full-time income in net terms. And I know that until that is acknowledged and RESPECTED (because it's bloody well worthy of respect, as much as teaching or healing or selling stock or building strip malls or any other economic endeavor in today's market,) I'm whistling Dixie, shooting at the moon, etc. But maybe, just maybe, if economic conditions changed, we might be able to take a few steps in that direction.

/rant

wearily,
Bright