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After publishing a brief article on consumption
statistics a few days back, a few Green Living Tips readers have pointed me
to a "must see" video - Annie Leonard's The
Story of Stuff. After having viewed it, I can certainly understand their
enthusiasm.
I think The Story of Stuff raises awareness about consumption with the same
effectiveness as An Inconvenient Truth did in putting global warming on
people's radar; but packed into only 20 minutes and in a much simpler way. It's
fast paced, full of interesting, if somewhat disturbing, facts and statistics,
but not in a way that requires a degree to understand. It drives the point home
well and I feel it would also be a great presentation to show high school
students and those who really haven't thought too much about their consumption
patterns.
And here it is:
I remember asking my dad many years ago why life was so complex and why we
have so much stuff. He explained it using the modern refrigerator as an example.
Back "in the day" (in the 50's), ice was brought to the door which
went into special cabinets for keeping food cool. The cabinets were simple, but
effective. Then came the household refrigerator, touted to be a labor saving
device of convenience and efficiency. The problem was, they were expensive to
buy; which meant people had to work harder and longer to get them. They became a
standard item, so if you didn't have one; you were "behind the times".
The refrigerator would then invariably break down, then people would need to
work more to get them fixed (but these days we just chuck them out). So, there
really was no labor saving or real convenience at all and additionally, we could
now fill this monstrosity will all types of foods we really didn't need and
would often get wasted. The "thrift" and planning went out of food
purchasing, storage and handling . As The Story of Stuff reveals, this sort of
scenario didn't occur by accident, it was by design and all about stimulating
the economy and lining the pockets of corporations rather than in the best
interests of the people or the environment.
A mind blowing part of The Story of Stuff was in regards to tracing back to
the 50's when consumption really took off and why it happened. From the
transcript:
"Shortly after the World War 2, these guys were figuring out how to ramp
up the [U.S.] economy. Retailing analyst Victor Lebow articulated the solution
that has become the norm for the whole system. He said: “Our enormously
productive economy . . . demands that we make consumption our way of life, that
we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual
satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption . . . we need things
consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”
and
"President Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisors Chairman said
that “The American economy’s ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer
goods.”
The Story of Stuff has many veil-dropping moments. For example, the videos
mentions that 99% of all products made are trashed within 6 months due mainly to
very nasty strategies called planned
obsolescence (intentional poor quality) and
perceived obsolescence (fashion). Annie Leonard says she had perused industrial design journals from the 1950s where it was
openly discussed how fast designers could make stuff break and still leave the
consumer with enough faith in the product to go buy another one.
It's been a not so subtle brainwashing of us all over the last 6 decades -
the latest fashions, gadgets and gizmos; all encouraging us to buy more, dump
more rather than create a product right in the first place that can be
sustainably produced, be long lasting and satisfy us.
This only scratches the surface of the amazing information in The
Story of Stuff. If you can spare 20 minutes, I highly recommend watching it.
You can also download an annotated
transcript and fact
sheet (both PDF).