value

The holiday season is upon us and in America that means we must buy new stuff. For the retailers in America, the holiday season can make or break their year. Because it is now that the public (aka the consumers) will be hitting the stores to buy more. Not that they need anything anymore, but they are still driven to buy more. Like the rats that self-stimulate.

Unfortunately -or fortunately for retailers if you like- most of the new stuff will end up in the garbage before summer. That is right, the half-life of consumer items in America is three to six months. Consumer items have no value to consumers. After the thrill of buying, they are nothing but useless tokens of past "fun" that need to be removed to make room for newer tokens and future fun.

We are constantly told how low prices "benefit" consumers. And that is technically correct. If you are a consumer, i.e. a person who consumes goods, the the lower the prices, the more you can consume or use up or totally destroy. Yes the latter two are synonyms of "to consume."

If you want something of value, then low prices do not benefit you. Low prices mean low value.

Low prices to not benefit people, either rich or poor. They do not benefit the environment either. Perhaps you understand why low prices do not benefit the environment, but why should you worry? The truth is that low prices do not benefit people either. They will not make you satisfied or happy. They will just leave you hungering for more.

Food is very valuable to people. It is one of the most valuable items on the planet. It sustains life. Yet do people value food? They don't. They have access to cheap food and they consume it, adding on layer upon layer of fat. America is overweight because America does not value food, America consumes food.

When you buy something cheap you do not value it. It becomes cheap. It is easy to replace and you don't think much of throwing it out or losing it, or just trashing it. And that is exactly what we see happening. People surround themselves with cheap items and then quickly lose interest in them and thrash them -or push them into the forgotten corner. Sadly, they are also left unsatisfied and longing for more. That too is something retailers love. They even have a name for it, it is called commoditization.

Retailers know people want new things. So they constantly change what they have even if no changes are warranted. The overwhelming majority of changes are meaningless or trivial. Some are annoying and others represent a step backward. But that does not matter so much as long as the new things are different from last year's things, so people will want them in an attempt to satisfy their never ending hunger for value.

There is one very simple remedy to this madness. If you want value, stop consuming.

thanksgiving

It is that time of year again. Time for the harvest festival of plenty. Only this time around there isn't as much plenty as there once was. Although the dramatic reduction everyone talks about is rather minor. Numbers like a 0.5% contraction in GDP or a 2% drop in spending may worry economists and politicians but it is not the end of the world (yet). I am afraid we will have to be prepared for a lot more if we want to create a sustainable environment.

There is some good news. Holiday travel will be less than last year. Probably by some minuscule number, but a small percentage here is huge in absolute carbon terms. Unfortunately gas prices cratered right before the holiday. The drug pushers at Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, and Conoco-Phillips probably realized that it was now or never. Better make sure the "stuff" is cheap when a big consumption blob is expected.

Furthermore, many predict that retail sales will be dismal. Likely another reduction by a percentage point or two, but all little bits help. The less we consume, the less we damage the environment. The end-of-year shopping season is a hugely wasteful activity. It is a time when people buy useless trinkets that they give to family and friends, who are then left with having to throw these items in the trash when nobody watches. But it doesn't stop there. The useless trinkets are packaged in tons of paper and accompanied by well-wishing cards, ribbons, and other solid waste. 

If you want to be an environmentalist this holiday season, give nothing and ask for nothing except hugs and kisses. Don't replace your TV, turn it off instead. Don't buy the latest PDA or cellphone gadget, and vow to keep your car for a couple more years. Forget the bargains. Much, much better bargains are on the way if the depression keeps unfolding the way it currently is.

The sad news is that holiday activity supports people's lifestyle. Many in the country are employed directly or indirectly by consumer retail. Our economy depends on it for almost 3/4's of its value. A huge knickknack-to-trash churning machine it is and we need to turn if off. That means that there will be plenty of pain to go around.

This thanksgiving, let's give thanks for the things that really matter. Friends, family, and the reduction of wasteful consumption.

toxic technology

This holiday season Americans and Europeans are in the process of replacing old CRT's with newer LCD monitors and plasma screens. Earlier in the subprime bubble, many replaced kitchen appliances with newer models. The average cell phone, PDA, and Pentium-class PC lasts 2-3 years. 

What happens next is the truly scary part. Less than 10% of electronic gadgets are recycled. Some can be found on the side of the road as we all know. These fortunately tend to end up in legitimate recycling facilities. Most are put in household waste or otherwise "cleanly" discarded. Their fate is not so clear but over 90% ultimately end up in toxic dumps with no environmental standards. The comforting thought is that these dumps are located elsewhere.

Welcome to Guiyu, China, capital of toxic waste. Here a crowd estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 labors 16 hours at a wage of $1.50 per day to recover what can be recovered from old electronics and appliances. They do so by melting circuit boards, smashing screens, dumping electronics in acid, and other not-so-environmentally friendly methods. All of it in the open. The place is so polluted that fresh drinking water needs to be shipped in daily. The streams running out of Guiyu are dangerous to most life forms. Millions of tons of toxic e-waste gets shipped here every year.

China is the final resting place for up to 70% of the world's e-waste. The rest goes to Delhi and Bangalore in India, and Kenya. China itself dumps up to one million tons in its own backyard every year. Estimates are as high as 5 million TV sets, 4 million refrigerators, 5 million washing machines, 10 million mobile phones and 5 million PC's coming from China alone. 

This e-waste is a veritable who's who of toxic materials. Monitors contain up to 7% of their weight in lead. Refrigerators and air conditioners contain freon and other toxic fluorocarbons. Fluorescent tubes contain mercury vapor. Add to that fluorine, barium, chromium, cobalt, etc. All of it escapes into the air or flows freely through the streets and the people of Guiyu.

Of course there are laws in place. Switzerland was the first country to start e-waste recycling in 1991. The EU quickly followed suit and established e-waste regulations in the mid 1990's. An international treaty was signed in Basel in 1998. Not surprisingly, US did not sign the convention. Other legislation is stalled in Congress.

US efforts did not get underway until 2004 when California added a fee for recycling electronics. At first that fee was a mere token, but subsequent changes were made to bring it more in line with reality. Even so, the e-waste keeps growing and disappearing to exotic places.

According to the Associated Press, laws have little meaning in Guiyu. There are plenty of loopholes to accept imports. A $100 note taped to inside of a container is powerful incentive. The EPA estimates that exporting e-waste is 10 times cheaper than disposing of it properly. Such margins are a call to arms for free traders.

Think Guiyu when you buy another PC or another cell phone. And remember that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is trying to save lives in the third world while Microsoft is making sure your old PC goes obsolete before long.