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I have another solution: stop shipping so much junk around the world. Watch the Story of Stuff https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff https://storyofst
by spodek 7y ago
I have another solution: stop shipping so much junk around the world.
Watch the Story of Stuff https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff https://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff, the True Cost http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-true-cost http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-true-cost, and films like them and it's hard not to conclude that reducing the amount of shipping by 75% or so would improve everyone's lives and Earth's capacity to support life and human society. Some industries would have to adjust -- mainly ones filling landfills and producing greenhouse gases.
The Story of Stuff site has the details, but something like 99% of stuff American's buy ends up in landfills within a year. Go to Craig's List free stuff and you'll see tons of stuff people can't give away every day. Just the tip of the iceberg.
- sjwright 7y agoYou can't "reduce the amount of shipping" by fiat. The best you can do is price the externalities into products we buy—which is a good idea and we should be doing a lot more of that—but that won't change the fact that (a) it'll always be cheaper to make some stuff elsewhere and (b) it's often impossible to make some stuff closer to you. Good luck making (not just assembling) smartphones in Belgium or Iowa. What you're really asking for is to make consumer goods so dramatically more expensive that repairs become economically competitive and casual disposal becomes economically untenable. Even then if you want to "fix" the problem, you would also fix the cost of housing, education and healthcare so that disposable consumer goods command greater portion of people's income.