Is Your Idea (or Product) Any GOOD if You Have to Lie About it to Get it Sold?

Call me "real" or call me an "elitist snot" but it feels like this world is filled with stuff that has no business existing in the first place.

Now you might be pondering "and who are YOU, to be the judge and arbiter of what should-- and should not-- be available in the world?"

Well, actually, I am nobody at all... aside from someone who's generally sick and tired of the endless song and dance routines used by marketers to convince people that absolute garbage is somehow "worthwhile." And "desirable," even.

I'm somebody who just plain doesn't like things I find to be "purposeless junk" that appears to have been created for no purpose besides enabling someone to "make a sale," and barely, at that. 

I say "barely" because-- absent a super pushy silver-tongued salesperson to force these things down people's throat-- these products and ideas would be automatically destined for the "10 for 99c bin" at your nearest Big Lots or thrift store. 

I'm somebody who might listen to a telemarketer go on and on about the merits of their "glorious" timeshare condo in some "resort" I've never heard of... which was actually a lovely patch of beach laid to waste by some desperate developer who erected shoddy quality buildings that should never have been built, but is now being marketed to deeply indebted people who have no business buying them, for prices nobody has any business charging.

Step right up!

I'm also someone who has watched dozens of such ventures go bankrupt (no surprise!), only to leave their semi-desperate owners-- having originally paid $10,000-- to market them on eBay for 99 cents, solely to get their names off the paperwork so they no longer bleed cash to the (previously hidden) "monthly maintenance fees."

I'm somebody who watches investment schemes and "cutting edge" products so dodgy a 5-year old should be able to see the folly of them... prey on people who sincerely believe the sales pitch and promptly send part of their kids' college fund down the toilet.

I'm someone who looks in magazines and sees these ads for a million different ostensibly "collectible" items-- from limited edition dolls to platinum-plated "collector coins"-- and watch people who can't afford them snap them up. 

Yes, of course, "shit happens." That's not my issue... the best laid plans can go wrong.

The problem is how many in-no-way "best" plans are even given the time of the day. So we end up with all this schlock that takes people's money, causes frustration, ends up in your next garage sale and ultimately clogs landfills... literally, and figuratively.

Why?

I realize this post is a bit of a rant... it is an "unexpected" prelude to a longer piece I am working on, questioning our relative inability-- as a society-- to understand what the word "enough" means. 

It reeks of "consumption for consumption's sake" and I don't get it.

Some will-- of course-- argue that it is simply the nature of a capitalist society. Be that as it may, why not make something good and worthwhile, and come by your profits as a result of adding authentic VALUE to the world?

Others will argue that if I don't like it, just don't buy it. "Tune it out; use the mute button." That's a nice idea, too... but using the "mute" button on people who are drilling holes in the hull of a ship YOU are also standing is also a form of insanity. Personally, I think we should POINT at the insanity, and expose it for what it is.

What do YOU think? Does it seem like there is a lot of "needless junk" in the world? Do you see a lot of new ideas as being ill-conceived, in terms of functional implementation? This can be products, ideas, investments, personal development programs, whatever. Does someone needing to "hard sell" you something trigger you to the possibility that what is being sold might actually be junk, or even a SCAM? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- start the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170627 15:33 PDT