I realize I might get labeled as "old fashioned" because I'm one of those strange individuals who actually gives a damn about where the things I use, and the food I eat, originally comes from.
Yes, I read labels, and I might become more or less predisposed to buying any given item depending on where it was made.
I'm willing to accept that maybe I'm unfairly jumping to conclusions but items made in certain parts of the world are almost invariably likely to be low quality copies of a better quality product, originally made somewhere else. And I find it slightly disturbing when I'm standing in a store and looking at something that actually isn't all that inexpensive and digging through the labeling I just discover that it comes from a place that is notorious for making cheap knockoffs of somebody else's product.
Perhaps some of my persnicketyness comes from the fact that I am an artist and a writer myself and I have been subjected to theft of my work in the past. And that's really all copyism is... profiting from somebody else's work.
Perhaps my issue is that the retail seller is trying to gouge people by taking something that wholesales for 1/10th of the real deal, and passing it of as "a great deal" at 50% less than the original.
In truth, the copying part wouldn't bother me that much if the quality was actually there.
For example, I don't mind using generic versions of prescription drugs and I don't mind using generic or off-brand versions of a number of grocery store products. After all how many ways are there to screw those up?
Wait... don't answer that!
The thing that disturbs me is when I have to pay what I would consider a somewhat discounted price in order to get a severely off quality product. I don't want a piece of cheap crap that breaks next week!
And yet? It feels like we live in a world that is increasingly willing to just accept the cheap crap that breaks, and just keep buying a new one over and over and over again.
Aside from the fact that buying a cheap copy over and over and over again ultimately results in our landfills gradually filling with meaningless garbage, why are we rewarding those who are not making anything of significant quality, by buying their products?
I suppose I could philosophize at length on the idea that we have been trained to accumulate the greatest possible amount of stuff... and in order to be able to afford all that stuff we have to give up quality in order to have the quantity.
But that's primarily the cynic in me speaking.
Perhaps I am more bothered by the fact that it seems like it is getting harder and harder to ascertain where something is actually from. Which feels to me like they want to hide where it's from because there might be a bias against it if people could easily figure it out.
Evidently I'm not alone in this viewpoint. Some weeks ago I ran across an add-on to your web browser that will determine the country of origin of anything you look at on a commerce site online. That actually struck me as a good idea.
Even though I am broke most of the time, I guess I'm more comfortable buying something that doesn't come from a place where the mantra "if you can cheat, then cheat" is inherent within the culture. I'd rather pay a little extra and get something I know isn't going to fall apart the moment I start looking at it.
Maybe I'm just becoming a grumpy old man!
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Created at 2024-01-11 01:14 PST
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