Agreed, Asheen, not the least of which is the pyscho-social cost of consumerist "want" in societies with such a huge gap between social classes...it's no surprise then, when the USA, with our dedicated shoppers (that keep buying their disposable EVERYTHING), would also have quite lower overall health rating than other industrialized nations.
I think we are 24th in the world in health life expectancy of our citizens, even though we are number 1 in money spent.
I heard an interesting commentary the other day on the myth of completely free markets...that in truth, modern free markets are really overseen by governing bodies that insist on everybody following the same rules for health and safety. It's called "We need to democratize globalization" in case this link doesn't work:
If you ask me, iBLF, it's actually a deeper problem than that. We Americans have to first shake our obsession with cheap, ubiquitous, undifferentiated, poor-quality bright shiny...stuff. To drill, mold, package, ship, use for an hour, ship again, and landfill/burn a polystyrene fast-food container -- and then measure this as an increase in GDP -- is just ridiculous. Instead, if we measure the value-added -- keeping your tasty chemically burger hot and delicious for a few minutes before you eat it -- rather than measuring just the material and energy converted in the process, we may quickly see that manufacturing unregulated goods with virgin materials in Chinese sweatshops may not actually be the cheapest solution.
Very topical with all the recent issues of problems with a lot of Chinese products, potentially dangerous tires, lead in toys, chemicals in pet food. I heard today that issues in regulations not being enforced seems to be a root fo the problem - they have regulation on the books but spotty enforcement. So companies may have to look at the total cost of doing business in China before investing in imports in a way they didn't before these problems came to light. Remains to be seen whether the risk of poorly regulated products overwhelms the American consumer's appetite for cheap stuff though.
Agreed, Asheen, not the least of which is the pyscho-social cost of consumerist "want" in societies with such a huge gap between social classes...it's no surprise then, when the USA, with our dedicated shoppers (that keep buying their disposable EVERYTHING), would also have quite lower overall health rating than other industrialized nations.
I think we are 24th in the world in health life expectancy of our citizens, even though we are number 1 in money spent.
I heard an interesting commentary the other day on the myth of completely free markets...that in truth, modern free markets are really overseen by governing bodies that insist on everybody following the same rules for health and safety. It's called "We need to democratize globalization" in case this link doesn't work:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2007/06/19/PM200706195.html
posted by inBubbleLadyFriend | June 27, 2007 02:09 PM
If you ask me, iBLF, it's actually a deeper problem than that. We Americans have to first shake our obsession with cheap, ubiquitous, undifferentiated, poor-quality bright shiny...stuff. To drill, mold, package, ship, use for an hour, ship again, and landfill/burn a polystyrene fast-food container -- and then measure this as an increase in GDP -- is just ridiculous. Instead, if we measure the value-added -- keeping your tasty chemically burger hot and delicious for a few minutes before you eat it -- rather than measuring just the material and energy converted in the process, we may quickly see that manufacturing unregulated goods with virgin materials in Chinese sweatshops may not actually be the cheapest solution.
posted by Asheen | June 27, 2007 12:11 PM
Very topical with all the recent issues of problems with a lot of Chinese products, potentially dangerous tires, lead in toys, chemicals in pet food. I heard today that issues in regulations not being enforced seems to be a root fo the problem - they have regulation on the books but spotty enforcement. So companies may have to look at the total cost of doing business in China before investing in imports in a way they didn't before these problems came to light. Remains to be seen whether the risk of poorly regulated products overwhelms the American consumer's appetite for cheap stuff though.
posted by inBubbleLadyFriend | June 27, 2007 11:32 AM