Hi Larry, *wow* what an amazing article!!! Thank you for sharing it, and I wish it could be put out like on "op-ed's" in multiple online news sources... Like if you had a "public link" and then shared it on X, that could be a start, but it might cause you grief also! lol... up to you if you want to do something like that.
As far as a "solution" I put it to ChatGPT -- read, perhaps :) --
I was actually aware of brands like Purism and System 76... I may buy from them one day.
And now I'll address some other aspects of the article... :). I praise it greatly for its moral character... The issue / hard part comes from a couple places... like the "realism" side of it. The issue is people want *convenience* and they want "affordable". Basically what you are fighting are the "forces of Capitalism"... which most consider to be "so American" -- ahhh Capitalism lol... Well, it appeared to work better than the Communism in the USSR. It remains to be seen if the same is true with regard to China or not.
If you think about it... if *1* American company says "f it, I'm manufacturing in China"... or... now that Apple is doing it, my biz is dead if I don't do it too!!... and that's how it starts... and soon everyone is doing it!! It's basically the force of "Western Greed" being reflected back at us!!
One can read about Teddy Roosevelt -- the "Trust Buster"... tackling greed w/in the USA... or the "muckrakers":
Gemini:
"Muckrakers were investigative journalists and writers who exposed corruption in business and government during the Progressive Era (roughly 1890s-1920s) in the United States. The term "muckraker" was popularized by President Theodore Roosevelt in a 1906 speech. Their work, often sensationalist, led to public awareness and reforms, including the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the breakup of Standard Oil"
So... really what you are fighting is THIS -- HUMAN SELFISHNESS!!... Good luck defeating that one any time soon!!! loll... But... I greatly applaud the high moral attitude... but *can it be done*???.... only if enough people will do it.
The problem, again, is if you have *even 1* company take the "quick and easy path"... you get what we have now!!
Yoda:
"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny!!!"
Truth 1:
There is Human Selfishness.
Truth 2:
The World evolves very slowly.
Truth 3:
See Truths 1 and 2... 😂😂.
But WOW... what a great article!!! Super awesome and I wish that every leader on Planet Earth was forced to read it!!... right before they click the giant "Buy Now" button for their next corporate purchase!!!
When I wrote this, I wanted to try and write it so that at the end, people would stop and think about what their involvement in this issue is and if there is anything they are willing to do about it. Buying products from companies that aren't willing to be morally ambiguous (you mentioned System 76 and Purism) is a good start.
I think you are just about in the right spot when you recognize that the "fight" is against corporate agendas (capitalism) and human selfishness. I think I can expand on this a bit further.
The corporate agenda and unrestricted capitalism is well aware of the convenience - security spectrum, human greed/selfishness, and how to make people want more of something. So, if we are distracted, and inherently selfish (self-aware comes before us-aware), it is really easy to convince us that we NEED convenience - that we are entitled to it.
Now, if you couple that with the way business is taught (always be growing), we now have a population that believes it is entitled to convenient goods (for cheap, we don't want to pay enough to create living wages) and corporations who believe that they should be making more money every year. This leads to offloading any new costs of production onto the customers, because they aren't going to give up their margins.
So, are we fighting human selfishness specifically? Unfortunately, I think we are fighting something much more nefarious. We are fighting the people who specifically take advantage of these human flaws and encourage them, just to make a profit, because our system and laws allow them to with minimal oversight and regulation.
In the end, their entire game depends on a complicit population to continue to buy their products. They make the conveniences too difficult to go without. I'm old enough to remember how to read a map-book, so having a GPS in my pocket that also doubles as a phone is AMAZING. So, I get it.
But when I start to think about it, it kind of disgusts me. Companies that work with China know exactly what they are doing and what it means. Yet, they continue to use China. This is because it is easier to hide the bad stuff when it's on a different continent. Then, like we saw in that interview, they try and white wash China's activities and change the perspective so that you think it isn't a bad thing.
THAT, is what we need to recognize and fight. Is it purely capitalism? No, but some tighter, value oriented regulation could help to improve our version of capitalism without changing up our beliefs in a free market. Is the fight human selfishness? Not exactly, no. I think this selfishness/entitlement/helplessness is taught so that they can capitalize on it.
I think what we are fighting is an older concept that has been around for a looooonnnggg time. Plain ol' greed. Most (not all) companies just care about their bottom line, and they are willing to spin the truth to continue raising it.
Individually, we can all learn to be more aware and intentional with the things we buy. We are all selfish to some extent (it's kind of baked in). I think this is the best way to make meaningful change, personally. One person at a time. Companies can't sell and make goods that no one buys. Alerting people to the fact that many of the companies they cherish are in bed with a government regime that doesn't believe in any of the values American's hold dear is a good way to start this, I think.
Really liked the scientific approach to this article, with citations and everything.
Made me reconsider some of my views on tariffs.
Hopefully, one of the positive effects from tariffs and the removal of the de minims exemption is the curb in demand for fast fashion clothes and cheaply made garbage.
Removing cheaply made garbage would he nice. I have a bit more philosophical hope, though. It would be nice if people figured out how to discern NEED from WANT and how the latter can be influenced and confused to be the former. I imagine this will disruptive for lots of small businesses that have taken advantage of that de minimis exemption prior to now, though. Those businesses probably need to start thinking about pivots...
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. My point of view doesn't seem to get much coverage/discussion, and I felt like it would be good to remind readers that there are people involved in this, and those people should be considered too.
Hi Larry, *wow* what an amazing article!!! Thank you for sharing it, and I wish it could be put out like on "op-ed's" in multiple online news sources... Like if you had a "public link" and then shared it on X, that could be a start, but it might cause you grief also! lol... up to you if you want to do something like that.
As far as a "solution" I put it to ChatGPT -- read, perhaps :) --
https://chatgpt.com/share/681d63f6-3434-8010-b4ec-d0720ffb1dd2
I was actually aware of brands like Purism and System 76... I may buy from them one day.
And now I'll address some other aspects of the article... :). I praise it greatly for its moral character... The issue / hard part comes from a couple places... like the "realism" side of it. The issue is people want *convenience* and they want "affordable". Basically what you are fighting are the "forces of Capitalism"... which most consider to be "so American" -- ahhh Capitalism lol... Well, it appeared to work better than the Communism in the USSR. It remains to be seen if the same is true with regard to China or not.
If you think about it... if *1* American company says "f it, I'm manufacturing in China"... or... now that Apple is doing it, my biz is dead if I don't do it too!!... and that's how it starts... and soon everyone is doing it!! It's basically the force of "Western Greed" being reflected back at us!!
One can read about Teddy Roosevelt -- the "Trust Buster"... tackling greed w/in the USA... or the "muckrakers":
Gemini:
"Muckrakers were investigative journalists and writers who exposed corruption in business and government during the Progressive Era (roughly 1890s-1920s) in the United States. The term "muckraker" was popularized by President Theodore Roosevelt in a 1906 speech. Their work, often sensationalist, led to public awareness and reforms, including the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the breakup of Standard Oil"
So... really what you are fighting is THIS -- HUMAN SELFISHNESS!!... Good luck defeating that one any time soon!!! loll... But... I greatly applaud the high moral attitude... but *can it be done*???.... only if enough people will do it.
The problem, again, is if you have *even 1* company take the "quick and easy path"... you get what we have now!!
Yoda:
"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny!!!"
Truth 1:
There is Human Selfishness.
Truth 2:
The World evolves very slowly.
Truth 3:
See Truths 1 and 2... 😂😂.
But WOW... what a great article!!! Super awesome and I wish that every leader on Planet Earth was forced to read it!!... right before they click the giant "Buy Now" button for their next corporate purchase!!!
When I wrote this, I wanted to try and write it so that at the end, people would stop and think about what their involvement in this issue is and if there is anything they are willing to do about it. Buying products from companies that aren't willing to be morally ambiguous (you mentioned System 76 and Purism) is a good start.
I think you are just about in the right spot when you recognize that the "fight" is against corporate agendas (capitalism) and human selfishness. I think I can expand on this a bit further.
The corporate agenda and unrestricted capitalism is well aware of the convenience - security spectrum, human greed/selfishness, and how to make people want more of something. So, if we are distracted, and inherently selfish (self-aware comes before us-aware), it is really easy to convince us that we NEED convenience - that we are entitled to it.
Now, if you couple that with the way business is taught (always be growing), we now have a population that believes it is entitled to convenient goods (for cheap, we don't want to pay enough to create living wages) and corporations who believe that they should be making more money every year. This leads to offloading any new costs of production onto the customers, because they aren't going to give up their margins.
So, are we fighting human selfishness specifically? Unfortunately, I think we are fighting something much more nefarious. We are fighting the people who specifically take advantage of these human flaws and encourage them, just to make a profit, because our system and laws allow them to with minimal oversight and regulation.
In the end, their entire game depends on a complicit population to continue to buy their products. They make the conveniences too difficult to go without. I'm old enough to remember how to read a map-book, so having a GPS in my pocket that also doubles as a phone is AMAZING. So, I get it.
But when I start to think about it, it kind of disgusts me. Companies that work with China know exactly what they are doing and what it means. Yet, they continue to use China. This is because it is easier to hide the bad stuff when it's on a different continent. Then, like we saw in that interview, they try and white wash China's activities and change the perspective so that you think it isn't a bad thing.
THAT, is what we need to recognize and fight. Is it purely capitalism? No, but some tighter, value oriented regulation could help to improve our version of capitalism without changing up our beliefs in a free market. Is the fight human selfishness? Not exactly, no. I think this selfishness/entitlement/helplessness is taught so that they can capitalize on it.
I think what we are fighting is an older concept that has been around for a looooonnnggg time. Plain ol' greed. Most (not all) companies just care about their bottom line, and they are willing to spin the truth to continue raising it.
Individually, we can all learn to be more aware and intentional with the things we buy. We are all selfish to some extent (it's kind of baked in). I think this is the best way to make meaningful change, personally. One person at a time. Companies can't sell and make goods that no one buys. Alerting people to the fact that many of the companies they cherish are in bed with a government regime that doesn't believe in any of the values American's hold dear is a good way to start this, I think.
Really liked the scientific approach to this article, with citations and everything.
Made me reconsider some of my views on tariffs.
Hopefully, one of the positive effects from tariffs and the removal of the de minims exemption is the curb in demand for fast fashion clothes and cheaply made garbage.
Removing cheaply made garbage would he nice. I have a bit more philosophical hope, though. It would be nice if people figured out how to discern NEED from WANT and how the latter can be influenced and confused to be the former. I imagine this will disruptive for lots of small businesses that have taken advantage of that de minimis exemption prior to now, though. Those businesses probably need to start thinking about pivots...
Very good article, nicely structured and interesting point of view.
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. My point of view doesn't seem to get much coverage/discussion, and I felt like it would be good to remind readers that there are people involved in this, and those people should be considered too.