i wish there were more options for travel, such as amtrak service in eastern oregon, but nonetheless solutions are based on lifestyle. since gas costs $3.60 per gallon, i stretch for ways to not support oil companies. today, the price of oil was $105.56 per barrel. i find it sadly humorous watching gas at the pump prices increase with the price of oil, yet not seeing gas prices decrease with the price of oil. for instance, last week, when oil went under $100 per barrel, gas prices did not go down. kind of like taxes i guess, the price can only go up not down. i know the companies say it takes months before that gas makes it to your car. but if you follow the prices of crude oil long enough, you will find that to be hogwash.
like my other consumer feelings recently, i do not complain about gas prices. i don’t feel consumers have a right to complain. like other products, the price is only as high as people are willing to pay. if people refused to pay $3.60 per gallon, prices would go down. if people would refuse to pay over $1 per gallon, i am sure oil companies would find a way to get it to us for $1 per gallon. i cannot fault oil companies for pushing gas to $3.60 per gallon when they are making a killing. i would charge that much if i were in the business too. for my part, i do not buy gas any more than i have to. work is a 23 minute walk from my house. i know well because i have walked every day this week. as far as going out of town, i have taken the bus the last few times or car pooled. my expenses for gasoline this month have been pleasantly low.
though transportation options are few and far between, i can manage. last weekend, i went to la grande remarkably cheap thanks to the la grande arrow. i have taken greyhound, but it is the biggest hassle and rip-off. it crosses oregon only twice per day. and while it leaves directly from downtown, it is cost prohibitive. a one way trip to la grande (45 miles) is $22. even when i drive my 12 mpg beast of a car, the gas only costs me $16. it is not like greyhound is exactly hurting for business, either. the bus is nearly full everytime. they make a killing off those runs. and when i wrote to ask if there were any frequent commuter discounts they said no. well, forget greyhound. just a short jaunt out to the rez, i can catch the shuttle to la grande, for a whopping total of $2.
two dollars?!?! are they kidding? there were five people on the shuttle. the arrow surely loses money. most likely it is subsidised by tax money. in other words, the people who don’t mind paying $3.60 per gallon for gas, also don’t seem to mind paying more money via taxes so that i don’t have to pay for gas. tax money put to good use, imagine that, a real community service.
put this into a couple more laughable perspectives... five of us got a ride to la grande for less than half of what greyhound would have charged just one of us... while waiting to take the shuttle, i drank 2 microbrews, ate 10 chicken wings, left a tip, and then paid a shuttle fair. all together i spent $6 less than a greyhound ticket to the same destination and didn't have to wait in their freezing shed.
take into account the lessons of the oil companies and greyhound and the message seems to be, the more you charge and the less you provide the more people want to buy. i, for one, would rather not support senseless endeavors. guess i am not a typical consumer. it pays to search out options for sure though. if i can get away with not buying gasoline out in the middle of nowhere, anyone else can get away with it anywhere.
Showing posts with label consumer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label consumer. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
putting the cart before the horse
i often get carried away with frivilous things, but i am trying my darndest to control it.
the thing which is probably my biggest pet peeve is how people will complain about things being the way they are even when things are the way they are because of the people that complain about them. in other words, in most cases, when there is something a person doesn't like about the world, it is in their control to change it. but, they don't. they accept it and only complain rhetorically.
for example, an basic phone bill costs $40-$50. should it cost that much? no. the major cell phone companies have re-couped investments years ago. there is no way my having a cell phone is costing at&t anything, yet they charge me out the wazzu once i send more than 200 texts in a month. consider this, i can use skype to do a video conference call anywhere in the world for free. yet i must pay a minimum of $42.99 per month just to have the freedom to make a simple phone call whenever i want.
so, why do cell phone bills cost so much? because people are willing to pay any price and addicted to talking on the phone and status symbols or whatever. the same thing goes for cable television. many people pay $50, $60. $70 or more per month for cable television. and then always complain about how much the cable bill is and how there is nothing worth watching on any of the 500 channels. i mean, it's really quite simple. if you don't agree with the system, don't support it. i get fed up with tv after about 5 minutes of watching it. so, just try and guess how much money i have spent on cable tv ever? try to guess how much i have spent on tv's in my life? yeah, the answer is $0. soon, i will have a solution to the phone issue and i will update here when i finally figure it out.
anyway, panda had me watching documentary's this week. they were all good for what they were, mostly as tools for awareness.
future of food
the yes men fix the world
the garbage warrior
among the three, the garbage warrior was most amazing.
but, the point rasied in each of them was that every single person on this planet is in control of what they spend their money on and who they support. i get sick of saying that i get sick of hearing people say that wal-mart puts the little guy out of business. i will continue to say it. wal-mart is not the problem. the people that shop at wal-mart create the problem. wal-mart only exists to the point that people allow it to. even more repulsive to me is, in small towns like mine, people say they have to shop at wal-mart because there is no where else. the same thing with gasoline prices. people complain endlessly. however, the problem only exists because the community at large got duped into making such things necessity by ever supporting them in the first place. and every "yeah, but..." answer to the problem just furthers to make it a reality. where there is a will there is always a way.
it will never make sense to me because i know that if i do not need to shop at wal-mart, there is really no absolute necessity about it for anyone. my town has three grocery stores: albertson's, safeway and wal-mart. i don't shop at any of them, but i don't starve to death. there will be a forthcoming blog about how i avoid shopping at chain stores, even though there are only chain stores in my town.
i know it will alienate people to say, but until each individual person becomes responsible and only buys what they need and from who they believe in, there is no credibility in complaining about "the system". problems are never the fault of a system. problems are the fault of the people who buy into the systems. if you, as the consumer, say no to the things you abhor, there will be nothing wrong with the system. don't accept things as they are. do something about it!
the thing which is probably my biggest pet peeve is how people will complain about things being the way they are even when things are the way they are because of the people that complain about them. in other words, in most cases, when there is something a person doesn't like about the world, it is in their control to change it. but, they don't. they accept it and only complain rhetorically.
for example, an basic phone bill costs $40-$50. should it cost that much? no. the major cell phone companies have re-couped investments years ago. there is no way my having a cell phone is costing at&t anything, yet they charge me out the wazzu once i send more than 200 texts in a month. consider this, i can use skype to do a video conference call anywhere in the world for free. yet i must pay a minimum of $42.99 per month just to have the freedom to make a simple phone call whenever i want.
so, why do cell phone bills cost so much? because people are willing to pay any price and addicted to talking on the phone and status symbols or whatever. the same thing goes for cable television. many people pay $50, $60. $70 or more per month for cable television. and then always complain about how much the cable bill is and how there is nothing worth watching on any of the 500 channels. i mean, it's really quite simple. if you don't agree with the system, don't support it. i get fed up with tv after about 5 minutes of watching it. so, just try and guess how much money i have spent on cable tv ever? try to guess how much i have spent on tv's in my life? yeah, the answer is $0. soon, i will have a solution to the phone issue and i will update here when i finally figure it out.
anyway, panda had me watching documentary's this week. they were all good for what they were, mostly as tools for awareness.
future of food
the yes men fix the world
the garbage warrior
among the three, the garbage warrior was most amazing.
but, the point rasied in each of them was that every single person on this planet is in control of what they spend their money on and who they support. i get sick of saying that i get sick of hearing people say that wal-mart puts the little guy out of business. i will continue to say it. wal-mart is not the problem. the people that shop at wal-mart create the problem. wal-mart only exists to the point that people allow it to. even more repulsive to me is, in small towns like mine, people say they have to shop at wal-mart because there is no where else. the same thing with gasoline prices. people complain endlessly. however, the problem only exists because the community at large got duped into making such things necessity by ever supporting them in the first place. and every "yeah, but..." answer to the problem just furthers to make it a reality. where there is a will there is always a way.
it will never make sense to me because i know that if i do not need to shop at wal-mart, there is really no absolute necessity about it for anyone. my town has three grocery stores: albertson's, safeway and wal-mart. i don't shop at any of them, but i don't starve to death. there will be a forthcoming blog about how i avoid shopping at chain stores, even though there are only chain stores in my town.
i know it will alienate people to say, but until each individual person becomes responsible and only buys what they need and from who they believe in, there is no credibility in complaining about "the system". problems are never the fault of a system. problems are the fault of the people who buy into the systems. if you, as the consumer, say no to the things you abhor, there will be nothing wrong with the system. don't accept things as they are. do something about it!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
resolution update
after the last blog about my new year's resolution to only buy local products from local merchants, i have some baseline statistics for the month of february.
three categories: products, services and gasoline (+ other car related expenses). i put my car in its own category because of the sheer amount of driving i had to do between baker city, la grande and pendleton and because i sort of think of it as a service, though it is traditionally viewed as a product.
gasoline/oil/car maintenance were 24% of my $ spent overall. becasuse i don't need to drive nearly as much that should be a lot less $ this month.
services were 43.7% of my $ spent overall.
rent/phone/utilities were 73% of the services category and 34% of $ spent overall, as is probably normal.
other services as percentage of service category:
tips: 6.4%
mail: 0.6% (i need to write to more peeps)
r/t bus ticket to portland: 20%
products consisted of 32.3% of my $ spent overall.
58 products were purchased from local merchants (totaling 59.6% of $ spent)
71 products were purchased from chain stores (totaling 40.4% of $ spent)
local products: 18 items, 21.6% of $ spent
pnw products: 33 items, 18.3% of $ spent
wetern region products: 24 items, 17.5% of $ spent
other products: 21 items, 9.3% of $ spent
second hand products: 5 items, 1.8% of $ spent
drinking/eating out: 29 items, 31.6% of $ spent
local product = produced within 200 miles of purchase point
pnw product = produced further than 200 miles but within the pacific northwest (oregon, washington, idaho, northern california, british columbia, alberta)
western region = produced outside of the pacific northwest, but within western u.s. (montana, utah, colorado, arizona, nevada, southern california)
my goal of buying local was mostly hampered by the fact that i purchased mostly food. considering there are only three grocery stores in town (safeway, albertson’s, wal-mart – screw all of those places!). to some extent, i have to give in. soon the farmer’s market will be here... but still, i will try to do better. this is just a beginning.
three categories: products, services and gasoline (+ other car related expenses). i put my car in its own category because of the sheer amount of driving i had to do between baker city, la grande and pendleton and because i sort of think of it as a service, though it is traditionally viewed as a product.
gasoline/oil/car maintenance were 24% of my $ spent overall. becasuse i don't need to drive nearly as much that should be a lot less $ this month.
services were 43.7% of my $ spent overall.
rent/phone/utilities were 73% of the services category and 34% of $ spent overall, as is probably normal.
other services as percentage of service category:
tips: 6.4%
mail: 0.6% (i need to write to more peeps)
r/t bus ticket to portland: 20%
products consisted of 32.3% of my $ spent overall.
58 products were purchased from local merchants (totaling 59.6% of $ spent)
71 products were purchased from chain stores (totaling 40.4% of $ spent)
local products: 18 items, 21.6% of $ spent
pnw products: 33 items, 18.3% of $ spent
wetern region products: 24 items, 17.5% of $ spent
other products: 21 items, 9.3% of $ spent
second hand products: 5 items, 1.8% of $ spent
drinking/eating out: 29 items, 31.6% of $ spent
local product = produced within 200 miles of purchase point
pnw product = produced further than 200 miles but within the pacific northwest (oregon, washington, idaho, northern california, british columbia, alberta)
western region = produced outside of the pacific northwest, but within western u.s. (montana, utah, colorado, arizona, nevada, southern california)
my goal of buying local was mostly hampered by the fact that i purchased mostly food. considering there are only three grocery stores in town (safeway, albertson’s, wal-mart – screw all of those places!). to some extent, i have to give in. soon the farmer’s market will be here... but still, i will try to do better. this is just a beginning.
Monday, February 21, 2011
new year’s resolution: becoming a “localist” consumer
i have become increasingly disgusted with products being needlessly transported 1000s of miles when products of comparable value and use may just as easily be produced closer to home. people would be up a creek without a paddle if some unforeseen circumstance left them unable to secure necessities made far away. local communities really ought to be able to produce all necessary commodities for themselves and not be dependent on far away factories. and while excess shipping is not eco-friendly, i am mostly concerned with community independence.
ideally, i should be able to find everything i need to live on in town. not only is community self-sufficiency desirable, but to consider the bigger and trendier picture in the current economy, keeping people employed by local businesses would drive local economies and provide more security for the employee and not force people to work for gigantic national/multinational corporations with whimsical hiring practices and poor job incentives. what could be more beneficial than working for oneself and the community?
for example, when i buy toothpaste in most stores, i can find only toothpaste distributed by one of three major companies on the east coast. i don’t see any need to contribute to such a concentration of power for a simple and necessary product while also contributing to needless wastes of natural resources in the shipping requirements to get that product all the way to oregon. seriously, why does all toothpaste need to be produced in new york or connecticut? is there some mysterious natural resource that can only be found there? furthermore, why does toothpaste have to come in a tube which is so difficult to reuse or recycle? why can I not just buy it in a jar that can be washed out and reused or refilled? with virtually every product i purchase i find myself questioning such things.
this led me to consider a few areas of consumerism i wish to improve upon as my new year’s resolution. if people stood up and supported a more sensible approach rather than continue to give in to what is convenient and readily available now, we all could make a major difference in creating a locally based system which is cheaper, more efficient and self-sustaining.
1.
buy from local merchants. i have become really tired of hearing people say things like, “wal mart is putting all the little guys out of business.” that is completely inaccurate. the little guys go out of business because of the people that decide to shop at places like target or wal mart. regardless of the reasons people feel “forced” to shop at major chains, if consumers were to shop at locally owned stores then the major chains would be the ones to go out of business.
i am cheerfully reminded of a starbucks coffee shop in kansas city’s westport district that went in on the busiest intersection next door to the local coffee shop,broadway cafe. people in westport did not approve of a west coast corporation that sold worse coffee coming in to threaten the locally-owned business next door. as a community, they refused to support starbuck’s and that starbuck’s location went out of business. that is an exception to the norm, but proof of what could happen if people were to be more responsible consumers and stop supporting the great satans of the business world.
that may be easier said than done, but without an honest attempt the norm becomes the giant corporations winning. i am depressingly reminded of a chain store (my recollection is that it was subway sandwich shop in utah) that bought the building that the competitor rented. the corporation then raised the rent until the local family couldn’t afford to stay in business. that is tragic, but easily avoidable. to think more simply, why do we need a chain business or restaurants like subway in the first place? if there is no such local store, people could just make their own damn sandwich at home. i know, it is probably way too much to expect people to actually do something for themselves. whatever. that’s what i do, though. even if i were to go out for fast food, i would go to the locally owned drive-in rather than some chain like mcdonald’s. it may be more expensive, but then again going to mcdonald’s itself is not exactly cheap. the more people that support the local places equals the lower prices they can attain. and if it is too expensive now, that should merely encourage people to make their own lunch or dinner, which is the cheapest way yet. instead of going to a fast food chain say seven times per month, someone could go to the local one three times per month and make their own food the other four times. not really that hard to do, just be a little less lazy and more proactive. guess what, it would likely also be much healthier!
so, to every extent possible, i will buy from local businesses.
2.
buy locally made products. i search as much as necessary to buy products that were made within 200 miles. if i still cannot find what i need, i look for something made within oregon or at least within the pacific northwest. if i still cannot find what i need, i will choose things made within the western region. any further beyond that, i am quite sure the product is superfluous and i need to re-evaluate how much i really need the product. there can’t be anything produced too far away than that is integral, and i should try harder to be a “localist.”
not only does the community benefit socially and economically by building from the inside out, but the products are more desirable. usually the products are of higher quality, specifically in the case of foodstuffs. food produced for long shipping distances are more likely to use mass amounts of preservatives and be farmed with less organic methods. do i really need to be eating overly processed foods, or should i be eating fresher foods?
3.
after i have gone to a local store and searched out a local product, i then concern myself with the packaging options. in the best case scenario, i want a product straight off the shelf with no packaging or a reused package. if it must be packaged, i first look for objects in glass. if i can’t find glass, i choose products in metal containers, and after that i look for paper or cardboard. i try at all costs to avoid products in plastic containers. even recyclable plastic containers are still not very eco-friendly. styrofoam and other such containers, i never even want to see much less be guilty of using.
when caring about the disposal of packaging, the phrase goes, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” note the order of those words. first is to consider whether i really even need the product. not only does it prevent needless waste, it saves lots of money to be more considerate of what i actually need to buy. then comes reusing, such as taking my own bags shopping. why have products which are already in a package unnecessarily placed in a new package? for years now, i have even washed out and reused ziploc bags until they fall completely apart. i can not even ever remember purchasing a ziploc bag or a can liner. the third option, after both reducing and reusing were not possible, is to recycle. many containers marked as recyclable still are hard to find places to take them, so i always am thinking of how i can get rid of the package before i ever purchase the product. throwing stuff into the garbage is completely unnecessary. i do not even pay for garbage service or have any trash pickup. about the only things i need to throw away are petty, infrequent items like wax paper. i use such little amounts of things that are not recyclable that i accumulate about one grocery sack full of garbage every three months or so.
there is always a solution to throwing things away and dealing with used packaging. that process begins from the moment we consider buying a product. to be smarter about what we buy and what lifestyles we support and encourage others to support is of paramount importance to saving our planet and our economy. so, my new year’s resolution was to work hard to be as responsible of a consumer as i can possibly be.
coming soon: some baseline statistics on how well i have done to purchase local products and support local businesses according to my resolution thus far in 2011!
ideally, i should be able to find everything i need to live on in town. not only is community self-sufficiency desirable, but to consider the bigger and trendier picture in the current economy, keeping people employed by local businesses would drive local economies and provide more security for the employee and not force people to work for gigantic national/multinational corporations with whimsical hiring practices and poor job incentives. what could be more beneficial than working for oneself and the community?
for example, when i buy toothpaste in most stores, i can find only toothpaste distributed by one of three major companies on the east coast. i don’t see any need to contribute to such a concentration of power for a simple and necessary product while also contributing to needless wastes of natural resources in the shipping requirements to get that product all the way to oregon. seriously, why does all toothpaste need to be produced in new york or connecticut? is there some mysterious natural resource that can only be found there? furthermore, why does toothpaste have to come in a tube which is so difficult to reuse or recycle? why can I not just buy it in a jar that can be washed out and reused or refilled? with virtually every product i purchase i find myself questioning such things.
this led me to consider a few areas of consumerism i wish to improve upon as my new year’s resolution. if people stood up and supported a more sensible approach rather than continue to give in to what is convenient and readily available now, we all could make a major difference in creating a locally based system which is cheaper, more efficient and self-sustaining.
1.
buy from local merchants. i have become really tired of hearing people say things like, “wal mart is putting all the little guys out of business.” that is completely inaccurate. the little guys go out of business because of the people that decide to shop at places like target or wal mart. regardless of the reasons people feel “forced” to shop at major chains, if consumers were to shop at locally owned stores then the major chains would be the ones to go out of business.
i am cheerfully reminded of a starbucks coffee shop in kansas city’s westport district that went in on the busiest intersection next door to the local coffee shop,broadway cafe. people in westport did not approve of a west coast corporation that sold worse coffee coming in to threaten the locally-owned business next door. as a community, they refused to support starbuck’s and that starbuck’s location went out of business. that is an exception to the norm, but proof of what could happen if people were to be more responsible consumers and stop supporting the great satans of the business world.
that may be easier said than done, but without an honest attempt the norm becomes the giant corporations winning. i am depressingly reminded of a chain store (my recollection is that it was subway sandwich shop in utah) that bought the building that the competitor rented. the corporation then raised the rent until the local family couldn’t afford to stay in business. that is tragic, but easily avoidable. to think more simply, why do we need a chain business or restaurants like subway in the first place? if there is no such local store, people could just make their own damn sandwich at home. i know, it is probably way too much to expect people to actually do something for themselves. whatever. that’s what i do, though. even if i were to go out for fast food, i would go to the locally owned drive-in rather than some chain like mcdonald’s. it may be more expensive, but then again going to mcdonald’s itself is not exactly cheap. the more people that support the local places equals the lower prices they can attain. and if it is too expensive now, that should merely encourage people to make their own lunch or dinner, which is the cheapest way yet. instead of going to a fast food chain say seven times per month, someone could go to the local one three times per month and make their own food the other four times. not really that hard to do, just be a little less lazy and more proactive. guess what, it would likely also be much healthier!
so, to every extent possible, i will buy from local businesses.
2.
buy locally made products. i search as much as necessary to buy products that were made within 200 miles. if i still cannot find what i need, i look for something made within oregon or at least within the pacific northwest. if i still cannot find what i need, i will choose things made within the western region. any further beyond that, i am quite sure the product is superfluous and i need to re-evaluate how much i really need the product. there can’t be anything produced too far away than that is integral, and i should try harder to be a “localist.”
not only does the community benefit socially and economically by building from the inside out, but the products are more desirable. usually the products are of higher quality, specifically in the case of foodstuffs. food produced for long shipping distances are more likely to use mass amounts of preservatives and be farmed with less organic methods. do i really need to be eating overly processed foods, or should i be eating fresher foods?
3.
after i have gone to a local store and searched out a local product, i then concern myself with the packaging options. in the best case scenario, i want a product straight off the shelf with no packaging or a reused package. if it must be packaged, i first look for objects in glass. if i can’t find glass, i choose products in metal containers, and after that i look for paper or cardboard. i try at all costs to avoid products in plastic containers. even recyclable plastic containers are still not very eco-friendly. styrofoam and other such containers, i never even want to see much less be guilty of using.
when caring about the disposal of packaging, the phrase goes, “reduce, reuse, recycle.” note the order of those words. first is to consider whether i really even need the product. not only does it prevent needless waste, it saves lots of money to be more considerate of what i actually need to buy. then comes reusing, such as taking my own bags shopping. why have products which are already in a package unnecessarily placed in a new package? for years now, i have even washed out and reused ziploc bags until they fall completely apart. i can not even ever remember purchasing a ziploc bag or a can liner. the third option, after both reducing and reusing were not possible, is to recycle. many containers marked as recyclable still are hard to find places to take them, so i always am thinking of how i can get rid of the package before i ever purchase the product. throwing stuff into the garbage is completely unnecessary. i do not even pay for garbage service or have any trash pickup. about the only things i need to throw away are petty, infrequent items like wax paper. i use such little amounts of things that are not recyclable that i accumulate about one grocery sack full of garbage every three months or so.
there is always a solution to throwing things away and dealing with used packaging. that process begins from the moment we consider buying a product. to be smarter about what we buy and what lifestyles we support and encourage others to support is of paramount importance to saving our planet and our economy. so, my new year’s resolution was to work hard to be as responsible of a consumer as i can possibly be.
coming soon: some baseline statistics on how well i have done to purchase local products and support local businesses according to my resolution thus far in 2011!
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