If you can't afford the tip you can't afford the meal; a Blog Off post
Every two weeks the blogosphere comes to life when bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic. The topic this time is If you can't afford the tip you can't afford the meal. Here's my take.
-------------------------
Since approximately 1980 or so, america and the complete of the advanced world has been locked in a race to the bottom. Though it's maximum obvious in North America, it is obtrusive in Europe, Japan and Australia too. Competition primarily based on innovation and smarts seems to have been changed through competition primarily based on low price.
We were sold a bill of products called the Information Economy and instead of running in factories, we might paintings with our brains and bring in a brand new generation of prosperity. But in the direction of exporting our manufacturing base, the so referred to as task creators failed to result in this new prosperity. What they did bring about became the large field keep and the promise of ever inexpensive purchaser goods.
But how reasonably-priced are the ones reasonably-priced purchaser items and what impact do they have got throughout our economies? In Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, the movie maker explores extensive how massive bins, and Wal-Mart specially, depress wages, impose high social fees and gut nearby groups. A seventy five cent bottle of shampoo is a shiny object few can face up to and the act of buying it units in motion an entire host of unintentional consequences.
The first consequence is that the margin on that bottle of shampoo is so low that Wal-Mart cannot afford to pay the cashier who's checking you out whatever close to a residing salary. Another consequence is that the organization who genuinely made that bottle of shampoo is making so little cash that they have got to cut wages, blessings or to depart for the developing international.
Every time that takes place via the way, it's some other job exported to Mexico or China; nations where dwelling wages and environmental regulations are taken into consideration to be quaint ideas at pleasant.
When production jobs leave, what jobs remain are positions as cashiers at Wal-Mart. A society can't assist a robust center elegance at the lower back of Wal-Mart or any of the big bins.
Yet the draw of that seventy five cent bottle of shampoo is so strong that municipalities combat to entice in massive containers. The suburbs inside the US are blanketed with strip malls built round them. It would not matter if they are Wal-Marts, Targets, Office Maxes or Pet Smarts, they've the equal impact. The promise of low prices brings with it a host of social ills that range from low wages to non-existent healthcare advantages.
Furthermore, the obsession with low charges extends out from the retail quarter. It extends into authorities where gutted education budgets and calls to take away the postal service are met with applause. It extends into different businesses where personnel reductions and extended productivity to accommodate them are taken into consideration to be regular. It bleeds into the professions too and all people from doctors to designers feels the identical strain to compete on charge as opposed to fee.
So what is there to do? Well, for starters stop spending money in big boxes. I have never been a fan of them and I've always been suspicious of bottom line prices. I don't buy 75 cent bottles of shampoo. I buy $4 bottles of shampoo at a grocery store where the cashiers make a living wage and have health insurance. Now that we're part of a thoroughly consumerist culture, pay attention to how and where you spend your money. I consider it to be an obligation to spend my money locally and as painful as it can be sometimes, to pay full prices. When I buy anything I think about its repercussions. What am I supporting with my dollars? Where is my money going once I spend it? Is it staying in the local economy and helping to support my neighbors or is it swelling the coffers of someone far removed from me? What do you think? How far can the push for cheap go?
---------------------------------