The stuff that we buy, the stuff that fills our cupboards, closets, and houses just doesn't end. I saw this train transporting stuff from the west coast of Canada passing through my town.
Of course, the stuff doesn't originate in the west coast of Canada. The stuff comes from China and gets shipped in huge container ships to the ports in British Columbia. It's part of containerization, that is standardizing the movement of stuff around the world. Part of this stuff then gets loaded onto trains (the other part gets transported by tractor trailers) which cross Canada to reach southern Ontario.
Our stuff is just never ending. It really makes you wonder, do the people who are concerned about the environment and working conditions in China actually exist here in Canada? Who is buying all this stuff? Why with all the information at our fingertips here on the World Wide Web about how problematic all this stuff is do we not do anything about this stuff? Why does stuff continue to happen?
5 comments:
Because we're a damn capitalist/consumer society. Hugs, M.
Your computer with its stuff is probably from China (or South-Korea, Taiwan or Japan ). At least my both computers are from there.
hello MP and Ari,
Yes, we belong to consumer society and it is hard to escape from it.
My house if full of stuff made in China and the Far East, especially technological goods like computers, my new washer and dryer, and other things.
Most production has moved overseas, so the other day, when I bought a large plastic bin to store stuff (!!) I squealed in delight when I read the sticker: Made in Canada.
I couldn't believe it. Made in Canada and it was plastic.
That's right: we are organized into societies led by big capitalists, big corporations, read Noam Chomsky.
In "good" old days the lifetime of a washer or a vacuum cleaner was 20-30 years. Now these things are almost disposable stuff but the price is same. The monthly salary of a chinese slave is about 60 dollars. It is very easy to understand why; profits are extremely high and those employers (robbers) pay taxes to nowhere. The number of stuff is 20 times higher than before and the salary is 30 times lower than in a "civilized" world ( robbers' home).
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