The Craftsman versus the Industrial Complex

[tripleblessed]

And, of course, when your countrymen - and mine - priced themselves out of the drudgery and toil involved, the jobs moved overseas to low wage economies in Asia and elsewhere........ I think you can see where I'm going. To that "brave new world" you talk about where we might find ourselves in a thirld world country ourselves in a few generations.

The really sad part is we didn't price ourselves out of the drudgery, and the ironic and pitiful part is that American workers and small business owners paid good money for that. The U. S. Chamber of Commerce, using dues paid by owners and workers from across the country, predominantly small towns like I grew up in where membership was a sign you had arrived, set up offices around the world. The membership was told they were providing money to fund the search for new markets for our exports, but in reality the main thrust was to find people willing to set up factories to use cheaper labor. In other words, American business men sold out their neighbors, their communities, and their families so a few could make a bigger buck.

And no, I didn't make that up. I got that from conversations with Chamber executives, abroad at first, confirmed with those back home. It took careful listening, an ear for evading propaganda, and careful questioning, but finally sheepish admissions.

[DWFII]

I don't know that it is about "greed." I don't think I ever said or implied that it was.

It is, however about profit and the bottom line. There is nothing else that can adequately explain why that trash raft is in the Pacific. There is nothing else that can explain the continued exploitation of lower standards of living in third world countries.

The business model of most American industry is to produce the largest number for the lowest cost and charge the most the market (and market niche targeted) will bear.

Everything else, including internal and external health or environmental concerns, are subordinate to that model unless otherwise mandated by law. At which point the industry moves all its polluting factories overseas.

I like capitalism. We do not have, or honor, capitalism in this country or economy. We pay lip service, but we reward some strange amalgamation of rapacious socialism and monopolistic patronage. I'm not talking politics, I'm talking economics.

A capitalist economy is one where individuals own all the means of production, governments seldom if ever interfere, and free markets and laissez-faire conditions prevail.

That's not what we have.

I don't have a name for what we have, but whatever you want to call it, it is exploitative at its worst...and it is at its worst more often than not. It is unimaginative and sterile most of the time, and mind numbing at the best of times.

You all think I am some dark humoured communist or lurking Luddite. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Drac suggested that a lot of things are "going back." Yes, they are. Implied if not stated is that there is a happy medium--Rocky's "balance".

Again, I agree.

But you know why some of this is happening? It is just because of people like me...most far more articulate than I am...railing against the machine (the machine as metaphor) in forums and in discussions like this one all around the world. I am not patting myself on the back...but there is indeed a movement back to sustainability and I am but one voice.

All people have to do is realize that the octopus is a lot more complicated and pervasive than any of us want to think about. It has many,many more arms than eight.

Artificer has it right, right down to the last detail. I have worked hard for forty years in a Trade that has typically paid as if it were still the 19th century. Nevertheless...and I've said this before---I am relatively well off today.

Why?

No one has asked me why...so I am going to volunteer the reason (you knew I would) it is the same as Artificer's-- I don't live to buy and I don't buy anything that is poor quality if I can help it.

I have never owned a new car. I don't eat TV dinners or drink endless cans of soda pop. I don't follow fashion. I've had two real bona fide vacations in forty years. I don't have a 72" flat screen HD television or a home theater. Yet I am debt free and what I tongue-in-cheek call "landed gentry" because I own my own house and my own shop and have an income that doesn't require me to work too hard.

When I buy, I buy judiciously and after much research. I buy local and organic at every opportunity. I don't have an electric car, it's true but more because I am not convinced the technology is any cleaner at this stage in the game.

Bottom line is that the more I read and think about Artificer's comments the more am convinced that they bear repeating:

The real problem lies in the attitude of business and investors today. Nobody is happy with 7% profit anymore. People demand 15-30% on their cash. Businesses don't seem to care about their product as much as they do their stock price. Decisions are made to cut overhead (firing skilled employees, lower quality materials, slipshod work) all to placate the market's insane need for profit, with no thought to the future of the business (primarily because the executive who is getting that big fat bonus based on stock performance won't be around in 5 years to feel the effects of their actions).

It's not "production" that is the problem, it is profit OVER product that is the poison in our "production", and to a great degree, in the overall economy.

Sadly, we're only starting to see the effects of this cycle. Products ARE garbage in a huge number of cases. Stuff breaks before you can cut up the box for recycling.

I have personally given up buying anything except the very essentials. I don't want anymore crap in my life. It's just frustration.

I'm no luddite, but we as a culture have arrived at a place that is going to be incredibly hard to return from.

Good on you, mate!

[DWFII]

And one other observation that just might bear repeating:

If progress has given us anything of value....it has given us the luxury, if we will but reach out and take it, to re-evaluate the present and shape the future so that it is not just an extrapolation of the current dismal state of affairs that is so horrible no one wants to deal with it.

I think to do that we must be mindful and respectful of history and Tradition...and cherish old brownstones.

[DWFII]

The report a post system that we depend on in finding Rules violation is based on anonymous reporting. We feel if the reporter was shared with the possible violator then members would reframe from reporting and our system would not work. Everyone is entitle to their opinion, but to play in this playground you play by the playground rules.

ern a XMark's moderator speaking for himself

I know this is Off topic so if you want to move it feel free...but I only have this one observation....

I have to say...with, I hope, no disingenuous-ness, that all of my dealings with you--"Mael speaking for himself"--have been cordial and a pleasure. Thank you for that.

That said, I want to report a violation of Rule #8 by the Report a Post System. The Report-a-Post system encourages people to act without thinking and to avoid the consequences of their own actions. [Newspaper editorials (not a perfect analogy but perhaps worth a look as a icon of freedom of speech) require a signature on all editorials simply for that reason.]

And more to the point, if people are allowed to report other people anonymously...they are not taking responsibility for their own actions. They, themselves, are also in violation of Rule #8.

Of course this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek...with a starkly serious undercurrent...but isn't it something you might want to think about?

One also has to wonder if the Report-a-Post system doesn't foster tattle-tale-ing and stool-pigeon-ism.

Seriously, I am trying my best to live by the rules of this forum...as I understand them.

What I don't understand is how pitting members against one another or creating suspicions that can never be resolved helps to cultivate a civil environment.

DW...musing out loud and representing no one in particular.

[Mike M.]

I think clueless customers are another issue.

Very often, people tend to buy the cheapest article on the market regardless of cost/quality ratio - and frequently regardless of whether it will get the job done properly. Cheapness is seen as a virtue in itself. A smart customer tries not to waste money, but understands that better goods are often a better bargain over the long run, and that goods that don't do what you bought them for are a 100% waste of money.

[RockyR]

I think clueless customers are another issue.

Very often, people tend to buy the cheapest article on the market regardless of cost/quality ratio - and frequently regardless of whether it will get the job done properly. Cheapness is seen as a virtue in itself. A smart customer tries not to waste money, but understands that better goods are often a better bargain over the long run, and that goods that don't do what you bought them for are a 100% waste of money.

Yes, this is true (VERY true), however, the world fosters an attitude of "it's never the customers' fault". Trash in the ocean? The companies making the product have too much packaging. Children listening to bands with curse words? Censor the bands. Watching violent TV or Video games? Censor the TV. Fell in home depot while tripping over shoe laces? Home Depot's fault for having concrete floors which hurt when you fall on them.

Responsibility lies with MORE than 1/2 the equation. END USERS can recycle their garbage (what parts are recyclable). END USERS can check out what their kids are watching / listening to and take it away if they don't approve. Etc...

Too often we are blaming the smaller part of the equation and not facing the REAL problem... the man in the mirror. We're too quick to sue for things that were accidents or where we're partially / fully to blame b/c someone else didn't go above and WAY beyond to protect them (spoken as the son of a lawyer). When I was a kid, I never wore a bike helmet and I'm still here. I played dek hockey without all my pads and I'm still alive. I climbed trees (and fell once or twice) and I am still here. I never sued my neighbor for making that tree 'so inviting to climb'. I never sued the park service for my skinned knees.

If people would hold themselves accountable for THEIR OWN actions, I suspect this world would be a much better place. Unfortunately, people are (generally) lazy and will pick the easy way out when given an option and/or blame someone else. Businesses / politicians know that and cater to that 'need'.

[Off of Soapbox]
[END RANT]

[DWFII]

There's another factor here that accrues directly to the manufacturer, however--marketing.

You almost have to stipulate that consumers are lazy and clueless and will always look for a deal regardless that the much ballyhooed idea of "affordable" shoes or "affordable" kilts is near-as-nevermind a hoax. Maybe even a deliberate deception insofar as the "hidden" price is not paid by the consumer, or mentioned by the manufacturer.

But marketing is as much responsible for a clueless customer as any other factor. Marketing very nearly takes the place of education in our society.

If a shoe company decides to reduce the cost of production--cut corners or institute expediencies in technique and materials--and then advertises worldwide that they manufacture the finest quality shoes in Britain...many will buy into that hype.

Eventually the consumer...as we see in the responses to idea of paying more than $100.00 for a pair of shoes indicates....becomes unwilling to even consider that there is an alternative. One that might even be cheaper in the long run and all factors considered.

And when confronted with something resembling an education in the various aspects of production and/or quality, the consumer feels threatened or simply doesn't know how to begin to understand.

Big PR firms have a captive audience for this kind of hype. People in general have short attention spans, prefer Twitter to writing a letter or phoning to speak to someone directly...simply because doing so takes too much time. Again the "factory mentality."

So it's "Buy these--they are good, and good for you, and you don't have to work very hard or very long to afford them."

And when you come right down to it all advertising is hype to one degree or another.

And all hype is deception--it's very nearly the definition.

[artificer]

The most amazing thing to me about marketing today is this (and most people never notice it, have you [collective you, not specifically directed at anyone]?)

Companies advertise new packaging almost as much as they do the actual product.

Beer in a new "wide mouth" bottle. Soda in specifically designed boxes to better fit your fridge. The "Speed and conveniece" of a new easy open bag.

It's mental.

These companies are, quite literally, saying that "we're selling a new delivery system for our same old crap", and people get excited about it.

I point to Miller Lite's new VORTEX BOTTLE as the perfect example.

[RockyR]

I point to Miller Lite's new VORTEX BOTTLE as the perfect example.

In fairness... if you're drinking Miller Lite, you need SOMETHING to be excited about.

[DWFII]

These companies are, quite literally, saying that "we're selling a new delivery system for our same old crap", and people get excited about it.

***

Imagine a television commercial...not in prime time but not at 3AM either:

The announcer comes on extolling the virtues of this "new" handbag for the ladies--lots of pockets, an adjustable strap, zippers inside for your small items, etc.

And then, in an hyper-excited voice-- "the best thing of all about this bag...it's genuine faux leather!! For only $19.95!"

I wonder, in passing, how many here have actually seen an adult faux in the wild?

I saw that commercial. I remember it clearly. It changed my life in a small way.