The Story Of Stuff

The Story of Stuff - a
Summary
This is a summary of the contents of
the video, The Story of Stuff . I regard
this video as essential viewing, and
its message as fundamentally
correct. I alsocover the video on
OLDaily.
The materials system that defines
our economy today:
extraction, production, distribution,
consumption, disposal
It can't work. It's a linear system on
a finiteplanet.
What's missing
- people. Some have a little more
say.
- corporation - bigger than the
government
Extraction
- we are running out of resources -
in the last decade, 1/3 of the world'sresource base has been consumed
- In this system, if you don't own or
buy a lot of stuff, you don't have
value
Production
- many chemicals employed, most
untested
- eg. pillows, are doused in BFR (aflame-retardent), a neurotoxin
- pollution - they emit more than 4
billion pounds of toxic chemicals a
year
The erosion of local environments
and economies leaves people with
no other economicoption... but to
work (and live) in toxic
environments
Distribution
Sell as quickly as possible, keep
prices down
It's all about externalizing the cost -
keep wages down, skimp on healthinsurance
How could $4.99 possibly capture
the cost of the radio?
I didn't pay for the radio - kids in the
Congo paid with their future
Consumption
The heart of the system, the engine
that drives is- that's why Bush said,
after 911, to shop
- the primary way our value is
measured and demonstrated is how
much we consume
- 1 percept of material we consume
is still in use 6 months after weconsume them
How did thsi happen?
It was designed
- our enormously productive
economy demands that we make
buying a way of life
- under Eisenhower - the purpose of
the economy became to becomeconsumers of goods
- planned obselescence
(disposables) and perceived
obscelence
- we are convinced to throw away
stuff that is still perfectly useful - by
changing the way stuff looks
-...