bcpid wrote: ↑December 8th, 2018, 2:31 pm
I think our culture is excessively saturated in stuff to the extent that we could probably cease all manufacturing and live off a mix of unsold old stock, repairs, repurposing, or just going without inessential items for a good decade or two and experience no appreciable decline in the standard of living. The excess really makes me sick when you consider just how expertly we are destroying the world our children will inherit; all the resources wasted on things that, if used at all, will be used for minutes and then spend millennia in a landfill; not even considering the damage caused by manufacturing this junk. Even nicely designed stuff goes down this road, maybe after a slightly longer period of use that is still a drop in the bucket compared to how long it will be garbage.
BCIP: This is exactly why my younger brother stopped being in product design right after the diploma and chose human rights/ adult education as alternative (rough) professional path.
Indeed within our oversaturated economies one can live off the crumbs, that fall off the tables of "normal" consumerism.
My future second wife dealt some lessons concerning this to me. Showing that it is entirely possible to nurture 2 teenage daughters, have food and clothing, a fun! social life on cents instead of Dollars. Over here in Germany we have an active "food sharing" network, that repurposes excessive "waste" food, you can do carsharing, use public transport or a bike and live quasi like a student, all while doing meaningful work, that might not pay six-figures. Very valuable viewpoints in recalibrating my personal values.
mo-i
https://foodsharing.de/
I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde