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Shopping into oblivion
Written by Liz Bennett
Tags: consumerism | ethics | low impact shopping | shopping
We worry about doing more - better at work, earn more, be more successful, be thinner, be fitter, have more friends, better relationships. We never have enough, we always need more. So we haven't got enough clothes shops, we need another.
There are two big problems here:
1) We're not paying the actual cost of the things we buy. We don't pay for the cost of cleaning up the rivers that are used by the chemical industries that make the fabrics and dyes for the clothes. We don't pay for the effects of paying people such low wages that they can't afford to feed their children properly.
2) The benefit we get from doing all this buying is tiny. It feeds the bit of us that believes we can buy our way to happiness, even though given a minute to think about this we realise it's not possible. Are you happy with this? Does it really make you feel good?
But, you might say, what about economic growth and the fact that this depends on us buying stuff? OK we have to spend in order to maintain our wealth. We have to spend at the same rate. To do this we don't need to consume particular products or services. And if we actually look at the cost of what we consume are we creating more wealth or creating more costs?
There are nations in the West waging expensive wars costing dollars and lives so they can secure their political stability and ensure access to the natural resources in the Middle East. There are communities being washed away because of unrestricted logging. There are farmers condemned to low wages, powerless in the face of international supermarket firms. Not everyone is getting wealth created for them.
Does paying someone $5 an hour really benefit the economy? Developing stressful lifestyles characterised by dogged insatiable ambition and vain attempts to relieve the tension with obsessive exercise, facials or alcohol: does this help the economy?
Would it be worth it if it did? On $5 an hour I'm not going to have enough money to be contributing as a big spender. I'm going to have to work very long hours away from my children. What is the cost of parents, rich and poor, having no time to actually spend seeing to the emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual development of their child?
Why don't we opt for quality, instead of quantity? Quality consumption means buying less and paying more for it, paying more in cash terms but less in environmental, social and humane terms. Why would you want to do that? Why wouldn't you want to pay for less poverty of time, money and experience? Is your new wardrobe more signficant and valuable than that? Last time I bought shoes the pleasure I got was nothing next to what I get from positive, quality time with the people I love. Perhaps I'm going to the wrong shop.
Since the mid seventies the Western nations have consistently increased their wealth. This has been called an increase in standards of living. And yet the happiness of the people who live in this new standard of living has remained constant. They're paying more for their happiness then ever before (check out http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/). This is evidence that the increasing costs of our consuming and the pressure to sustain our bubble simply aren't worth bearing.
When you're contemplating your last few hours here do you want to know you and those around you lived, or that you shopped? Those things you surround yourself with ultimatly are worth very little. So why don't we all start talking about how we can change the way we live a little - in the words of the great Bill Hicks 'lets "evolve some ideas" and begin to feel the benefit of all this 'progress'.
Low impact shopping
First of all you can ask for less packaging. Think of all the bits we throw away before we even get to the shoes. Do you need to take the bag? Can you recycle the box?
Get your own style with some vintage from Granny's Day Out, 3 Coleman Street, 03-25 Peninsula Shopping Centre.
Get Prada for cheap; enjoy picking through a hoard of nearly new designer gear at Secondo, 03-51 Far East Plaza, Orchard Road.
Heard of organic carrots? Now you can get organic pants too. For a range of cotton clothes made from friendly fabric, head for Organic Paradise, Temple Street. Whilst you're there you can get some earth friendly washing liquid too.
Buy something and make sure the cash goes to someone who really needs it at the same time. A great way to make a little impact on your environment but a big one on your fellow humans and your individual style.
Good as New, M.I.N.D.S. Employment Development Centre, 800 Margaret Drive or New 2 U, Singapore Council of Women's Organizations, 96 Waterloo Street are two of many across the City.
