The over-consumption lifestyle that most americans fell into has resulted in the over-production (and over-pollution) of 'stuff'.
The economic concepts behind 'not-consumption' or 'people first' type setups are harder to wrap your head around than the simple supply-demand and 'maximize profit' models.
Harbor freight is an interesting concept because the tools people need to actually produce stuff here in the usa are now mainly produced in china. If I want a lathe, mill, drill press, grinder, tube bender, jack, and socket set to pimp out my shop my options are going to be limited and the lower price and lower quality options are going to be appealing. I enjoy finding good deals on craigslist and I am patient with things like that- so rarely do I buy 'new' things, but when you need a tube bender next week for a job your options get limited fast and they usually come from china.
There is nothing wrong with producing things- people need to make/buy/sell/produce things. I see nothing wrong with china producing anything. Where the wrong comes in is with the societal damage to people from sweatshops/cheap labor, the environmental damage from no regulation, and the economic damage from producing goods at such discounted prices that it puts american companies and people out of business. I am sure not all chinese companies operate like that but the ones that do are ruining their whole game. I would rather keep my money in my state as much as possible.
I think the biggest movement so far is the 'local first' thing where people try to find somebody close by that does a product/service 'first' and then move out from there. We have a brewery in town that gets all its grains from a farm about 45 min away, and a restaurant that gets almost all of its food from local farmers. We also have two excellent metal fab shops that can make almost damn anything for cheap as dirt. If I can hire people in my own county that make/grow/maintain everything we need to survive.... the chinese lcd from wal-mart is just a fancy foreign toy at that point. . When our dependence reaches a point where our survival depends on China..... that is what I can't allow to happen.
Hopefully the UN or EU or AU or whoever will start putting trade tarriffs and things on whatever it is that china is polluting and whatever horrible conditions for the workers etc. Reverse tax breaks for sweatshop free or low-pollution goods works too. They are working on the free market principle and keeping everything cheap as shit at the expense of the people, earth, and our own economy and if people decide to stop that shit and support ourselves before we support other countries economies we can easily.
tl:dr If we just stop buying shit from china then those big bad pollution factories will have to close down.
The economic concepts behind 'not-consumption' or 'people first' type setups are harder to wrap your head around than the simple supply-demand and 'maximize profit' models.
Harbor freight is an interesting concept because the tools people need to actually produce stuff here in the usa are now mainly produced in china. If I want a lathe, mill, drill press, grinder, tube bender, jack, and socket set to pimp out my shop my options are going to be limited and the lower price and lower quality options are going to be appealing. I enjoy finding good deals on craigslist and I am patient with things like that- so rarely do I buy 'new' things, but when you need a tube bender next week for a job your options get limited fast and they usually come from china.
There is nothing wrong with producing things- people need to make/buy/sell/produce things. I see nothing wrong with china producing anything. Where the wrong comes in is with the societal damage to people from sweatshops/cheap labor, the environmental damage from no regulation, and the economic damage from producing goods at such discounted prices that it puts american companies and people out of business. I am sure not all chinese companies operate like that but the ones that do are ruining their whole game. I would rather keep my money in my state as much as possible.
I think the biggest movement so far is the 'local first' thing where people try to find somebody close by that does a product/service 'first' and then move out from there. We have a brewery in town that gets all its grains from a farm about 45 min away, and a restaurant that gets almost all of its food from local farmers. We also have two excellent metal fab shops that can make almost damn anything for cheap as dirt. If I can hire people in my own county that make/grow/maintain everything we need to survive.... the chinese lcd from wal-mart is just a fancy foreign toy at that point. . When our dependence reaches a point where our survival depends on China..... that is what I can't allow to happen.
Hopefully the UN or EU or AU or whoever will start putting trade tarriffs and things on whatever it is that china is polluting and whatever horrible conditions for the workers etc. Reverse tax breaks for sweatshop free or low-pollution goods works too. They are working on the free market principle and keeping everything cheap as shit at the expense of the people, earth, and our own economy and if people decide to stop that shit and support ourselves before we support other countries economies we can easily.
tl:dr If we just stop buying shit from china then those big bad pollution factories will have to close down.
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