I'm living in friends flat. He's got two different jobs at the moment (his 9 to 5 job and his company that does business in the summer time). That means his in a hurry right now.
We had, or he had, a really tight schedule today and that meant we had to go to supermarket and eat real fast. That is why we bought ready made food from the supermarket and in a hurry I bought some basic groceries that I need to make breakfast and dinner for few days.
Afterwards I was angry with myself because I didn't really have time to check the products properly. I didn't buy these fair trade bananas, I wasn't able to find organic eggs and finally I just bought some noodles since they are easy to make.
Hurry made me consume like there is no tomorrow. In the car my friend said something like this:
"When my leisure time gets shorter I outsource my day-to-day tasks like washing the car, eating etc.. My free time is important to me and I want to maximize it and that is why I'm willing to pay a little extra from many things."
I can't blame him. Free time is important and this is how people act. Often the more money people make the less spare time they have. Rich people don't wash their pools because they are too busy.
I've never been rich in the true meaning of the word (I mean money wise) and that means I always have time to do almost everything myself, fix my bike, cook my dinner, walk to school, compare prices etc.
Of course it's everyones own choice what they want to do with their money. I'm just saying that maybe it's constant hurry that prevents us from thinking clearly how we should spent the money we earn. I don't have many option but the richer you are the more options you have. What I would like to see is people think before buying. In my book money doesn't bring you just options but responsibility as well. Of course we all have to same responsibility but money seems to be the thing that makes the world go round...
For readers living in Finland a nice documentary about consumerism problems in USA (video available until 4th july)
tiistai 10. kesäkuuta 2008
Hurry makes us consume
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There was a recent article in the Times about food waste.
Another thing is that it's really true we can waste enormous amounts of money on food. I just did yesterday, when I bought something, left it behind, and had to call in and give it to my co-worker. Plus the TV dinner I had was 4,60 in total, which is about 7 bucks US and a whole lot of money for food that cost perhaps 50 cents to manufacture with packaging and delivery. The margins on those things are HUGE. I sometimes wonder -- all these cups of readymade porridge that people buy, they've apparently been a huge hit for the frozen etc. food producers. For the price of one, they could get an entire container of flour/cereal with less packaging and no preservatives. Intuitively I'm pretty sure people know it, but we just don't do the math. Maybe we're buying into the 1950s idea of modern TV dinners as a good thing.
One other thing: way back in history when I was still lived in The Greatest City in the World aka New York, I remember the time crunch you just described. And it would've been imperative back then to try to save time and *hire help* (help!!), except I didn't even have this concept in my head.
I had precious little freetime, and unlike my coworkers and friends, most of whom had grown up with help and were comfortable with it, I wasn't. I hadn't. So there I was, exhausted and still spending my time on cleaning our apartment by myself when I should've instead just paid for someone to do it and SLEPT or gone for a run. I kept dragging my clothes to the cleaner's on my own when I should've paid for someone to take care of it... a TOTALLY different mindset, borne out of necessity, but beyond at least my comprehension back then. This also has a lot to do, I think, with how Finland was back then, even just a decade ago: almost nobody used household help. It was considered elitist.
Contrast this to my friends or schoolmates, some of whom grew up with a live in nanny and a butler.
It may sound silly, but it's a major class and cultural difference. Some people buy the support work, others perform it.
Even my roommate (who was from Africa) was from a well to do African family (at least they had servants) and her attitude was really different. She got manicures and used the dry cleaner's and went to the spa.... whereas I -- I don't think I used the dry cleaner once... how I laundered my shirts, ugh, I don't know....
This is probably just me, though.
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