Consumerism

From where I'm taking the photograph all the way to Yessi, not a single rice maker design I like.

Rice makers - too complicated, cheap and difficult to clean
Not one had a clean simple well crafted design.

Consumerism is contagious.  It start small and grows like cancer until it has swallowed up all the resources.  In the US we invented it.  Pioneered ways to bring more products to people for less money, how to use more resources for less benefit, how to ensure that our needs and/or lives were more important than the ret of the people on the earth and the generations to come.

We figured out ways to sell products to people that don't need them and ways to market products on one needs and then we escalated the potential of credit allowing those who had no money to live the dream.  Life wasn't about compassion or kindness, it was about consuming and we defined ourselves by what we ones, wore, drove.

And the green movement has finally kicked in and for the first time, recycling, smaller cars, biking to work and smaller homes, as well as organic food are taking their places in the lives of normal, average Americans.  Credit has become something you don't want, not something you maximize and brag about.

But, the cancer grows over the rest of the world.  In China, shopping is the thing to do.  And as I walk around the malls, I see endless items without needs but everyone seems to want one.

After an hour walking one of the dozens of fancy 'western' style malls here in Xiamen, I've not found a single producet I'm interested in.  It all appears to be the same fashion, kitchen gadget, living luxury, outdoor product in the states, but everything is made in China.  Of course, our products are also made in China, but from 'American' designs. 

These products all appear to be copies of patent designs but cheap copies.  Every generation's production exhibits degradation.  The bikes are called Jeep and Hummer.  They have disk brakes but are more like Huffies, weighing in at 50 lbs and not at all precision manufactured.  The stoneware looks like Japanese wood fired pottery, but has a plastic finish and the shapes and textures aren't quite right.  The sporting clothes look like North Face and Merrell, but are heavy, cheaply made and definitely an inferior product.  Down jackets are as heavy as wool.  Fancy shoes I wouldn't wear and packs that look right but don't work quite right.  It's all imaginary.  Products designed to look like their superior predecessors  but that will all be in a land fill in a few years.  Crap.