On Friday after work I headed to the hardware store, Bunnings, to get some things for a little project I'm doing this weekend and decided to investigate some tools I've been considering as well. I don't simply buy for the sake of wanting things and with tools and equipment I wait until the need exists then pick up what I need for that particular job if I don't already have it; this ethos has left me with a vast array of tools and equipment over the years - but there's always another project and the need for specific tools for the job.
Unfortunately I didn't find what I was looking for at Bunnings so ended up at a dedicated tool shop on Saturday morning, braving the 40°C heat in the process and...still didn't find what I was looking for.
The problem wasn't that there were none, just that I couldn't find one commensurate to my needs at a price I was willing to pay and buying a substandard tool isn't something I'm into. I know what'll happen, I'll just bite the bullet and get it done/bought, but today I walked away empty-handed which means my project will be delayed a little.
While at the hardware store, Bunnings, and the tool shop, TKD (Tool Kit Depot), I was struck by the sheer number and array of tools and equipment and was left wondering if multiple brands of the same thing is actually necessary in a world of diminishing resources.
I understand the need for competition and consumer choice - no one wants to see a single brand monopolise the market and drive prices up - but there was a lot of choice and...I don't know, it just seemed somewhat wasteful.
It used to be that a person who needed a tool or implement would go ahead and make it themselves.
Flint knapping is one example. Some bloke one and a half million years ago decided he needed to cut some flesh, skin an animal or create a weapon to cleave another person's head in twain with so he made it himself through trial and error. Another example is the wheel or the fulcrum and lever and the water pump (thanks Archimedes). Even the simple cup was something a person made themselves from clay, wood or stone and eventually basic metals, porcelain and so on. One didn't have the luxury to go to the store and find fifty seven aisles of cups to choose from; if one needed something it was made or traded for or bought...either way, there wasn't a store full to bursting point with exactly the same items but all in different colours like there is today.
I get it, time moves on and things become more modern...but when does it all become just a little too much?
I didn't leave the store feeling overwhelmed by the tools, I know my way around a tool, but I left feeling that somewhere along the way we've became wasteful and disrespectful of the planet's resources - which certainly are not keeping up with the demand for more and more consumer goods. I also thought about the individuals and corporations getting mega-wealthy through society's constant drive for more and more things...Jeff Bezos is a good example of one suck asshole, and the way we feed that greed through our own need for more and more...even though we don't always need it.
Things aren't going to change, not in my lifetime anyway, and I think that by the end of my life - twenty to twenty five years from now -we'll see a steep downward spiral and probably chaos ensue due to the misuse of the planet's resources, consumerism and human greed.
Too much? Yep, I think so.
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Quite a while back, even maybe 10 years ago, I read online that the planet Earth can sustain only 1.9 billion people on it to be fully self sufficient.
That 1.9 billion number has stuck with me all these years and I always think about how we are 4 times over that number and still not respecting the scarcity of resources at all.
I did a quick google research and it says now that the Earth could sustain 4 billion people at a reasonable standard of living, but only 1.5 billion people at an American standard of living.
I recall reading something similar.
I guess "standard of living" is subjective depending on location. Some of the conditions I've heard about in some of the South American and African countries would be considered way, way way below Australian standards and I think the people at both ends of the scale are responsible for what's going on, albeit for different reasons. What's common to all is wastage, greed and sometimes very little care-factor.
It is ridiculous how wasteful we as a species are. It is upsetting. I was listening to a story about the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife. They were people of the great depression and lived like it even after his years as President. The story recalled how they would wash out ziplock bags, dry them out, and reuse them. How many people actually do that these days? I know we don't. It's sad really.
There's so many things each and everyone of us could do better, but we generally don't.
You mention the Carter's and it made me think of my dad who grew up in Japanese occupied Malaysia (then, Malaya) during the second world war and the terrible existence he endured through the Japanese soldier's brutality and the lack of pretty much everything. As I got older I came to understand more and more why he was so frugal, so careful to look after what he had and the way he worked on using as little as he could when it came to resources. I don't want to go into it here, but I came from a family that struggled financially and while it wasn't at all like the Great Depression the lessons were the same. I'm glad I had that upbringing and I've carried the lessons forward.
These days I can buy pretty much whatever I like, but I don't unless I need it and I think that is something so many don't know how to do. We should be conserving but most are consuming with voracious appetites and little regard to the future implications.
I think in the future, many are going to relearn some of those lessons whether they like it or not. Like you have said, this can't be sustained and eventually everyone is going to pay for it. Most likely not in our lifetimes, but it will happen.
I agree, there are tough times coming and I don't just mean in third world countries. Many will suffer and...maybe then there'll be some change? Maybe not though...certainly a reckoning though.
You didn't let yourself be fooled and you didn't give in to the "Buy Now" challenge.
When I saw the first picture, I thought you were going to write about the project you are making or the tool you bought, but after a few lines of text it was clear to me what you were planning to write about.
The commodity will come to our heads...
And our need to get to everything without difficulty is used by those powerful brands, who bury us with a lot of goods and equipment that can help us with "this or that", and which are necessary for us and without which we cannot live...
And in fact, these same brands become billionaires and only raise the ladder of their goals, to sell us as many (unnecessities) as possible...
I might write about the project some time but a lot of what I do and my real life never makes it to Hive because it's private. Maybe I will on this occasion, it's a cool project.
People are gullible and stupid which is not a good mix; it's very easy for corporations to sell to people for this reason. The thing is, not all of the blame is on the corporations and billionaires - people have the ability to choose whether to buy or not, and so many make bad choices.
For me, well I guess I could buy whatever I need (within reason) but I choose not to and prefer to make what I have last and buy needs not wants (mostly) which means more money stays in my pocket and that I don't feel the compulsion to attach my feeling of self-worth to material items.
Excellent reflection and one of the lessons to be learned from this publication is that many times, in the eagerness to have and have we fill ourselves with many things that sometimes we do not even need or that we buy and throw to one side.
The big companies use all possible means at their disposal to tell us what to buy, the quantity, the quality of what they sell and we buy and they get richer to deepen a cycle that repeats itself over and over again.
The really sad thing is that many or most of these things are taken from nature and we are not aware of the damage we are doing to it.
As a Geography teacher I admire and value writings like this.
Thank you for sharing.
Happy Tuesday.
Cheers and best regards.
There's a lot of talk about recycling, caring for the environment and not being wasteful...but there is little action to recycle, care for the environment and to conserve not waste. The corporations and countries are partly to blame, and so is everyone on the planet who desires more and more products and services and who seem never to be content. Humans truly are a plague upon the planet and there's little to nothing being done to change that.
Thanks for taking a read, I'm glad you found something of value in my post.
I totally agree with you.
Thanks to you for sharing such an important topic. Happy Tuesday. Cheers and best regards.
I'm not entirely sure it's the corporations' fault but government regulations. At the same time I do think it's the fault of the corporations and not the government regulations.
From a corporate position it makes complete sense to recycle and reduce and conserve because it ultimately affects the bottom line. Companies like Apple are heavily into this mentality, going so far as to build entire systems to recycle their old machines into new ones.
On the flip side the corporation's responsibility is to their shareholders and most corporations will go for volume sales and race to the bottom. These corporations (think Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, etc) don't care so much about creating recycling systems with much of their gear going into landfills when they die within a year or two (average lifespan of a low end computer is two years - average of a Mac is 5).
Government regulations often stop proper recycling. Here in New Zealand we end up shipping most of our stuff to China for recycling because the government doesn't want to setup infrastructure here in New Zealand. However, we used to do a lot of recycling here in New Zealand because it used to be too expensive to send it anywhere else.
The government bowed to the corporations in the 90s and 2000s and so it flipped. Today New Zealand's recycling regulations are based on what China is willing to accept.
Here where I live, we used to recycle all plastics of 1,2,4,5,6,7 but now we only do 1,2,5,7. There's no infrastructure to recycle glass anymore and so we're not supposed to recycle coloured glass whereas before we had no problem doing so.
Once again, it comes down to regulations set by another country.
But if you got the corporations that want to recycle properly and the governments working together in order to setup infrastructure, then you'd get real far in fixing many of the problems caused by consumerism. At the moment though you've got governments preventing this from happening because of lobby groups that are willing to pay more to stop this from happening. It's crazy.
It's something I always notice going back to Germany. Here in Ecuador, there's a lot less of everything. The most of "the same" you have at the market, with 15 booths offering the same products for the same price - and probably all go to the same owner.
It's an illusion of choice, like so many things today. Freedom, they call it. But it's all the same, just in a different color.
Thank you for this post, I enjoyed it.
It's a problem everywhere, humans are wasteful, only that each location has more or less than others. In Australia we have plenty of everything, more than we need, in Finland where my brother @tarazkp lives as well for instsnce -vastly different economies - but in Venezuela, Cuba and so many other countries there's much less. It's interesting to see how each group of people deal with it and I feel those in first world countries like my own have some hard lessons coming down the track.
Time will tell how this all shakes out but I don't believe humans can continue in such wasteful ways, but in their hubris most probably don't give what will come in the future much thought - they just keep consuming, overusing resources, destroying the environment and other such self-destructive things.
It does depend on what people see as "having more or less". Ecuador is a very rich country in many ways, and a lot of people here are fine with what they have. Which, of course, is not okay for the world economy, so they're step by step taught how to consume more, and how to take economic advantage of their riches.
One theory for the people here being so "relaxed" and not worrying too much, working inefficiently and not caring too much is actually one of abundance - why care about the papaya that is getting spoiled, when you can just pick the next one, as there's fruit all year long? In a longer time context, of course. Doesn't work today anymore, as everything is owned by someone. But how fast do values change?
Hi @galenkp. I found it very curious that your reflection originates from an experience in a store with useful things. We are surrounded by useless or unnecessary things. I am fascinated by fashion, the ability it has to make obsolete the pants I bought last year and how it invites me to buy another one I don't need, just because the color is different or there is a small change in the design.
The way the human species is going is absolutely irrational. And I have the feeling that few people care.
You know more than I do about the complexity of the human mind but I think the marketed know even more? How else would their marketing strategies be so effective.
I agree that most people don't care about the path we're on, I wrote that in another comment just now. They're too focused on the next thing they'll buy, showing off, gathering unneeded things and feeding their egos. Typical human behaviour.
Good morning, @galenkp, Have no doubt that marketing people know more than I do about the human mind. And I also agree on the subject of egos. It seems like people have it small and need to inflate it with whatever.
Hope you have a great day.
It is interesting how a new project usually means that you need to buy a new tool. I've been down that road several times myself. I actually read an article a while ago where they were saying if you are going to use the tool frequently, splurge for the higher end version. If you are only going to use it once a year, then get the cheaper model. Over here at Home Depot they also have a tool rental service which is kind of cool. You can rent anything from a dump truck or plate compactor to a battery drill or table saw. In the long run it is probably more expensive for some things, but it might cut down on the waste too.
We have the same, hire tools, plant and equipment which is a good way to go for some. I prefer my own stuff though and do enough DUY to warrant the cost of most things. I've actually paid tradespeople to do jobs for me when I've determined the cost of it to buy is too high (and future use of the equipment is not there.) I rarely do the cheaper tool though though, however it's been known to happen now and then.
My buddy owns a handyman business, so whenever I get in over my head or I need a tool I don't have I usually just call him up. I think it drives his wife crazy, but he has known me longer than he has known her! :)
I don't think it is too much what you say, I think it is going that way, I even think that there are too many things in relation to the amount of people who may need them and it is true that many people buy for the sake of buying without any need. This case of tools applies to other areas of life and the truth is that there is a lot of everything, wasting resources.
Humans are wasteful, and there's little sign of that slowing down or changing and so there's little chance things will get batter; not in our lifetimes anyway, and probably never.
Not only are they wasteful but the trend is increasing, that is the most dangerous thing.I think it will all die out before it gets any better....
Hardware store when I see this my brain was confused because this is a computer components too.
Well I want one of this, to cut my bamboo but here it is not exist to buy and I do not buy a 7 inch circular saw for make a little work and have uses it during 2 or three times per year this could be a money waste.
Until next time I only dream with have this for making my own cup from bamboo and make a bamboo recipes for cooking in this cane maybe the flavors would be great I guess.
By the way jhon Deere too make their industry think in harvest more efficiently.
Here our best tools are shtill the Germany tools, I have a saw very good.
Well good luck with your little proyect if this could wait a little meaning that the proyect it is not urgent.
There's so many good tool brands, and a lot of bad ones, and I guess the important part of it is the determination what's right and wrong for the job at hand and the individual.
The problem is worse than you thought. Each of those brands will go into the coffers of only about 3 or 4 different companies.
At Bunnings you've got AEG, Ryobi, Ozito, DeWalt and now Makita. In that list there are only three separate companies making those tools. The first three are made by the same company with only Ryobi being the international brand there. I think Makita is their own company but DeWalt is Stanley Black and Decker.
So you're right, we don't need all these different brands because in reality there's only 3 or 4. The rest are simply there to create the illusion that there is competition when there isn't really.
I'm not so sure that volume would be diminished if there was only those 3 or 4 brands, but the price would be so dirt cheap if the volume remained the same but reduced to the amount of companies there actually are. That's not good for the bottom dollar of the corporations. It would be good for us as the consumer.
So their workaround was to create separate brands and putting them into DIY, trades, and top of the line ranges at different price points making them slightly different connectors for the batteries so that you can't interchange with each brand so you lock yourself into one brand or "upgrade" your entire toolshed when you've "outgrown" your existing tool range.
Humans really are greedy fuckers.
That's basically what my whole posts says.
Yep. Just breaking it down into how they get away with fulfilling their greed. Don't even get me started on shareholders... says the guy holding shares. 😅
We're all to blame and all guilty for how the world is today.
Not only there are multiple brands for the same thing, but they make sure that the accessories only fit their own brand. For example, you can't use batteries from one brand on another, just to force the consumer to buy the same brand, or buy things they don't need.
That's right, it means people have to stay with the brand and if they do not want to the cost of swapping over is huge...and then one has to stay with that brand because of the cost of changing...again.
I experience the same way. Too many alternatives, an excessive amount of waste. Quality topics more than more stuff.
I'm not sure where you live but I think it's a common occurrence in many countries.
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The human race is wasteful 😕
I understand the need for competition to advance and revolutionize industries, but I believe it’s too much.
In my country, it’s the opposite; there’s no competition, everything is monopolized, but neither extreme is good. Still, the exploitation of the planet and its resources is outrageous, and recycling is another joke—very much apolitical and with few actions. In other words, we’re doing very badly, but no one can change it.
Badly indeed, and I think people generally know this yet are unwilling to take any affirmative action. People talk about it, agree with it and applaud others who do it and yet there's still not enough action. Makes no sense...but humans are wasteful and greedy so it's really no surprise. Maybe when AI rules the world it'll rid the planet of Humans and everything will be better?
It'll take more than individuals to make things right, it's corporations and countries too. I don't know, probably not much hope of it happening.
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