That wacky capitalist system

[threemonkeys]

I went to the local hardware mega store today looking to buy a simple garden hose fitting. After trekking a couple of miles through the aisles I found the garden hose fittings section. Not wanting to pay extra for packaging or brand name recognition I looked in the "loose" bins and found a couple of different examples of the fittings I wanted. One was about 50% more expensive than the other. At this point I was happy that I could buy the budget example from the budget source. Until that is my eyes strayed across the blister packed fittings. There was the same fitting that I was planning to buy except that is was all packaged up. It cost 50 cents less than the loose one without any packaging. I was undecided - pay more for the loose fitting but save myself the inconvenience of all that litter to throw away or go for the cheaper option. But I was saved from that because my eyes then chanced across another blister pack. This one had four different fittings in it including the one I was after. It cost a dollar less than the individual item in a pack!

This planet is doomed I tell you. Doomed.

Comments

[darthsappho.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, we're totally screwed. Probably well before we have viable offworld colonies, too.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

In my more fatalistic moments I take a little comfort from the fact that I will probably die before the planet does and so won't be there to see it.

[darthsappho.livejournal.com]

Are you optimistic about the life expectancy of the planet, or pessimistic about your own? 8)

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

[deadpan mode] (i.e. ignoring the smiley.)
Yes.
Both.

I actually think that unless there are huge changes that humanity will have at least another hundred years on the planet. Which isn't to say that some seriously nasty shit isn't going to go down before then because it will.

In my really really optimistic I note that relly big changes have taken place in the past to avert disaster. According to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring were were all going to be long dead by now from pesticide poisoning.