Cheap Stuff

Last night, Colbert did a hilarious report on the Foxconn plant in China that is currently embroiled in a nasty public relations scandal with so many workers committing suicide, thereby drawing attention to the extremely unpleasant living conditions of the workers there. Colbert pointed out, quite rightly, that there would be no market for such cheap items were Americans not seduced by promises of cheap, cheap and cheaper.

For all of you made in America folks out there, how many of you actually buy American? How many of you bought American in the 90's when we were sending factories south of the border for cheaper wages? It's not corporate America that's at fault here - corporate America does what it does to increase value for the shareholders. What increases value? Sales. American CONSUMERS consumed the cheapest products, rather than the quality products, so American factories moved offshore.

When I lived in Austria, I knew people who would save up for months to buy high quality items because they didn't want to have to replace the blender they bought for at least a decade. When you buy a 100euro blender that you expect to last ten years or more (my mother's old Oster lasted fifteen years, the old Sharp microwave lasted 18 years), you're paying 10euro per year (not getting into the TVM issue here), while others who buy cheap blenders buy 20euro blenders every year or two, plus the frustration of using a lousy product. American consumers chose price over quality, and those folks who shop at Walmart should just be quiet about not having jobs, because we did this to ourselves.

Op-ed on VT Shooter

Alright, it seems like everyone else is weighing in with an opinion on this issue - I also, being the silly vapid follower that I am - will also weigh in. After all, there is nothing more fun than venting one's opinion on a topical subject to the web/world at large for public consumption.

My first reaction - after the initial horror and disbelief started to recede somewhat - was annoyance at CNN. CNN Intl had switched to CNN local coverage of the event. Let me say that there are few things I hate more than American TV news coverage, and the coverage of this event was no exception, for a few reasons.

• The newscasters look like plastic dolls who have had too much cosmetic surgery and are wearing too much TV makeup and have spent too much money on their haircuts.
• The initial coverage was AN HOUR of uninterrupted footage of whatever the newsfolks could get their hands on, meaning cell phone interviews with students, replaying over and over and over again of cell phone images, and lots of pictures of police cruisers.#
• It was on CNN Intl!! Apparently, nothing else in the world was happening at that point.

Which leads me to my second reaction, which set in after there was a short break in the coverage for international - imagine that, on CNN Intl - news. They reported that dozens of people had died in roadside bombs in Iraq and a car had been blown up in Afghanistan. THAT WAS IT. A few sentences. Then they went straight back to the coverage of the crazy gun-toting student.

In the days that followed, CNN showed even more how completely retarded the whole American news media really are. Instead of asking real questions of people, they asked questions about how people felt, and interviewed random people who may or may not have known either the victims or the shooter. My favorite awful piece of video was an interview with the shooter's family's neighbor where they let her speak one sentence then let her break down on camera and that's what they showed on tv. The crying, the sobbing, the EMOTION of it all, people! It's not about objective reflection: it's about how this makes you FEEL.

As far as the actual event itself, and what questions it raises for us as a society regarding gun-control, social maladjustment, university bureaucracy, and universal health-care - these are issues that will be with us for a while, and I think will get worse. In our society, there is such a premium placed on perception and image and not reality that I think more and more people will continue to feel that they are outside of 'mainstream' society. One of the interviews about the shooter focused on his inability to relate to women in a normal manner.

As far as gun control: gun control is not an issue that is going to be resolved anytime soon, as I see it, for a couple of reasons. 1) There are a number of perfectly sane, normal people who use their guns in perfectly sane, normal ways. Thus, one cannot make the argument that guns cause violence, making it harder to make the argument to eradicate them. 2) There are too many guns available in the US that are not held in a legal fashion and thus any gun control law would have the difficulty of drafting legislation to control illegal guns. When there are already laws prohibiting their use, what else are you going to do? 3) Guns only make violence easier, they do not cause the violence.

The coverage of South Korea's reaction to the massacre is something I found interesting. Nearly everyone interviewed expressed shame and remorse because the entire reputation of South Korea had been damaged. Their sense of community pride was so important that even a Korean who had long since moved to the United States could cause an emotional reaction.

Perhaps the problem isn't guns, or universal health care. Perhaps it isn't the failure of gun sellers to follow laws meant to protect ordinary citizens from crazy people. Perhaps the problem lies in a society that values superficiality and selfishness instead of friendship and honesty. A society in which 'news coverage' means focusing on how people FEEL, not on the news. An election system that got us George Bush because he seemed like he would be more fun to hang out with at a barbeque than Al Gore. In many ways, we create these people who go crazy ourselves. Maybe we ought to take a little time and examine our own lives before throwing stones and casting blame upon anyone else we can think to blame.