When an economy contracts, consumers move toward either quality (durability) or cheap. The American consumer, spoiled by years of having more of everything has chosen cheap over quality. (Europeans choose quality) This is a very bad thing in the long run.
Choosing cheap drives manufacturing to cheaper labor sources feeding economic contraction. Choosing cheap drives down quality and service translating to early product failure and possibly unsafe products.
Take this theorem through to the buying of food and we get industrial food unfit to sustain health. Chemicals are substituted for natural sugars and fats. Remember when Breyers “All Natural” ice cream was all natural? It was worth paying a lot more for Breyers than the other brands because Breyers did not use guar gum to extend the product. It used to taste like ice cream.
Meats are of poor quality and flavor and potentially dangerous because of the antibiotics necessary to raise protein producers in cramped quarters. I roasted a chicken recently that came out watery and mushy—cramped living quarters and pumped full of saline most likely. YUCK.
Think about that. All these degradations because consumers choose cheap over less.
This might kill us. Chemicals designed to simulate fat or enhance flavor may prove toxic.
Smart companies will take up this message and start producing quality over cheap. It will take consumer education through marketing to teach the public about the benefits of buying quality.
Cheap really does kill. It makes everything we consume a little more dangerous. From cars to cupcakes, cheap is killing us. Cheap electronics start fires. Poorly made appliances fail causing property damage. Cheap medications do great harm.
We’ll know things are headed in the right direction when Breyers takes the gum out of their natural ice cream. Maybe, if Hostess survives, they’ll go back to making treats (Twinkies are not a dietary staple) with real ingredients like sugar and flour and eggs. Maybe.
Chris Reich
TeachU.com