This morning I was went to surgery, and got there early.  So while I waited for anesthesia to do it’s thing, and for the OR to be set up, I decided to wait in the lounge.  When I walked into the lounge, I saw one of the staff installing a new microwave. 

This is a short dialog that occurred:

Me: What happened?

Nurse: Oh nothing, the old microwave stopped working, so we got a new one.

Me: Oh, what was wrong with it?

Nurse: We’re not sure, it just wouldn’t make food hot any more.

Me: Oh?  Did anyone call for a repairman to take a look at it?

Nurse: No... it’s just cheaper to get a new one.

Me: (now baffled) Wait, so how much was this? And where did you get it? (I was planting the seed...)

Nurse: It was only $60 at Wal-Mart!

Me: Wow!  What a deal... a whole microwave oven... for only $60?

Now many of you might be asking, okay, so what’s wrong with this?  The fact that people don’t know immediately what’s wrong with this equation and then further how it effects their world, really bothers me.

The situation is simple and clear.  We now live in a world, where it is cheaper to replace a non-degradable, land-fill hog like a microwave, rather than call a good old fashioned repairman and have him (or her) take a look at it and... (here’s a bright idea) Fix it!

The fact is, that this has been conditioned, and taught to us.  This elusive trap has been placed and perfected over many years of economic, and marketing tactics.

Here’s how.  Think about incredible technology that makes a microwave oven.  I mean, is a microwave that commonplace of an item, that it should only cost $60?  If you understood the technology behind what actually happens... I mean the physics of the situation, and the years of history behind the discovery of the wave and frequency and the control of electromagnetic waves and how to modulate it so that when you blast it at tissue, it causes the tissue to increase temperature and cook... that is amazing! 

The economist is quick to reply with “yeah, but this is a simple function of economies of scale, once a technology becomes easy to replicate, mass production will create a reduction in the cost, which can then be transferred to the consumer in the way of savings.”  True, but the equation here is not as simple of economies of scale.

In this equation an entirely new process is working... I call it economies of Wal-Mart.  What is happening is that mega-retailers (like Wal-Mart and Target) are buying products in  high quantities from manufacturers in China that the cost of the product is reduced artificially to nothing.  Why artificially?  because workers in China get paid 1/100th of what an American worker would be paid if he or she were building Microwaves all day (with benefits etc.)

So now the ability to buy a microwave at $60 has materialized for the average American... which the economist would be quick to reply; “RIGHT... and that means a better quality of life!”  No.  That means, more deterioration of our world as we inherited it.

Think about it... not only have you undercut American companies and helped companies like Wal-Mart push out local American workers, but you have also helped an American company like Wal-Mart slowly push out of existence local businesses that repair these appliances.  But this is not to be mistaken with some “Patriotic Pro-American Lecture”. 

This behavior has two very important functions.  First, it develops a less and less skilled population.  I mean now what are these repair people going to do... they’re going to go get a job at Starbucks or the Gap in the Mall and satiate your appetite to be waited on while you shop.  Second, you are allowing for a perfectly repairable piece of equipment to be thrown into the dump to take more of our land and pollute our world.

Is that how your grand parents would have treated their world like?  Did the generations of past think that skilled people weren’t important... but Baristas and “Hello, welcome to the Gap” were?  What happened to our values for the basic ingredients of community?  Did we sell them off for a big discount on Microwaves at Wal-Mart?  I think as most of the scientists and writers linked in this agree, we need to stop and open our eyes, and re-evaluate what really matters in this world. 

All this and we haven’t even begun to discuss the carbon footprint of the now famous chinese microwave.  Think about how the microwave is made in China?  Do you think that a microwave can only cost $60 because of some magic economic bullet?  No. Government restrictions in China are far less than in the US (due to the Communist regime thus control of lawsuits... we’ll save that for another article), so the way they treat their employees, the way they dispose of waste, and every other process that is regulated in the US to make our cities as pristine as Calabasas, do not exist in China.

Did I forget to mention packaging?  Use trees to transport a product from point A to point B?  Smart.

It’s time we stepped up to the plate and went back to actually BEING American.  Being the ideal of what we stood for once upon a time.  The world looks to us for the trend of who to be and how to be.  As American exports have dwindled in the past century, they have replaced with the most important and influential export of all... culture.  Everyone in the world wants to emulates the “American Way of Life”.  So it would only be ethical for us to lead the way in correcting our mistakes in climate change and showing the world the “New and Improved” American way of life.  I truly believe that every one of you can do this.

I have to go now, I think my refrigerator is making a strange sound... does anyone know a place I can get a new one for cheap?