the story of stuff

Somebody sent me a link to a video called the story of stuff. It's about the life cycle of 'stuff' that we buy and consume. The premise of the video is that the classical text book diagram of how society takes raw materials and turns them into goods and then ultimately dumps it in the trash is not telling the whole story. The idea is that the classical diagram doesn't take into account the fact that the earth and its resources are finite and that it is a closed loop system. They reference the idea that the total cost of manufacture of an item is not represented by the purchase price due to externalized costs. This is the first time I've ever come across this idea from someone else although I've thought about it many times myself. I've never been able to put it into words as well as the video does.

The idea that the total costs are not being counted makes a lot of sense to me. This is the very reason why when the dvd player, radio, tv, microwave, etc. breaks, ( or we just get tired of it) we pitch it instead of trying to fix it. I am well aware that the labor costs are what cause people to trash stuff instead of fixing it. Why spend $100 on parts and labor to fix the old one when the new one is $110. But the point is that the new one should really cost much more than $110 if the total costs were fully counted. If the new one were $500, or even $200 people would consider repairing the old instead of just buying new.

I'm putting up a picture of my cell phone. I've taken a lot of heat for owning such an old, beat up, BIG phone. The original kung fu grip has worn off and it has a green screen. I want to say that it's at least 4 years old, maybe 5 which is like 2.5 lifetimes in cell phone years. I just can't seem to get rid of it though cause IT STILL WORKS. Only recently have the keys started sticking which is a pain when checking the voicemail, but other than that, it's great. Oh, I replaced the battery too.

Check out the video and see what you think.