After Casey got a new job in Phoenix, I remember he bought a really well-built, but expensive pair of shoes. When I asked why, his reasoning was that he could either purchase lower-quality shoes at a lower price but theyd wear out in six months, or, he could spend a decent amount of money for high-quality shoes that would last for a decade or more. I didnt really understand the reasoning; Ive always been the guy to wear my shoes until they literally fell apart. I totally get it now though, and its kind of scary when you consider that poor people sometimes have no other option than to choose the option that is inevitably more expensive in the long run (buying $80 shoes every year for ten years versus $500 for one pair that lasts ten years). This barrier to entry for people on a lower economic earnings scale is even worse when you start to realize that this concept applies to our food supply as well. We all know eating healthier and choosing foods with less preservatives is better for our bodies in the long run, but when you start looking at the prices of organic foods in comparison to the mass produced, mass preserved food-like substances that fill grocery shelves now, its no wonder that so many people continue to buy the unhealthy, yet cheap variants. Money talks; these people dont have the money upfront to be able to afford real food. The point of the concept is that while you save money on the initial purchase, you end up spending more because of lower-quality goods. When you really consider the cost of what poor people have to do to themselves buy purchasing cheap alternatives, you cant just factor the cost of having a reduced lifespan; you have to factor in all the medical costs associated with improper nutrition as well. This is *terrifying* when you break it down, because by not removing the barriers to allowing healthy foods to be more affordable, youre basically dooming the entire lower class portion of the United States into an economic and medical situation that there is no way that they can recover from, because the barrier to entry for the middle/upper classes is too high for families already stricken with poverty and medical bills resulting from crappy diets based on the only foods that they can afford. Christopher Sittler, Andy McFeckuff: Mind reading this through? I think Im on the right track for forming the concept, but I cant seem to find the words to really describe what Im thinking.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 10:41:35 +0000
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