LOGAN & Consumerism @logankan-blog - Tumblr Blog

We consume more than him.

Picture Post #6

This relates to almost everyone on this planet. We buy things that we don’t need or can’t/have no use for them. We buy them just for the sake of buying. We see something that catches our attention and if it is a good price or on sale, we are tempted to buy it even though you have no use for it.

logankan-blog

Shows how we buy things even if we don't need them. Consumerism isn’t originally bad, it’s when it goes too far and becomes a way of life or an obsession. Buying things isn’t bad, it’s when you buy things that you don’t need and don’t particularly want. If you go into a store looking to buy a certain thing and no matter what that is then that’s okay. The problem is when you go for one thing but you come out with 10, of which 5 you have essentially no use for and are just extras. If you can be a conservative and knowledgeable consumer then I believe that our economy will shift into being better Homo Sapiens in general, snails too.

#reblog #freechoice

captainnickobama

omgggggg CONSUMERISM MUSICAL

enjoy amazingness at its finest :D

seanharryblr

A great musical way to represent consumerism

logankan-blog

Consumerism and a song. Shows how odd/bad consumerism can be.

#reblog #video #freechoice

If that's what rats do we are frighteningly similar.

#consumersim

leahmat77-blog

I think that this is so true the Consumers are the worlds worst enemy

Image from:

http://worldcentric.org/conscious-living/increasing-consumption

maip1499

Who would have thought, that after everything that the world and the human race has gone through, we are still unable to stand up to ourselves?

kalindeevan-blog

It’s quite the horrific sight if you ask me. Just search up “Black Friday” !!

logankan-blog

The picture says it all. All those things maybe bad but wants going to change our world right now, and not necessarily for the better. We need to change what we look like as our worst enemy.

#reblog #consumerism

Tensions between the Redford government and Albertas biggest union ignited into open warfare Wednesday as the province pushed ahead new legislation to compel a pay settlement and impose heavy...

Labour unions

People come together a form a union to create change and achieve goals that the majority wants. Whether this be for safety, money, a legislation or certain rules. When the union(s) are protesting and working for change then they are changing the quality of life for themselves and for everyone else who is involved.

Since they are choosing to stand up, it shows that they value equality, and want to keep people still living appropriately and without direct and large changes due to certain things. In most cases it's good to follow your beliefs, your values. However it's looking for change not looking for power so the way each side deals with the situation is crucial.

In this union it's about the new legislation the Alberta government is trying to pass, bill 45 and 46. Bill 45, in the Public Sector Services Continuation Act, is to increase the penalty of people in an illegal strike or threatening with it. Bill 46, in the Public Service Salary Restraint Act, is for AUPE (Alberta Union of Provincial Employees) specifically. It means that AUPE and the Federal government will have to come to an agreement by January 31, or else they will have consequences. All each side wants is a new collective agreement that suits each of them and their values and goals.

Each group is showing what they want to happen and are in need of reaching an agreement or compromise. Check out the links to learn more about it.

#specificpost #union #identity

Unifor is calling for passenger investments to create manufacturing, technology and engineering jobs.

Unions are called Labour unions in Canada, Labor unions in the US, and Trade unions in the UK.

This is an example of a labour union, in Canada. Check out the link to learn more about it. In summary it's about how a group believes that increasing railways would be beneficial to everyone such as jobs. They also believe it could compete with car and air travel to certain extents.

A group that tries to care for railroad workers across North America. They call themselves Railroad Workers United. They look at some specific issues and make direct campaigns about those issues, such as safety or having a certain amount crewmen on the train.

These each are unions that go with trains and railways, though they each have different beliefs and goals.

#union #freechoice

Collaborative Consumption

The main idea for this was to see what our other ways than the normal going to the store, for people to get and exchange goods and services.

In class we did a swapcity. Which sounds exactly like the name, each person brings their own good or service and then swaps or trades it with someone else. Unfortunately I have no idea how this one went, as I wasn't there.

There have been other previous swapcity occasions where people come together and exchange goods and services. This is a link to one in Toronto, Swapsity: Posts : Swap Meets : Collaborative Consumption in Toronto Creates $100,000 in Swapper Savings,

http://www.swapsity.ca/posts/view/collaborative_consumption_in_toronto_creates_100000_

in_swapper_savings

Swapping things is a good idea and you'll probably come across many things that you'll like. Since it's swapping not paying, you can only get things with what you have, you can't buy it. For this reason I believe that in terms of responsible consumerism a swapcity or trading is the best option. It may not have exactly what you want but you can still come out with something good, and you won't be losing money.

It's because of collaboration that things like this are possible for the individual consumer. Consumers create a group with a similar collective identity and then organize something like a swapcity. Since there are many different individuals bringing their own items and in turn showing their identity the selection can be quite vast. Yet there are still consumers with a similar identity so you will be sure to find something you like. To find it though you will have to be more active, rather than walking into a store and heading directly to an aisle. You can do this as an individual which I understand, or you can collaborate with people. People who have a similar identity and become a collective group of people, working together to find things you like. Collaborating would most likely be quicker and easier yet still having its own issues.

Being an individual, or being a collective group or collaborating also works in the economy. You can have an individual company and they can be very successful and meet all their supply and demand needs and make a profit, and that's great. That would be similar to a market economy, then you could look at a planned economy. Where there's already a group and you have to work with with them, the government. Lastly in the middle is a mixed economy which is filled with individual companies and the government. This way individuals still have some power and can look to directly make a profit, and the government can still look after the country and citizens. All governments with social programs look after citizens so a market economy still cares for it's citizens.

Consumerism will always be present in our lives, it's just how much it affects you and how you deal with it.

#specificpost #economy #identity

kalindeevan-blog

Wow. Seeing it like this, it’s really interesting to see how even the cheapest of things add up to a lot of money!

logankan-blog

This ends up to be a lot of money. I think the most interesting and surprising parts are the prices and percentages, specifically for the smaller and cheaper things, like education, reading, tobacco and alcoholic beverages. Entertainments interesting.

I wonder where and how they got this data. Was it easy, how reliable do you think this would be. In Canada if you go buy 4 new hardcover books at chapters you're at that reading amount already.

#freepost #reblog #identity #price

Debate about Canada Vs. US and the quality of life for each, no real winner. Although US side was clearly superior, in debate wining skills. Unfortunately since we were short on time we didn't get to say all of our points. Here are some of the points that we didn't get to say. More airports than Canada Better and cheaper Internet access than Canada Bigger economy More doctors and hospitals (if you can afford them) Lower taxes Better (warmer) climate for more tourism and year round agriculture - Dollar is higher so price of living is cheaper - Canadian economy imports more dependent on one source, U.S economy more import sources so broader, imports from other countries, less reliant on one. - Income is roughly the same, yet living is cheaper in the U.S so cheaper These are some arguments and ideas that we didn’t get to completely use in our debate. Personally I think that the most powerful are, lower taxes, better and cheaper Internet access, price of living cheaper and the less dependency on one import resource. Before we did this debate and the project I didn’t know much about the economy of either country. I was proud and happy that I lived in Canada yet I didn’t know much in general about each country. While we were working on this debate, I’ve learned a lot about Canada and about the US. I learned what kinds of economic systems each had, and the collective identity and countries beliefs and goals were. Specifically while I was researching notes for the debate I learned that Canada shows more citizen support. They show this through where the taxes are spent, such as social programs and senior citizens pensions, because of this extra support and caring Canadians have to pay higher taxes. In the US they pay lower taxes yet don’t give out pensions for senior citizens through taxes, they still have social programs though. It’s your identity that determines which government and economic system is better for you. Once we’d finished the debate I was a little more indecisive about where I wanted to live. In Canada you’re sort of forced to help people which I believe is good but should you really be forced. Whereas in the US they don’t help people as much, and is more focused on the individual. Those are the things that popped out most to me. Now, we were supposed to be debating about which country/economic system/government best solves the question of scarcity. My debate group ended up talking more about which has a better quality of life for all citizens. A higher quality of life most likely means that scarcity is not a much of a factor. Therefore in terms of having a better quality of life I would say the US, which then means it answers problem of scarcity the best, and I think that it does. I think evidence of the import numbers apply here, Canada gets most of its imports from the US, but the US gets imports from varying places. However in terms of quality of life for all citizens then I believe its Canada, as they give more government support to the citizens, taxes. Even with Canada having a better quality of life for all citizens I still think the US answers scarcity better. Your Identity determines where you would like to live. Which do you think would be better for you, or better for solving scarcity?

#SoundCloud #debate #specificpost #qualityoflife #scarcity

Bus Boycott

Rosa parks was an African American person in the U.S who unintentionally started a boycott for African American civil rights, in this case it was riding a bus and where they have to sit. After she did this she was arrested and fined since at the time it was against the law. Her actions caused African Americans all over the city of Montgomery. They started to boycott riding the buses, instead they carpooled or used non-gas means of transportation such as walking. At one point taxis were even charging the same amount as the bus which was 10 cents, instead of 45 cents. However once the city officials learned of this on December 8, 1955, they ruled to fine any drivers not paying the standard rate, the boycott started on , December 5, 1955.

As a result of some of the boycotting actions, people of the White Citizens Council sometimes resorted to violence in retaliation, they bombed some people's houses such as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's, some black churches and E.D Nixon's house.

E.D Nixon was an important part to this boycott, he fought for the equality and was key in getting some leaders to lead for their cause. Other than the bus boycott he also actively fought to get more equality for black people, the bus boycott is just what he’s most known for. http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/e-d-nixon/

People were arrested and charged, one key time was when they arrested Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was given the choice to pay a fine or go to jail, he chose jail and because of this the boy cotters became even more motivated. Finally a year later an agreement was reached where integration among people was allowed, and blacks were allowed to sit where they wanted and keep their seats. The boycott ended on December 20 1956.

That was the end of the boycott and it got black people one step closer to having more equality, even though it was just riding the bus. People came together in trying to create change, and they were successful. In this case the people who stood up for equality were people who followed their beliefs and values. Our Identity is what shows who you are, in this case their color was apart of their identity, and most of the boy cotters were black. However your identity is much larger, and some white people and other people stood up against the inequality too.

Some inspirational words the leaders of the boycott used are,

”But I want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love. Love is one of the pivotal points of the Christian faith. There is another side called justice. And justice is really love in calculation. Justice is love correcting that which revolts against love.”

Which is Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s belief that to solve things through nonviolence is the best way.

Another leader was Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy. He was instrumental in organizing the first mass meeting and helped with giving the boycott motivation to move forward.

"There will be no quiet or peace in this land until justice and equality cover the United States of America as the water covers the seas."

– Ralph D. Abernathy

This is a boycott that I learned about from my GINS novel and it was started by just one person, Rosa Parker not wanting to move seats for no real reason. A simple action that represented a lot. I decided to include it because it showed how strong the power of the individual is and the collective identity of people.

http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/

http://www.biography.com/people/ralph-d-abernathy-9174397

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Abernathy#Bus_Boycott

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~chem0110/rosa_parks_bus.gif

#freechoice #boycott #qualityoflife #values

GINS/Consumerism

Mash up with consumerism

and

Together !

GINS is a novel that each person in my grade choose, and we each have different ones. The topic is global issues. These are non-fiction stories.

Consumerism and GINS

GINS Mash up with consumerism

The book I read for my Global Issues Novel Study is called The Freedom Writers Diary. It’s a collection of diary entries from students in a teachers class. This teacher is Ms. Gruwell, they call themselves the freedom writers eventually. All of the freedom writers contributed to this book, so there are different aspects, point of views, circumstances and opinions.

My novel takes place in Woodrow Wilson High School, Long Beach, California. Based off its location, I was surprised at some of the things that happened in the novel. People were being killed and the way it sounded it was normal, “Not another one.” (Diary entry 6, pg 14). It was just the way their society had evolved into, in that place. Each place is different yet there is always similarities. In the novel, the students teacher Ms. Gruwell uses outside resources to really connect with her troubled kids. Examples are how she used real people who had gone through troubling times to come and talk to her students, who were also in troubling times. This resource was not normal for most people to access or use, real people to just come in and talk to them. Ms Gruwell also used resources like books, two of the most powerful she used in her class were, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Zlata’s Diary: A Childs Life in Sarajevo.

Within the school there is also evidence of a black market, “All you need is $25,” “I met my friends in the bathroom and I bought a .22 caliber with a clip” (Diary entry 5, pg 13) Consumerism and the economy reaches everyone some are for reasons that don’t seem as proper or common yet others can be very important, yet still reliant on money and the economy. An important way is, “I had no idea where Zlata lived, if she spoke English, or how much it would cost to bring her here.” However with determination the kids started to raise money, even if it may seem hopeless, “The next day, a student brought in an empty Sparklet’s water jug and set it in the middle of the classroom.” (Ms. Gruwell entry 4, pg 82) This is shows how money and in turn consumerism is involved in nearly everything we do, however in this case it’s for good, these kids want to meet this person and here her story.

Back to the guy who bought a gun, he isn’t paying taxes for that and probably not supporting himself and others for a better life. There are also other people in similar situations where instead of buying a gun they join a gang, and do most likely unethical activities. Although I believe that those are the last things on their minds, based off of how many needs most of the people are missing. They are missing large sections of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Needs like safety needs, or love and belongingness needs, also known as social needs. Needs which aren’t a problem in most parts of their country, and ours. Unfortunately they’re still there are people who are missing things that are just slightly above essentials. There are people in the same school just smarter classes who have everything and little worries, and still no one cares about these kids, only one teacher acted. These issues aren’t just in school they’re all around them, so much that only when there in Ms. Gruwell’s class are they safe and somewhat happy.

Then there’s us, where going to school is not something we want to usually do. Compared to the people involved in this book our lives are extremely different in more than one way. One way that’s bad different is opinions on school, then the dangers to our lives, for us at this age it appears to be almost non-existent. However for some people in this school, it was dangerous to just walk to and from school. For one student when he walks home he gets chased, “On the way home, I get chased mostly by older fools with bats and knives,” and “At first I didn’t know the reason why they always hunt me down, but then I figured it out, it was simply because I was of a different race.” (Diary entry 5, pg 12) Apart from those obvious differences there’s more better differences and presumption differences, such as there are people in the school who don’t care about these students, who die it seems like every month, the teachers don’t try to change anything for these students and the students just add to the problem.

Their lives are quite different from most of our lives, yet there are still similarities, consumerism and the role the economy and money plays are some of them.

#specificpost #GINS #needs #values #qualityoflife

My pursuit of Happyness

In class we watched a movie called The Pursuit of Happyness.

Below there may be some spoilers for the movie.

In this movie it’s based on a true story, of a man named Chris Gardner. He has a tough life throughout most of the movie and what I believe through the beginning of his own adult life too. I believe this is evident as he says he didn’t meet his father till he was 28. Along with that at the beginning of the movie he and his family appeared to be going broke. Which they did, only at that time his family had become smaller, his wife had left him and was moving to new york. Then it was just him and his son. To me ignoring the income, the fact that your wife left you, with your only son all alone would hurt, a lot. I feel that if he wasn't looking after Christopher (son) his last true meaningful privilege and responsibility that things might have ended up different for Chris.

At first I thought this story was going to be simple of sorts, as I didn’t know that much about it. Right away I was hooked on it though, throughout the whole movie I was amazed at how much courage and strength the main character had to show, who was played by Will Smith. Throughout the whole movie his son is with him, and he has to provide for his son with basically nothing, yet still show strength in front of his son. Which since it was a true story I realize must have been really hard to do. However I also believe that since his son was there it helped him to keep going, since he didn’t want to fail his son, so that gave him the courage and strength to keep going. He wanted his son to be happy in the end, and then in turn him. I feel that this feeling if in proper ways can be extremely powerful and is a part of the theme. Think about it, if you have friends, siblings or family, and they specifically ask you to do something, or don’t ask, then you want to get it done, in most cases.

After that it leads into something happening, a reaction, usually either happy or sad. In the movie I believe this is noticeable in two main places, the basketball scene and the time machine scene. In the time machine scene, it’s after Chris (Main Character, Dad) and his son were unable to make into the homeless shelter for the night. Unfortunately because of this they were sleeping in the train station, at one point his son starts to lose hope. To give his son hope, he creates an alternate reality and makes up a story, temporarily giving him some happiness.

Finally Chris makes it through the internship, and gets the job. When he learns he gets it he starts to hold back tears, then out on the streets he shows just how happy he is. At that moment I think is where he finds true happiness, it may not last for long but he has it. I believe that he’s finally truly happy because to me you can’t be truly happy if you're alone. Which he wasn’t he had his son, he and his son were going to make it. His son was going to grow up well, I believe that he was relieved and joyful. Combine that with his own emotions and Christopher, plus the extenuating circumstances he had been in, he finally found happiness, even if just for a moment.

This movie has some very powerful meanings in it. It has a very strong theme, which I will lead up too. There were some key parts and words that I feel affected peoples interpretation of the theme quite strongly. One of these was the juxtaposition found throughout most of the movie. A few examples are when there were all the homeless people, just standing in line for a bed, then the rich people came roaring buy laughing it up in their car. Another one is at the very beging it introduces Chris and says he didn’t meet his father till he was twenty-eight then it shows him walking with his five year old son. Showing just how much different he wants to make his sons life from his, examples of the amount he cares for his son are shown throughout the movie. Some lines and scenes also helped the theme along greatly I felt, one of these was the previously mentioned train terminal scene. To go along with that was the basketball scene where, Chris is talking to his son about his dreams,

Chris: “Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you... You can't do something. Not even me. All right?”

Son(Christopher): “All right.”

Chris: “You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.”

That along with a quote I found by Aristotle, “Happiness depends on ourselves.”

To me each of those show that people can help you find happiness yet it’s up to you to, follow it, and to reach for it. That is similar to the dreams, Chris and his son were talking about, you can dream and it’s good to, yet you have to follow it, and if you can follow it all the way then you may just find happiness. Based off of these I believe that the theme is, it may take a lot to find happiness, yet if you truly find it even for just a moment it will be all worth it, it all depends on you.

Sources

http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/

Pursuit of Happyness movie

The Pursuit of Happyness picture

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ru6tNdA93HI/T_Hzz4BiFDI/AAAAAAAAA08/_jVLlg-dKtE/s1600/ab4379.jpg

http://sustainabilityatspu.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/still-of-will-smith-and-jaden-smith-in-the-pursuit-of-happyness-large-picture.jpg

Genius,

This helps out with one of my posts quite a bit. If you follow this then you will come closer to being happy. The Maslow's hierarchy is something that is very true, it's all things that we need yet in proper proportions. If you look very closely you'll notice that over consumption, or stuff isn't on that hierarchy of needs, essentials are and there is a need to be a consumer but that's okay. Being a knowledgeable consumer is good, over consuming and being a market society isn't.

The John Lennon one is interesting and I believe quite true, the context is amusing too.

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

http://therecoveringpolitician.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Maslows-Hierarchy-of-Needs.jpg

John Lennon Quote

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31600000/John-Lennon-Quote-Key-to-Happiness-true-writers-31694553-500-429.jpg

#freepost #quote #hierachy

Weekly Grocery Challenge

Sorry for the low picture quality I didn't use my good camera (laptop) until the last picture with my family.

This is roughly the average amount of groceries we get within a week. The bottles at the back are 4L jugs of milk. The tupperware container in the middle is deli meat, and the big bucket containers on the outsides are cereal containers, with cornflakes, rice krispies and cherrios. Then finally at the very front is a white bucket. That's my brothers diabetes bucket, he has type 1 diabetes. I put it in there to show that what we eat largely involves him. Along with they're are some rocket sugar treatments in the bucket. The other stuff I believe is somewhat readable or identifiable so if you have any questions just ask, and leave a comment.

There are 7 people in my family who all eat at our table. Lots of things here are supplements for a meal, to have a well rounded meal, yet some things are because we wanted to get that. We don’t really need it but we want it and in our society sometimes things shift from want into need. Whether you really do or not. We buy things to have good meals every day, which means the things we buy end up being chosen between quality, price and need. Within our society lots of things end up being chosen by price, which isn’t necessarily bad, as having money isn’t a bad thing. However sometimes money can unfortunately influence our consumer decisions a little to much, which creates changes in our identity and our values. If it isn’t influencing decisions at all then that is a different circumstance. As it would probably mean you're either extremely rich, or you have no money. We need to be constantly looking for balance, between money, our values, our needs and our individual consumer choices and beliefs.

Based off the amount we have I feel that it really shows that we have a good quality of life. While I feel that for where we live and the amount of people in our family is appropriate to where we live, in Canada. However compared to other places, which have a lower quality of life, plus if a different poorer nation had a similar amount to what we have, they would consider themselves extremely lucky and probably eat it for longer than a week. They wouldn’t consume as much as us and would probably value what they have more. Since for us if we need more, or don’t have something, we just run down to the store that’s 5 minutes away, other people don’t have that, and that mentality that if we don’t have it then we ‘need’ to get it is apart of our consumer identity. Other nations don’t have that consumer identity mentality where if they don’t have something they go without or they work hard to get it. However that doesn’t mean we don’t work hard we just do it differently, as we have to work to get money.

Think about it, do you buy things based on need/wants, quality, price/money, values, your consumer identity or another reason. Which do you think would be the better reason to follow.

#qualityoflife #values #specificpost

Nike Boycott: The Power of the Collective

My Shoe !! yay

Nike is one of my favourite brands for shoes and for sports clothes. Personally I buy my shoes and soccer shoes usually at Nike, and I like what I get. However when I started this project and learned that Nike had been boycotted previously in the 1990s.

That boycott had been because Nike had been accused of malpractice within their sub-contractor factories. Along with being accused of abuse exploitation of their Asian factories workers, their sweatshops. Initially Nike had denied this and didn’t quite try to fix the actual issue, but believed at first that they needed to fix their global consumer image. They didn’t react to their sweatshop issue and boycott as quickly as they could have. With that the already growing problem made the people apart of the boycott more frustrated and gave them more reasons to boycott Nike with. Eventually Nike started to work on fixing this issue, and appear to be rather successful and much more ethical than they once more.

Nowadays they show much more responsibility, and they are more open to people viewing their site, in showing information. Recently Greenpeace did a Detox Challenge, aiming to stop brand suppliers from dumping toxins into waterways all over the world. One of these places was the Yangtze River in china, which supplies water to roughly 67 million people. Shortly after that Nike announced a plan that they would aim to become toxin free by 2020.

Since people cared about what they were buying they created a boycott, which aimed to improve Nike practices and in the 90s their sweatshops. With all of these people choosing to stand out and show what their beliefs and values were. They were able to help people all around the world. As no more sweatshops are evidence of, Nike is also now trying to increase its global image, because once again a group of people came together to create change. This change with the suppliers and the waterway toxins will help people globally, keeping them safer and healthier.

Even though Nike used to have some problems, depending on what you want I still believe that Nike makes a rather good sports shoe. Along with that I also believe that it is still an appropriate store currently, as the things that needed change have been dealt with already. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement though.

This is a good website for the 90s boycott http://www.angelfire.com/hi3/ideology/nike.html

Other Sources

http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/

http://phys.org/news/2011-07-nike-adidas-suppliers-polluting-china.html

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2012/jul/06/activism-nike

Picture sources

Logo

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/P4_

NyNIXYrw/Tju9uu4hLXI/AAAAAAAAAlU/

wNwq5ACm0cQ/s320/nike_swoosh_Wallpaper_

desktop_background_logo_quality_black3.jpg

Shoe

http://sc.soccerpro.com/common/images/555646

_708_nike_mercurial_victory_iv_youth1_01.jpg

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