TV show economics. It's how I learned. Otherwise i wasn't allowed tv.
When I was younger, I used to love a show called Little House on the Prairie in reruns.
In my family tv was like a curse. We had to have a good reason to be allowed to watch it.
My Dad decided that the family nature of that show, and the period in which it was set could be used to teach us some lessons in economics.
In those days, everything had to be produced locally, churn your own butter, pick your own apples, bake your own pies. Or, if you could churn enough butter, sell some, and buy someone else's apple pies who had the time to make them, but you didn't, coz you were churning butter.
You 'mended' your own clothes, chances were your mom made them. You repaired your own transportation (re-shoe'd your old horse), planted your dinner months in advance of reaping it, and took care of your neighbours in need, knowing they would be there for you.
Then along comes 'progress'. Refrigerated trucks and warehouses, cheap international travel costs (we can now, and do, buy cherries picked an ocean away) and we can buy a $7 tshirt made by the tens of thousands.... and by kids in a sweat factory being paid 50cents an hour. PROGRESS?
In order to offshore all these jobs that kept the people busy and engaged, valued, and needed on Little House on the Prairie...... we now go to Walmart and Dollar stores to buy crap made oceans away....which could be made here.... and meanwhile our friends kid can't find a job that pays near well, because of choices we make every day.
Economics can mean you make your apple pie, and I will churn your butter or stitch your shirt.
It can also line the pockets of Walmart shareholder who don't give a F whether your friends kid finds a job or not!
Support local.
Wherever and whenever you can!
Sometimes it is worth paying a little more, if it means your neighbour gets a little piece of that price.
As for globalization, it's a lie.
The shareholders won!
And they now have Trump to deliver their message.
In my family tv was like a curse. We had to have a good reason to be allowed to watch it.
My Dad decided that the family nature of that show, and the period in which it was set could be used to teach us some lessons in economics.
In those days, everything had to be produced locally, churn your own butter, pick your own apples, bake your own pies. Or, if you could churn enough butter, sell some, and buy someone else's apple pies who had the time to make them, but you didn't, coz you were churning butter.
You 'mended' your own clothes, chances were your mom made them. You repaired your own transportation (re-shoe'd your old horse), planted your dinner months in advance of reaping it, and took care of your neighbours in need, knowing they would be there for you.
Then along comes 'progress'. Refrigerated trucks and warehouses, cheap international travel costs (we can now, and do, buy cherries picked an ocean away) and we can buy a $7 tshirt made by the tens of thousands.... and by kids in a sweat factory being paid 50cents an hour. PROGRESS?
In order to offshore all these jobs that kept the people busy and engaged, valued, and needed on Little House on the Prairie...... we now go to Walmart and Dollar stores to buy crap made oceans away....which could be made here.... and meanwhile our friends kid can't find a job that pays near well, because of choices we make every day.
Economics can mean you make your apple pie, and I will churn your butter or stitch your shirt.
It can also line the pockets of Walmart shareholder who don't give a F whether your friends kid finds a job or not!
Support local.
Wherever and whenever you can!
Sometimes it is worth paying a little more, if it means your neighbour gets a little piece of that price.
As for globalization, it's a lie.
The shareholders won!
And they now have Trump to deliver their message.
26-30, F
