crazy bad pollution in china
ever wonder why smog's worse there than here?
well,
not so long ago, similar (but maybe not as concentrated) pollution was
here. could it be that by leaving the manufacturing to the chinese,
we're letting them do our dirty work? i really want to see us bring more
"making" and manufacturing back to the united states, but we have to be
able to do it in a manner that is not so destructive.
can our
post-industrial-revolution (or whatever it's going to be called) please
be based on manufacturing in the cleanest possible way? can the
post-industrial-revolution's social mores be based on less consumption
instead of the schlocky bullshit "ingenuity" being hocked by larry the cable guy in this commercial.
there has to be some sort of balance to manufacturing and
population centers. sure, you need critical mass to minimize the waste
for some industries. this will cut down on transportation of raw
materials or, at least, have shared services like railroads, power, and
employees, but does all the crap have to be made in the same place far
away from our homes? would we demand cleaner and smaller manufacturing
if the plant was visible from our backyards? hell yes. would we buy
things that last longer and are easier to repair, if the junkyar...
er... recycling centers were right around the corner? yes, again (hopefully).
i
don't know... it just feels as if we're propping up a
shiny-gadget-driven manufacturing bubble that's going to pop like the
american housing market. more things are being built for us to consume,
but for them to be manufactured at a price that we're willing to pay,
they can only be manufactured by cheap labor or with no environmental
regulations--or worse, both.
can we keep manufacturing small to medium sized? can we keep our consumption that way too? it feels like multiple things need to shift on both the supply and demand side of things.
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