There’s a sucker born every minute. –P.T. Barnum [?]
The dilemma of Capitalism. Capitalism began by seeking ways to meet our needs. However, more than 60 years ago now, in our Country, most of our reasonable needs have been met. Now this upset the Capitalists.
The Capitalists asked with great astonishment: What? Does this mean that you are going to stop buying stuff? That’s not good news for Capitalism. What are we going to make now? How are we going to make a profit?
Then a few of the Capitalists got together and asked themselves some questions: What if we figure out some new needs – needs that they did not know they had? What if we manufactured some ‘needs’? What if we created needs that don’t exist and marketed them and convinced folks that they needed what we will now make?
The Capitalists switched from advertising to marketing. Why this switch? Consider that Marketing is designed to get people to ‘want/need’ a thing even though they don’t really ‘want/need’ it and even though they don’t really know what it is. The examples are legion. But, this morning, Gentle Reader, let us briefly explore just one: Water!
Bottled water is everywhere in our Country. Many restaurants offer you an option, Tap Water or Bottled Water (some even offer boutique water (think: Perrier or Pellegrino – which are different from ‘Tap Water’). Most bottled water comes out of a tap. Yup! True! For Real! I am talking about the bottled water that is sold everywhere in our Country.
Is tap water not safe to drink? Our Country has a fine aquifer and aqueduct system – a system that uses little energy to transport the water. The infrastructure that provides us and carries our fresh water has long been paid for – we have, then, the equivalent of ‘free water.’
How much money did we spend on bottled water in 2009 in our Country (the latest statistics that I could find)? Twenty-five BILLION dollars! U.U. (Utterly Unnecessary)
Now we also know that it’s the plastic that causes the carbon imprint of these bottles. Capitalists created a faux need (that’s ‘fake’ for those who don’t speak French – well, actually, I don’t speak French but I love the word ‘faux’ and wanted to use it).
Now, Gentle Reader, consider this: New York – yes, that New York – has some of the best water in our Country – yet restaurants there do a booming business selling bottled water.
We don’t need it. We buy bottled water because we have accepted the marketer’s ploy. We also created all sorts of rationales for buying bottled water at restaurants or from our stores. We, suckers, have convinced ourselves that we need bottled water.
Consider this: Coca Cola and Pepsi learned that thirsty folks did not drink their soft drinks in order to quench their thirst – they knew that their soft drinks created a thirst they did not quench a thirst (one way they hooked us on soft drinks). Sales, during the summer months, actually decreased. They decided to bottle and sell us water. In 2009 they made more money selling us bottled water than they did selling us soft drinks.
Now I am going to up the ante. In 2009 while we were spending 25 Billion on bottled water, about 3 billion people around the world did not have access to clean, potable water; indeed about 2 billion did not have access to water they could wash their clothes in without contaminating them. Luckily, there were young Capitalists who want to address this identified need.
A small firm in Denmark asked: Why don’t we figure out how to get clean water to these folks? They figured it out. They invented the LifeStraw – google it and you will learn. By the by, the straw costs about US$2.00. It will produce enough clean water for one person for THREE YEARS. Talk about cost-effective. As ‘true’ Capitalists, they identified a ‘real human need’ – one we all have – and addressed it. [By the by, for every LifeStraw product you purchase on Amazon or from LifeStraw, a school child in need will receive safe water for an entire school year. AND, you will save two-plus years of plastic bottles.]
I finally weaned myself from bottled water this past February. One tiny-tiny step for mankind. Do I know you well-enough to call you ‘Sucker’? How about ‘My Fellow-Sucker’? The Capitalists and Marketers have certainly learned from Barnum and Fields. How about us, ‘Suckers,’ what have we learned?
Never give a sucker an even break. –W.C. Fields
Searcher-Seeker 