The relativity of values causes us to use money irrationally. I go to the supermarket to buy a $15 pen, and the clerk smiles and says, “You can buy this pen for $7 if you walk 5 minutes from here.” Then, most people walk five minutes and buy a $15 pen for $7. But if you want to buy a $1,000 jacket and the clerk smiles and says, “You can get a $992 jacket in five minutes from here,” most people simply buy the $1,000 jacket. Reasonably, walking for 5 minutes equals the effort, and the profit of $8 is the same. However, people might go to a store that sells pens cheaper, but not for the jacket, because the discount rate is too low. In other words, the relativity of comparing values makes us act irrationally. The pen’s discount rate is 55%, and the jacket’s is only 0.8%. Yet, the total amount is the same for all $8, and the effort to gain that profit is identical. Attitudes and misconceptions about consumption influence how we build wealth. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
Eco bags are not eco-friendly. In 2007, the eco-bags, which British designer Anya Hindmarch printed, “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” on canvas, sold out 20,000 copies in 30 minutes at a limited edition price of 5 pounds. The project reduced the use of plastic bags by 58% over the next two years in Britain. However, a survey by the British Environment Agency found that consumers used paper bags at least 3 times more to have less environmental impact than plastic bags and used eco bags 131 times more to help protect the environment. In 2018, Denmark also announced a study that indicated people used plastic bags at least 37 times, paper bags 43 times, and eco bags 7,100 times before being discarded to recover from pollution. Yes, the facts that people believe have cheated us all. Materials and consumption are necessary, but people belatedly realized that environmental protection should also consider product use cycles and production. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”