Inflation has reached an alarming level 40-year high, propelled by the pandemic’s labor supply chainMillions of dollars in disruptions stimulus money corporate profiteering. In response, politiciansThe Federal ReserveThese are scramblingto stop the rapid rise in consumer prices. Many obsess about it. assigning blame, few, if any, are asking the more trenchant question: “Why was everything so damn cheap in the first place?”
Why has clothing and meat, as well as smartphones and televisions, remained so affordable for so long? How is it possible for corporations to make such huge profits from ever-cheaper goods? How was it possible for consumers to eat goods from a seemingly endless pit of abundance when wealth has systematically accumulated into fewer and smaller hands since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980?
Devotees of Milton Friedman will argue that the pit of plenty is an organic outgrowth of an increasingly unfettered and, therefore, increasingly “free” market. The truth is more complicated. Although the neoliberal project since 1980 has ostensibly been about “free trade” “free markets,” the U.S. taxpayer has, however unwittingly, directly and indirectly subsidized this consumption-driven system of resource extraction and labor exploitation through a vast infrastructure of defense spending, and through generous handouts to the energy and agricultural industries.
At the same time, presidents and policy makers chummed the world’s waters for corporate executives who fed like sharks in far-flung pools of low-cost labor and resources. They offshored by exploiting lax and nonexistent regulatory environments jobsand pollution to build profitable supply chainsConsumers now feel broken.
The mainstream media was predisposed to focus on these broken supply chain when the endless pit of abundance suddenly and shockingly dried out. Click-bait articles are made from empty shelves, which is understandable. But few people have ever considered the fact that the United States has a global system that allows consumers to enjoy a lifestyle that is easy on the budget, with cheap oil, cheap labor, and cheap food. This is dependent on quality over quantity. Profit margins are dependent on driving down costs and avoiding excessive labor and environmental standards. All of this depends on offsetting. stagnant wages, growing inequality massive consumer debtWith the unsustainablePromise of more and better at ever-faster speeds.
As such, the empty shelves say more about the tenuous nature of the U.S.’s voracious “Empire of Consumption” than they do about the market’s verdict on stimulus checks. The pandemic — with its sudden disruptions to overseas suppliers and its brutal impact on low-wage laborers (many of whom were categorized as “essential workers” and forced to expose themselves to a risk of illness) — has, in effect, pulled back the curtain and exposed the imperial wizard pulling on supply chains that allow less than 5 percent of the world’s population to consume 25 percent of its resources.
Fistfight at Golden Corral
On Friday night in Bensalem (Pennsylvania), diners were enjoying the buffet at their local Golden Corral. wielding furniture like weapons, all because of an “alleged steak shortage.” At least, that’s what many news outlets trumpeted with their click-bait headlines. However, a spokesperson for company assured The Washington Post that the restaurant in question “never ran out of meat,” which is incredibly on-brand. In fact, endless meat is not just the essence of Golden Corral’s brand, but also the essence of the Empire of Consumption. Both are inexorably rooted within the illusion of endless abundance at bargain prices. And those bargain pricesLike the growth of fast foodOver the last 30 yearsThese were built on the backs of cheap labor from immigrants.
Not coincidentally, that deep pool of cheap labor was filled by one of the great neoliberal achievements of the last 40 years — the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The “agreement formerly known as NAFTA” was nominally altered2020 will see the following: damage was done. The Department of Agriculture discovered that Mexico was the most populous country in 2017. lost 900,000 farm jobs in the decade after then-President Bill Clinton (who essentially completed the Reagan Revolution’s neoliberal project) finally got NAFTA enacted in 1993.
Floods were the main reason for this not-so-great displacement. heavily subsidized U.S.-grown corn. It decimated small and subsistence Mexican corn farmers. Alejandro Portes, Social Science Research Council wrote back in 2006, “The response of peasants and workers thus displaced has been clear and consistent: [T]hey have headed north in ever greater absolute numbers.”
Suddenly set adrift in a newly “globalized” market dominated by U.S. agribusiness, which also began gobbling up American family farms throughout the “farm crisis” of the 1980s, Mexican farmers fled north to work for the very “Big Ag” titans who dislodged them in the first place. These repeatedly scapegoated immigrants flocked to the burgeoning “factory farms” that filled American bellies with brutally raised industrialized meat. The factory farming model is dependent upon concentrated animal feeding operations, or “CAFOs,” which further decimated small U.S. family farms throughout the ‘90s.
This industrialized farming model was able to grow and profit because it absorbed family farms at home and brought in cheap labor from overseas. Undocumented workers are especially vulnerable and dependent on their employers. They have no choice but to comply, despite the risk of being disempowered. death, dismemberment abuse. Many migrant workers are exploited by the looming threat to deportation in order to have a fast food system that is more profitable. It’s not coincidental that cheap, meat-dependent fast food went from an occasional treat to a daily staple for millions of Americans during the NAFTA-stoked ‘90s. But fast food and buffet-line steaks weren’t the only thing on the menu.
Over the years, Golden Corral periodically advertised an “Oceans of Shrimp” promotion. Where did all that shrimp come form? Like Atlantic salmon, tilapia and shellfish, it’s drawn from around the world. As a matter of fact, Mashed recently detailed, “Thailand accounts for the majority of shrimp imported to the United States, and its system is rife with human rights abuses,” with “20-hour workdays,” “child labor and physical abuse,” and with “a large portion of farmed Thai shrimp … handled directly or indirectly by trafficked laborers.” Ecuador and Vietnam also fill Americans’ plates with this food item that was once considered a luxuryHowever, it is now possible to eat in abundance.
Even the “All-American” beef we’re eating might not be as American as we think. The folks at Farm Aid, which arose out of the aforementioned farm crisis of the ‘80s, recently pointed out that meat marked “Product of the USA” may “have been raised and processed in Brazil or New Zealand.” As CBS News explained, “imported beef products can be labeled ‘Product of the USA’ as long as it’s been minimally processed or repackaged in a U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected facility.” Farm Aid advocates the end of this sleight of hand in favor of more truth in advertising. In the meantime, the Amazon rainforest has been cleared. raise more cows.
Fast Food to Fast Fashion
If you are not familiar with the term “fast fashion,” you’re probably familiar with its purveyors. It is often sold through and carries designer labels. major retailers like GAP, Urban Outfitters, H&M and Forever 21. Investopedia defines it as “clothing designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to take advantage of trends,” thus allowing “mainstream consumers to purchase the hot new look or the next big thing at an affordable price.” Fast fashion relies on “cheaper, speedier manufacturing and shipping methods,” which is why it is often made in sweatshopsA number of factors are responsible for the success of Bangladesh, such as the following: deadly firesThe poor treatment of its workers was exposed. Bangladesh’s garment workers often toil 12 hours per dayOften, for up to 72 hours. according to The World CountsFor $92 per month. And it’s all done to feed the fast fashion fancies of U.S. shoppers.
International brokerage and customs firm AFC InternationalTracks fashion supply chains that connect U.S. consumers and profit-hungry companies to the rest of world. Tops the list of productsImported to the U.S. were footwear, furniture, appliances, and cars. China, in part, is a result of its brutalized Uyghur workforce, is the leading source of imported clothing, accounting for “36.49 percent of U.S. apparel imports” and “84.95 percent” of imported footwear. Nike is the leading source of imported clothing in Vietnam. runner-up in both imported footwear “with 6.46 percent of the U.S. import market,” and apparel with “10.4 percent of total U.S. imports.”
Some of these countries do not allow workers to be as disposable or flexible as Bangladesh. However, the clothing they produce can be reused just as easily. It is more of a feature rather than a bug that clothing can be thrown away. Rapid turnover leads to more buying and greater profits. The race to keep up means less planning and tons more inventory. Sadly, 59,000 tonsA Chilean desert is where the majority of the unwanted byproducts are dumped each year. And that’s just one of the dumping grounds for excess clothing. Ghana is another dumping ground for excess clothing. final destinationFor the fashion that is constantly changing in the U.S.
It’s a model also reflected by the landfilling churn of “fast furniture.” Design Excellence describes it as “furniture that is made quickly and meant to last for a short period of time [and] is meant to be on trend and break quickly so that you can toss it and purchase the next trendy piece of furniture.” And we are tossing it by the ton. According to Environmental Protection Agency statistics, the annual amount of discarded “furniture and furnishings” has nearly doubled since 1990, when 6.8 million tons went to the landfill. Each year, more than 12 million tons of furniture and furnishings have been thrown away since 2015.
Prime Movers
“There’s more to Prime. A truckload more.” That’s the tagline you’ll see emblazonedMany Amazon trucks are hauled behind them. But is “a truckload more” what we actually need? The pandemic-stoked increase in online purchases has led to a surge of returns.
CNBC reported that “retail returns jumped to an average of 16.6% in 2021 versus 10.6% a year ago,” with a staggering $761 billion in merchandise sent back to stores and warehouses. Invesp is a conversion rate optimization company. notes, “at least 30% of all packages ordered online are returned as compared to 8.89% in brick and mortar stores.” That matches the data reported by The AtlanticI have written a piece about the terminus for many of those returns. It is, once again, the landfill. You can add the enormous amount of oil and gasShipping these items, which often contain petroleum-based plastic products is expensive. Climate and environmental impacts are also possible. back-and-forthIt is amazing.
All these supply chains have one thing in common: oil. It’s omnipresent, from the oil it takes to extract and ship more oil and other resources, to the oil it takes to make the plastics and petrochemicals that become a plethora of plastic products, to the oil it takes to run the factory farms and the manufacturing plants that pump out the goods that, thanks to oil-based shipping, eventually make it to our homes and businesses. It’s even making it into our bodiesPetroleum-based microplastics.
Oil is the foundation of post-WWII foreign policy and defense policy. The U.S. taxpayers basically subsidize the unabated oil flow by funding a globe-spanning empire. Much like the old adage about “all roads leading to Rome,” the U.S.-built Empire of Consumption depends on all supply chains leading to home. With the rise of online shopping, that’s now quite literally true for most Americans. A vast, oil-slicked supply system delivers products right to our doorsteps by clicking a button.
That is, before a shocking amount of those “easy as one-click” orders end up in landfills, right next to the 108 billion pounds of foodThe United States discards approximately 2,000 tons of garbage each year. This ever-faster churn explains how the Empire of Consumption reaches the endless pit of abundance. It’s also how neoliberal economics relies upon cheap labor and plasticized disposability to perpetuate the illusion of never-ending growth.
That illusion, which depends upon a cocktail of cheaper and cheaper products and more and more debt to give Americans the false sense of an increasing standard of living, was broken by the pandemic’s disruption.
This disruption is a Don’t Look Up-style warning about the unsustainability of a global system that acts like a conveyor belt feeding a heretofore bottomless pit of consumer desires… desires that are, in turn, crucial to justifying the continuation of an insatiable empire that denudes the planet, alters the climate and exploits labor around the world.
