reprage

We’re in a world brimming with fantastic technology: Smartphones, electric bikes, and Zooper Doopers*. Sure, it all comes at a cost – but if you’re able to pay for it? Boom, you’ll have new shit in your life.

But once you get home? That’s when a few hidden costs rack up: Packaging you’ll have to throw away or maybe some assembly to perform. (Shoutout to everyone who has assembled a trampoline in the dark as a surprise gift for the kiddos).

After the initial courtship passes, hopefully, you’re left with something that brings joy to your life. But as the months, and if you’re lucky, years roll on, that joy will slowly fade. Maybe it’s an obsolescence that was planned, or perhaps it was just poorly designed – but it seems like no one builds heirloom products anymore.

When the inevitable day arrives, and you want it gone? But responsibly? Well, that’s the real chore. It’s super easy for stuff to enter our lives, but it’s ten times harder for it to depart.

That’s why I love the cinder blocks video. It seemed a little fucked up and so much effort for Tom to stack a hundred cinder blocks into a van and only own them for a couple of seconds before returning them. But when I pass our pile brimming with stuff destined for the thrift store? Returning 100 cinder blocks seems like a bargain.

* You’ll need some fantastic technology to Google your way to the bottom of that reference.

Originally written for the Sachsian Syndicate.

Previously: TGIM 36 - During the Space Program 4 demonstration, there is a pause in the mission – an ad break – so the audience can hear a word from the studio sponsor. The idea that historical events can wait for hits of all-American consumerism is a hilarious exaggeration.

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