Global Production and Consumption: Implications for Global Development - Movie Review Example

Global production and consumption: implications for global development Consumption of goods and services has greatly increased throughout the decades, mainly attributed to the strategies applied by governments and large companies all over the world. In the 1950s, government, companies, including the mass media, have developed mechanisms for a social and economic order that persuaded and passively force people to spend more on purchasing goods and services. This order is called consumerism, which would ensure the revenues of companies as well as the governments in the form of tax. The increase in consumption has led to a proportional increase in the production side of the economy. Due to the increased production costs in the developed countries, mainly associated with the labor cost and requirement for resources, many companies have sought for alternatives to reduce these costs by outsourcing the production and manufacturing processes. Countries such as China and India as well as other Southeast Asian countries have benefitted from these foreign investments that increase the country’s foreign exchange reserves and generated jobs for locals. However, attention should be given to the actual working conditions of the labor force in these countries. By analyzing two films, entitled The story of stuffs and Santa’s workshop, concepts related to the economy, the government, the society, and the environment will be discussed. Taking into account the historical and political points that may have caused the conditions depicted in the both films. The films that were chosen depict the implication of capitalism and consumerism with global development. In 2007, The Story of Stuff was released online. The writer and narrator of the film is Annie Leonard, a critic of consumerism and movers of sustainability. It was funded by several foundations such as Tides Foundation, Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption, and Free Range Studios that also produced the film. The film’s plot focused on discussing the Materials Economy, which a coined word in the film that is associated with capitalism. According to Annie Leonard, the materials economy is composed of five basic systems, namely extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. The process was designed to be linear thus making it unhealthy for the environment and the people. For extraction process, the film provided several data that supports their claim that our natural resources are being exploited at unimaginable rates. Leonard also pointed out that highly industrialized countries and large companies have been depleting the natural resources of third world countries in exchange for foreign investments and job generation. However, due to the increased environmental degradation caused by product outsourcing in third world countries as well as the mere fact that most of their population belongs to the lower class of the society, workers are at risk of being exploited by companies (The Story of Stuffs). Among the five systems of the materials economy, the production system poses the greatest threat to the workers and the environment since this stage operates by utilizing the natural resources, toxic chemicals, and energy to produce the consumer goods. Almost all the goods that are available in the market, such as food and beverage products, toys, consumer electronics, household appliances, and other goods, are manufactured in large scale plants. According to the film, these plants use synthetic substances that mostly have not been tested for toxic impacts and synergistic impacts. Examples of products that are deemed to be toxic include human breast milk substitutes and the use of Brominated Flame Retardants (B.F.R.) in the production of furniture, clothes and consumer electronics. In addition, the workers are also exposed to high levels of toxic materials and elevated temperatures in their working environment. The risks are even higher since most of manufacturing companies employ women as laborers, increasing the chances of passing on the harmful effects of toxic substances and carcinogens to future generations (The Story of Stuffs). Distribution systems are mainly characterized by the selling of consumer goods; it also includes the transfer and storage to other countries. According to the film, distribution companies, ranging from small retailers to massive wholesaler and retailers, follows a simple rule to maintain their market share and that is to offer the products at low prices. This strategy would also ensure that people will keep buying the products and that inventories will keep moving as fast as it could. However, by reducing the selling price of the products, companies are forced to look for ways on how to reduce the production expense so as not to gain losses. This led to the birth of the concept of cost externalizing, wherein the natural resources and the people that contributes from the extraction, production, to the distribution of the goods share a portion of the actual cost of the production (The Story of Stuffs). The consumption system is the important stage for capitalists. According to the film, after World War II, the US government and large companies have designed strategies that would influence and persuade people to become shoppers. Not just consumers that purchase what they need but consumers that would continually spend their money on any products that are out in the market. The government supported this movement seeing it as the solution to the financial crisis during that time. Events that fueled this transformation in the society can be attributed to the statements given by Victor LeBeau and Former President Dwight Eisenhower. As a retail analyst LeBeau once proposed, Our enormous productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek out spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction in consumption … we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate (The Story of Stuffs). This was used by companies in developing the framework of their operations. President Eisenhower influenced that development of a consumer based society when he told the American people that the ultimate purpose of their economy is to produce consumer goods, undermining health care, education, safe transportation, sustainability, and justice (The Story of Stuffs). The companies came up with two strategies that totally changed the way people perceive things and made the companies were successful in forcing the people to buy more and more consumer good at constant basis. These strategies are planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is another term for designing for the dump, where products such as plastic bags, coffee cups, mops, DVDs, cameras, computers, and others are made to be functional only for a short period of time and has to be replaced frequently. The concept of perceived obsolescence functions by convincing the people to replace the products that they have bought even if it is still useful, usually providing a perception that products can only last for a couple of months, usually only 6 months. This is evident in the consumer electronics, especially with computers and cellular phones. Computer manufacturers usually release a newer model of processors and video cards in less than a year making older models obsolete. Game developers also follow this trend in product releases, the companies introduce new games in the market that are only compatible with computers that fitted with the latest hardware and software. The same goes with cellular phone manufacturers. Another industry that utilizes this concept is the fashion industry, by changing fashion trends every season or every year, companies can force the people to buy new clothing, shoes, and bags (The Story of Stuffs). The concept also uses the method of constantly changing the appearance of products and trends in order for others to easily identify other people that are not contributing to the order of the economy to buy more and discard more goods. People that do not conform to this order can experiences embarrassment as other people might treat them as less valuable to the society (The Story of Stuffs). People are also constantly reminded to shop more often, companies do this through the use of the mass media. Product advertisements can be seen almost everywhere and several strategies have developed over the years to further improve the efficacy of the ads. According to the film, an average American is exposed to over 3000 advertisements a day that imposes to them to keep buying in order to have the feeling of significance in the society. Ads often times make people unhappy with what they have and offers that the solution to alleviate the problem to buy the latest products in the market. Some findings even indicate that Americans work longer hours to be able to cope with their obsession in buying goods, thus leading to a work-watch-spend treadmill (The Story of Stuffs). The last stage in the system is disposal. With the increased rate of consuming goods, waste generation is also increased. Reports show that an average American contributes 4.5 pounds of garbage each day and these wastes are either dumped in a landfill, incinerated, or even export the disposal to other countries. The adverse effects of garbage disposal are water, air and land pollution. Incineration may reduce the bulk size of the garbage but the process will also release toxic substances that were used to create the goods. Recycling will not be enough to address the threats in the environment since the production process generates even more wastes by manufacturing the goods in the form of by-products that are released in the air and water systems (The Story of Stuffs). The other film was directed and produced by Lotta Ekelund and Kristina Bjurling in 2004. It was entitled Santa’s workshop. The film documentary was intended to investigate on the actual condition of workers in the China, specifically workers from toy factories. Much interest was developed regarding the working condition and labor practice in China after the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee exposed that the factories that made McDonald’s toys employed child laborers. Actual recorded reports also indicate that Chinese factories forced workers to work 7 days until 2am to 4am to manufacture Disney toys. European toy companies also confirm that 95% of the toys that they comes from China, making the toy industry indispensible in the country. In addition, this industry has a very large market share in the US and in Europe with revenues that reaches billions of dollars annually (Santa’s workshop). Through the permission from the Scandinavian owned toy factory, the film was able to capture footages inside the factory and the actual conditions were observed. Workers did not have enough protective gears that were necessary for factories that operate in a condition were health risks were high. The materials that the workers are handling reach about 200oC and these plastic materials often cause burns and injuries to them. It was also difficult to breathe inside the factory, prolonged stay in the factories caused dizziness and eye sore. The machines were all manually operated which gave more room for workers to suffer injury (Santa’s workshop). Wages were also low with companies paying workers only 300 to 500 yuans every month, which reaches 700 to 800 yuans for overtime work that reaches until 10 to 11 pm. This is clearly a violation with Chinese laws as well as Scandinavian companies. However, workers are afraid to report such activities of companies since it will entail in losing their jobs. More than 90% of the workers are women since they are preferred by companies over men due to the ease of management (Santa’s workshop). The living condition on dormitories within the factories is also difficult. 10 to 12 workers occupy a room, small enough that workers have no space to store their belonging except on their own bed (Santa’s workshop). On the contrary, companies do not have the capability to increase the wages of the workers as well as conform to the ethical code of foreign companies. This is due to the added costs associated in doing so and companies would not also want to pay higher prices for the goods that they order. Another cause for long working hours is due to the short lead time given by foreign companies to deliver the goods. Instead of 90 days, companies sometimes require a turnaround for only 30 days (Santa’s workshop). The rapid increase in the density of industrial factories in China had causes severe detrimental effects to the environment. River systems became polluted that locals that thrive in fishing suffered. Emissions from Heavy Industries in China are also contributing to the factors that cause climate change (Santa’s workshop) . According to Wright (2010), “Consumerism is the belief that personal well being and happiness depends to a very large extent on the level of personal consumption, particularly on the purchase of material goods. The idea is not simply that well being depends upon a standard of living above some threshold, but that at the center of happiness is consumption and material possession” (1). This also results to a consumer society wherein the people are devoting much of their time and money in consuming goods with a belief that consuming more is good (1). This belief was instilled in the minds of the People in industrialized countries. The film The Story of Stuffs depicts how the government, companies, and the media shaped the current consumer society (The Story of Stuffs). Globalization is associated with the total trade or the flow of goods across the border. It can also be defined as off shoring wherein a production process is relocated abroad (WTO 2011). Several American companies have already expanded their operations in other countries in order to increase their global market share and increase their revenues. Another strategy used by large companies is to utilize offshore manufacturing companies or even establish their own processing plants in foreign land. The main purpose of this is to be able to reduce the labor costs, since wages are very high in their local country and continuing the manufacturing processes in the US will increase the products price due to increased production cost. Thus the company will not be able to maintain its market share and will lose their buyers over time. In exchange of the cheap labor and vast availability of natural resources, the companies provides financial investments in the country to help the economy and they will open thousands of jobs for the local people that may help lessen poverty among the society (The Story of Stuffs). Ecological degradation can simply be described as the damage caused in the environment as in the natural resources such as air, water and land. This is also associated with the destruction of ecosystems and wildlife (Leung 2005). It is also called environmental degradation and it is one of the most adverse effects of off shoring. When companies plan to expand their business operations in a foreign country, careful and intensive planning and strategy development is conducted for the plant site selection as well as for the consideration of the availability of raw materials in the area. The company will then utilize these resources and sell the finished goods in their country. According to Santa’s workshop, Chinese manufacturing plants and factories have not been keen in practicing methods that can safe guard the environment, as a result, several rivers in the region have waters that are not potable and are unfit for fishes to thrive on. Thus forcing fishermen and locals that are situated near the river systems, to move to rural parts of the country work in factories located in the cities (Santa’s workshop). Feminization of labor means that the presence of women in the labor force. Women tend to work in occupations that they have done in their households that were unpaid (Cooke-Reynolds and Zukewich 2004). As depicted in Santa’s workshop, women are preferred more than women. According to the manager of the Scandinavian toy factory, they employ women since they are easier to manage and that they produce less mistakes (Santa’s workshop). This concept has been in practiced in China for a long period already and it can be noticed that almost all Chinese manufacturing factories employ women workers. Feminization of migration is the movement of women in search of better life, livelihood, or refuge. This usually occurs within the country wherein people from the rural areas migrate to urban areas to look for a job (Caritas Internationalis 2010). Usually, the factor that causes the migration of women is impoverishment and the need to support their family. The reason may also be due to an increase in labor demand in an urban area and the preference for women (4). From an interview in the film Santa’s workshop, the manager attested that almost all the female worker came from the poor provinces of China. He also said that the women are willing to work and stay in the city to work in order to support their families back in the province (Santa’s workshop). The concepts that were depicted in the film gave a provided a clearer example of how these concepts happen among people and countries. Consumerism was best discussed by the Story of Stuffs. The adverse effects of globalization were also depicted on the film. The other film gave a deeper understanding on the feminizing of labor and migration. I have also learned about the concept of cost externalizing that causes several negative effects to the environment and society. An example is the B2B externalizing where a company loads off its expenses to its supplier and the supplier or manufacturer will then transfer the burden to the worker by giving low wages. Santa’s Workshop and The Story of Stuffs are closely related in the context of its arguments and concepts. However, the later film provides a holistic discussion of the entire life cycle of a product from extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. On the other hand, Santa’s Workshop focuses on the production part of the system and provided an in-depth look on the actual condition of labor exploitation. Finally, the films provided a good point of view and the fight for a better and sustainable production is very impressive. However, critics have shown the story of stuffs had several inconsistencies with the data that it presented. Consumerism, Globalization and Poverty was the main points of the films. Works Cited Caritas Internationalis. “The female Face of Migration”. 2010. Web. 15 April 2012. Ekelund, Lotta, dir. “Santa’s workshop.” LottaFilm. 2004. Film. Gereffi, Gary. “The New Offshore of Jobs and Global Development”. ILO Policy Lectures. 2005. Web. 15 April 2012. Leonard, Annie, perf. “The Story of Stuffs.” Free Range Studios. 2007. Film. Leung, A., O’Donell, E., Moore, S. Travis, H. “Social Responses to Environmental Degradation in Northwest Rural China”. Central Washington University. Web. 15 April 2012 Wright, Erik Olin, & Rogers, Joel. American Society: How it really works. New York: W W Norton & Co. 2010. Print. World Trade Organization. “Making Globalization Socially Sustainable.” 2011. Web. 15 April 2012. Cooke-Reynoldsm, Melissa, & Zukewich. “The feminization of work.” Canadian Social Trends. 2004. Web. Read More