The ethics of whether to buy, considered in each case.
- from a June 2011 email by David MacClement
· It'll be midwinter day|^ in under a week: I feel cold andmy Loden-coat is over 40 years old and moth-eaten; I'm thinking:
(1): "if in doubt, don't" buy, my life-long purchasing rule,
and how that stacks up against the many other factors
I consider before spending money.
· Besides our organic bread (baked daily in our village, Greenhithe NZ)
and the organic milk I buy daily so I can leave it on the bench and
not use our fridge at all,
*** most weeks I don't spend anything (beyond restocking food).***
_ This is basically why (a) I _know_
*** my expenses are only NZ$8,142 (US$5,656) per year|`,***
- and (b) I feel some surprise when I hear that someone I know
has bought something - this extends to a kind of disgust at people
buying as much as they can (especially if they go into debt to do so).
· Five more factors I consider before deciding buying is "a good thing":
(2) Do I have an alternative, like re-arranging my life so I don't need
it, or (_very_ commonly) do I have my own or someone else's "cast-off"
to use - this applies to clothes, food, etc.
(3) What about the value of my purchase to the people who produced it?
This means I continue buying Trade-Aid/FairTrade coffee from East Timor
even though I could easily do without coffee.
_ A version is: "Is it made locally (e.g. in NZ for clothes, within
cycle-ride if food), and might its production be moved overseas like so
much else, if I and other like-minded people aren't willing to pay a
premium for it?"
(4) How much interference with the normal functioning of the earth does
its production (raw materials through to my purchase) cause?
_ Carbon Footprint (fossil fuel) is one of several inputs to the whole
Ecological Footprint. Usually I make some inquiries (webpage,
clothes-tag etc.) but this is always a guess on my part.
(5) Is there a way for me to buy it second-hand? The 90%Reduction rules
(see below my sign-off|*), specifically number 6: "Consumer Goods", have:
- "Used goods are deemed to have an energy cost of 10% of their actual
purchase price. That is, if you buy a used sofa for $50, you just spent
$5 of your allotment. The reason for this is that used goods bought from
previous owners put money back into circulation that is then spent on
new goods.
... Goods that were donated are deemed to be unlimited, with no carbon
cost. ... Putting things back into use that would otherwise be tossed
should be strongly encouraged."
(6) If I buy new, is the annual amortising decrement (initial cost divided
by expected lifetime) low enough that it makes little-or-no increase in my
annual expenses? The above US$5,656 (NZ$8,142) per year|` is only accurate
to about NZ$30 (US$20), so a purchase of NZ$350 lasting 20 years (the
rest of my life) would amortise at under NZ$18 per year and so would
disappear into the uncertainty; though I do need to watch out that I
don't make more similarly-big purchases.
David MacClement
_|^: Dongji, Matariki, Yule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_solstice
-=##=- -=##=- -=##=-
_|*: The 90%Reduction rules, from web.archive of Riot-4-Austerity.org/blog:
http://www.riot4austerity.org/blog/7-categories/
- are still at: http://tinyurl.com/90pctReduction-7categories ;original:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090409194800/http://www.riot4austerity.org/blog/7-categories/
- that page has:
"6. Consumer Goods. The best metric I could find for this is using
money. A Professor at Syracuse University calculates that as an average,
every consumer dollar we spend puts .5 lbs of carbon into the
atmosphere. This isn't perfect, of course, but it averages out pretty
well.
The average American spends 10K PER HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR on consumer
goods, not including things like mortgage, health care, debt service,
car payments, etc... Obviously, we recommend you minimize those things
to the extent you can, but what we're mostly talking about is things
like gifts, toys, music, books, tools, household goods, cosmetics,
toiletries, paper goods, etc... A 90% cut would be 1,000 dollars PER
HOUSEHOLD, PER YEAR
Used goods are deemed to have an energy cost of 10% of their actual
purchase price. That is, if you buy a used sofa for $50, you just spent
$5 of your allotment. The reason for this is that used goods bought from
previous owners put money back into circulation that is then spent on
new goods. This would apply to Craigslist, Yardsales, etc... but not
goodwill and other charities, as noted below. This rule does not apply
if you know that the item would otherwise be thrown out - that is, if
someone says, "If you don't buy it, I'm going to toss it." Those items
are unlimited as well, because they keep crap out of landfills.
Goods that were donated are deemed to be unlimited, with no carbon cost.
That is, you can spend all you want at Goodwill and the church rummage
sale. Putting things back into use that would otherwise be tossed should
be strongly encouraged."
-=##=- -=##=- -=##=-
_|`: In 2007 my wife Bera and I got and spiked all receipts, splitting all
household costs 50-50, and proved we live on US$5,208 (NZ$7,490) each per year:
- That figure was published on 16 July 2010 in:
"D & Bs Life in 32 Tweets, Ds Style" here on this blog, at:
https://davd.tripod.com/DM/index.blog/2039397/ds-style-32-tweets-july-2010/
Since then we made four long-life improvements to our cheap 3-br 1-bath 1966 house.
We:
- replaced our 45yo thin corrugated iron roof by a thicker and better-finished
corrugated iron roof (such steel is made in NZ from our west-coast iron-sand),
- replaced our rusted-out old stove by one producing v. little pollution
- insulated above the ceiling and under the (rimu floorboard) floor, and
- replaced the >31yo brittle translucent front porch roof with a stronger
_clear_ corrugated plastic (polycarbonate) roof.
These are the figures we used to calculate the annual amortising decrements:
_Investments in our Greenhithe house, 16 Sept. 2009 to Feb. 2011; NZ$:_
Improvement_ _~_ cost_ Est.Lifetime yr _~_ B+D $/year _~_ $/year each:
~_~_~ _~ _~_~ _~ _~_ ShortLife_ Long _ Short _ Long _ Short _ LongLife
Roof_~_-_~_ _~_ $7,377 __ 20 __ 25 __ $369 __ $295 __ $184 __ $148
WoodStove_~_ _ $3,124 __ 15 __ 20 __ $492 __ $369 __ $246 __ $184
Insulation _~_ __ $1,741 __ 30 __ 50 __ $246 __ $148 __ $123 __ $74
PorchRoof __~__ $1,873 __ 10 __ 15 __ $738 __ $492 __ $369 __ $246
Total (4): _ _~_~_ _~_~_ _~ _~ _~ _ $1,844 __ $1,303 __ $922 __ $652
-{NZ$922 = US$641, and NZ$652 = US$453_ at the Jan. 2007 exchange rate
I used for the NZ$7,490 (US$5,208) original: NZ$1.00 = US$0.6953;
- it's over US$0.80 per NZ$1.00 now, in early June 2011.}-
· Because I believe each will last the longer of the estimated lifetimes,
from now on I expect to be stating that our individual cost of living is
(NZ$:) $7,490 + $652 = $8,142 - or:
US$5,208 + US$453 = _US$5,661_ per year (or US$11,322 p.a per household)
· I realise there are many inaccuracies, particularly in the US$ figures
{(a) I should have used the exchange rates at the dates of payment, and
(b) I should have deflated the recent purchases before adding them to our
2007 documented US$5,208 per-person cost of living},
- but I see no reason not to say, for the rest of my life:
"we each live on US$5,656 per year (2007 prices and exchange rate)."
--
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