“Buy and hold” sounds like my SOP, lol.
I don’t know this blogger, assume her audience is individual fashionistas. I’m sorry to see that all of her suggestions are for an individual’s own closet; not leveraging the power that we have when we all move towards a common goal. Stockpiling doesn’t make sense to me, but I guess for those people who always have an x in their wardrobe, getting an extra might make sense. Unfortunately, that’s likely to stimulate the overproduction.
Sal, I had the same reaction to Lisa’s lulu and Jag story—first “good! Production needs to slow down and companies need to wisen up” followed quickly by “ooof—so many workers in this global industry losing their livelihoods”. When I was teaching in the aughts, the topic of globalization always brought up the question of whether workers who had been peasants were indeed better off, if their factory wages and working conditions were so far below workers’ in already-industrialized countries. But in economies that have already made the transition, that question is a moot point—they depend on the income.
The US is losing its middle class. I can totally see markets there becoming even more bifurcated with what this article describes on one side and better made products on the other side, as a response to consumer demand. She says pricier labels might lower quality and raise their prices even more, because their consumers are not price-conscious. I hope (but doubt) that she’s wrong and that upper middle class (UMC) shoppers will insist on more sustainably and equitably produced goods for those higher prices. That would surprise me, but I can dream. Of course, the US economy isn’t the only one in the world. I wonder how the growing middle classes in China, India and Brazil will affect the balance. Bolsonaro and Modi may have changed things there. I expect Europe will keep up its middle class. German voters value environmental initiatives; I hope that translates into their role as consumers, and that it’s true across Europe, but I can’t speak to that, or to other places.
