What am I buying? : . : Products : . : What foods are safe?


: . : Consumer products. 99% of the time, what you eat, what you wear, and what you buy is not really decided by you. It is decided by the boards and research committees of the world's most influential corporations. You can only buy what is available to you, and what is available to you isn't really decided by you, or at least it hasn't been up until a few years ago, with the advent of the internet and super-huge supermarkets and chain warehouse-stores. Now, you might be thinking, "How could he come up with something that would make me paranoid about consumer products?" and that is a very valid question, one which I will answer over the next little while. I must tell you, that most of the time, you're not getting what you really think you are, and you're not getting you're money's worth by a long shot. I'm going to start with the simple stuff, the stuff that most people know, and really isn't all that scary, and then move on to what you probably didn't know, and didn't want to know.

: . : Easy communication of this new age not only benefits you, but it also benefits large consumer product businesses. Now, although these companies are highly competitive, they also work together to keep profit high. For example, did you know that the average Joe pair of Nike sneakers costs just around $5 to produce? So why do they cost $100? So the people in charge can be paid lots and lots of money. How do they pull this off? By paying their factory workers in Taiwan and other places as little as $3 a week. sounds like slave labour doesn't it? Well, by most standards it is. The governments of these countries allow it to slip by because it encourages these big companies to set up shop in their countries, and also, they often make "deals" with the governments to keep things the way they are. Why do people work in such conditions? Why would you work in a factory that pays you barely enough to survive, when you could be working out in the fields and till enough food to live on, and a little extra to sell? Because the lure of capitalism is much too strong. Since the Americans work in production, then it must be superior, it must be the way to make lots of money, this is what they think, so they leave their homes, move to the cities, and die of malnutrition and exposure in a few years. Good times. Not really, but for generations they have thought it is. Capitolism is good for the countries it's rulers are living in. Some would say that it only hurts the smaller countries because they are weak, or stupid, or unambitious, or that it doesn't actually hurt them at all, that it's all lies. Not true at all, and I would like you to not argue with me on this one, because I am quite right. If I am right on any info on this page, it is on the fact that smaller countries are held by the grips of the richer ones, by debt, by envy, by poverty, and by aggression.

: . : Every time you buy a product made outside of your country, you are contributing to this. Do you want some simple proof of this? The U.N. proposed a release of all debts of the third world countries, which would essentially make them independant of the first world countries. All countries agreed except for the U.S. Their economy would collapse if the third world countries stopped cheaply producing for them. Am I saying that capitolism is a bad thing? In it's present form, yes. It hurts people, many people, actually 70% of the world's population is held down underneath it. Underneath 5% of the world's population, who have 56% of the world's wealth. So, I suppose it doesn't really directly effect you that these things go on, not in any big way. You might be asking, "If you think capitolism is such a bad thing, why doesn't anyone ever speak up about it?" Well, do you remember a couple of planes crashing into two big towers? That had everything to do with capitolism. The Muslums see the United States as the epitomy of all that is evil because of their hugely widespread capitolistic ways, and they see this as a deviance from God's (Allah's) plan for the world.

: . : Alright, so this whole terrorism thing doesn't really have a huge effect on your day to day life. Many people thought "The world is going to change" after the attack. Bin Laden wanted it to, but it didn't, not one bit. Some procedures of national security have changed, just to make people feel safer, and some attacks have been made with this so called "War on terrorism" to keep the citizens of the U.S. feeling like they're still better and more powerful than the rest of the world. I'm probably either boring you or angering you with all this anti-capitalistic stuff, so I'll now move on to something else. To make things simple, much of what you buy, like fast food, clothing, electronics (did you know that it costs way less to produce DVD's than it does VHS tapes?) and specialty items have prices for you that are over 1000% of their total labour, shipping, and production costs, and mediated by agreements between companies that can control all of the production. What is going on with the products that you buy, and the products that you even eat, that you don't know about? A lot.

: . : For some reason, the first thing a lot of people think of when someone mentions secretly harmful products, is genetically altered foods. This is a pretty big beef of mine, and I think that it's high time that this issue is resolved. I would like you to guess how long humanity has been genetically altering foodstuffs, and wildstock. Guessing? I really want you to now, and I don't want you to go and read on until you've guessed. This is really important. Just so you know, I'm blathering on to decrease the chances of you catching the answer in the corner of your eye. Are you ready for this one? Here it comes: at least ten thousand years. Does this sound a bit absurd to you? Well, it shouldn't. You see, when Toto and Marsha the caveman and cavewoman decided that by mixing two kinds of plants together, they would get better plants, and by mixing different animals and domesticating them, they'd get better herds, genetic manipulation started. Animals such as cats, dogs, cows, sheep, etc, and plants like rice, wheat, barley, corn, etc. were bred by people to be what they are today. Man hasn't domesticated an animal in thousands of years, so most of us have forgotten this. We've still spent a lot of time working on plants, though. When a scientist genetically alters a plant to be "better", all he is doing is adding the genetic material from another plant, and that isn't all that different from crossbreeding. We do not have the technology or the knowhow to just "make up" genetic codes, we just borrow it from other things, and cross breed. So, what does this mean? That genetically altered foods are just the same as any other food man has been making for thousands of years. No, it's not going to increase your risk of getting cancer, but guess what will . . . eating non-genetically altered foods.

: . : Now, this one you might be shaking your head at, but bear with me. You see, some companies and farmers can afford to genetically tailor their foodstuffs, but some cannot. The cheaper way of increasing yields and making products more efficient is using chemicals. Not only that, but the more crazy the chemical, the better it works. This whole thing is right up the alley of pesticide use and such. Using drugs that are proven to cause cancer to make wheat fatter, and make cows produce more milk. That's right, it's in your milk. You see, since we haven't manipulated animals in so long, it's now considered immoral for the most part, and producers have to use drugs to keep increasing the yields of the cows. Crazy growth hormones are given to cows to make them produce not 1, not 2, but 10 times more mild than they normally would. Don't forget that whatever a mother eats, ends up in her baby's milk, so we're drinking these hormones right down. What does it cause? Early onset of puberty and breast cancer in girls, and prostate cancer in boys. Growth hormones are also useful in shampoos, they make you're hair look nice, but they also have the same effects.

: . : How can there be things that can cause cancer in your products without you knowing about it? You can check the ingredients, and odds are, it won't be there. This is because there is a certain percentage that the ingredient must be of the product's total volume for it to count as an ingredient. It varies from place to place, but it usually falls around 0.1-0.2%. Ratios lower than this may be called 'trace' amounts. 'Trace' amounts of peanut oil can kill someone who is very allergic to peanuts. While this is a very small amount, it can still be powerful. When you take a pill of just about anything, it's usually around 1% drug, and 99% filler. Potency can be incredible, and because of this, there are many chemicals in the foods that you eat (such as milk, beef, poultry, wheat, you name it, it's there), that make your food easier to produce, but also damage you.

: . : I've been talking about chemicals that indirectly get into you from your food products, but what about chemicals that are intentionally placed in your products to make you use them more? Here's a simple one: cigarettes. Most people now know that nicotine is highly addictive, but what about other products. Did you know that caffeine is addictive? Cola companies don't want their caffeine free beverages to taste the same as their regulars because they'd be easier to stop drinking. Most lip balms contain trace amounts of chemicals that dry your lips out, and if not, even using lip balm will make your lips dependant on extra moisture. This way you're have to use more of their product. Many deodourants have chemicals that make you sweat more in the long run (long term chemicals), and this works well because your armpits absorb chemicals faster than just about any other place in your body. Just about any product that you use on your body makes your body more dependant on it, from sunscreen to mouthwash, the list goes on. You want a real shocker? How about this one: Do you remember asbestos, the wonder product that wasn't so wonderful when people found out that it caused bleeding and cancer very, very well? Well, most 'intimate products' companies (at least all the big ones) put trace amounts of it in their tampons and pads. This causes more bleeding, and more product use. It also causes cervicle cancer. Also used in pads is rayon (not happy to be inside your body) and harmful bleaches. Yes, they do get away with this everyday.

: . : Product dependancies are everywhere you look if you can think about it, and the companies producing them are pretty happy that the public is focusing in on nicotine, and not on their more secret drugs. I could go on for a long time on this one, but for this, I want you to find out more for yourself. The truth is plain. Girls today are hitting puberty around 4 years earlier than they did only a generation and a half ago, and the number of people with breast and prostate cancer is on the rise.

: . : So, what is safe? That's for you to decide, it's not my job to tell you. Actually my job really has nothing to do with these freaky paranoia articles at all. It is my purpose. My purpose is to enlighten people to many things. Take it and use it, for knowledge is a powerful thing, and may even save your life someday.

: . : Now that I've gotten through that, there is a whole other part to this discussion, and you may have noticed it already, yet not really given it any thought. That is product expiration. Now I'm not talking about the little numbers stamped on a bottle of mayo that tell you when your eggs and lard will or will not kill you, but instead warranties, and how long products last before turning into a useless pile of low-cost plastics and polymers. You have probably noticed at some point that when the warranty goes up on something, it tends to give up working just a few days later, if not in whole, just in part, something will stop working on it. If you have bought something in the last few years, and it has lasted well past it's warranty, the company that makes it has not been doing it's job very well. Products such as many cars, most electronics, and even clothing, are made only to last a certain amount of time, and no longer. We will call this period, the period of liability.

: . : The period of liability is the period during which the manufacturer may still be considered responsible for the product, like the amount of time given in the warranty, or the average time limit on returns given by the type of stores that typically sell the said product, whichever happens to be longer. Why would they do this? Well, it's not asif they're out to get you or anything, or that they're trying to frustrate and aggravate the masses, it's just that when they do this, they save a lot of money. They learn to cut corners to the very last stitch. How much they slack off on production is very carefully calculated and tested, to make sure that the product does not last too long, or too short. That way you end up with customers which, while they are dissatisfied, cannot complain, and a whole lot less money spent on making the product. This has only become grossly popular lately, now that companies are realizing that by doing this, they not only save money on production, but they also sell more goods. That's right, when your 'miscellaneous item that you couldn't possibly live without' finally wears out, what do you do? You buy another, of course. So, your are now paying the same amount of money, for a product that doesn't last as long, and that you'll have to buy repeatedly. Not fair? Who said it was supposed to be?

: . : Now, you might be thinking that you have never done that, that if you owned something that wore out long before you thought it should, you wouldn't buy it again, but what about only partially wearing out. What if you just need to buy a little something to fix it, and it will all be better, at least until something else breaks on it, that is. That's right, an even better way of getting you to continue giving money to the manufacturers is to get you to buy more parts. You see, in your eyes, it may be saving money to fix instead of replace, but in their eyes, all they are doing is getting you hooked on them. It happens with cars most notably, even though it is rarely the intention of car manufacturers. You buy a car, and you fix it from time to time, and next thing you know, you have spent the entire value of the car just keeping it 'fixed'. Unfortunate isn't it? It happens all the time, though.

: . : So, what can you do about all of this? All you can do is spend a little extra on products that you think will stand the test of time, put in a little research time before spending much money on things, and, well, fix it if it gets broken. Sometimes there's not much you can do, if you can't make it yourself. So, keep an eye out, and keep an ear to the ground, and if that's too uncomfortable, just try not to be too ignorant of the world around you.