Paper or Plastic Politics?
There’s an exasperating question that’s been asked for years now, millions of times a day, all across the country.
“Paper or plastic?”
After doing our due diligence by reading labels, counting calories and fat grams, and rejecting high fructose corn syrup, we were presented with this new choice at the checkout.
Do you want paper (kill a tree, high carbon footprint) OR plastic (made from petroleum, blows around and gets tangled in our scenery)? It’s a grocery-store Catch 22.
They tried to make us feel better by putting circular green arrows on the bags, telling us the paper ones contained recycled content, and the plastic ones could be recycled. But most people just wanted to get their goods from the store, to the car, to the house to get dinner ready and kids to bed on time.
Eventually, some consumers got around the devil’s-bargain shopping bag choice by not choosing. They started using reusable bags made of durable materials. It must have been at least 20 years ago when I first heard, “No, I have my own bags,” as a triumphant shopper flopped on the counter two bags she’d made from old dish towels.
In order to have a choice she wanted — she had to invent it. When enough people wanted her choice, reusable shopping bags became an industry. And that’s how it usually works.
And then once every few years, a smiling face at the checkout counter asks, “Republican or Democrat?”
Face it, most people don’t really end up making that choice. Most people just don’t vote. Often, the reason they give is, “They’re all the same.” They aren’t. Just because you don’t like the choice, it doesn’t mean they’re the same. Sometimes, words like “socialist” are thrown around. I assure you, socialist is not one of our options at checkout. Considering banker bonuses and the Dow’s four-year high, Obama is kind of a crappy socialist.
On the presidential docket, your choice at the checkout has been Vulture Capitalism on steroids with a side of transvaginal probe, or spineless centrism with a little drone warfare thrown in for good measure.
Well? Which one?
And here’s the secret — corporations who are running the show don’t care which “bag” you vote for. They own the store, so either way they’ve already won. They get to sit in the booth behind the mirror and watch the debate over paper vs. plastic rage on. Occasionally they get a good chuckle out of a lady with a homemade dishcloth bag.
Many people across the political spectrum wind up disappointed on some level about their choices when election time rolls around. Until enough people decide the choices they’ve been given are unacceptable and participate in creating new solutions, they will continue to hold their nose and vote — or skip it all together.
The tea party, though corporately funded, has attempted to create an alternative choice based on “patriotism” but shuns the notion of the commons our founding fathers embraced and promotes extremist views instead. The occupy movement, almost a year old, has tried to expose the corporate influence over our elected officials and the financial practices that brought us to the brink of ruin, but lacks hard-nosed organization. Neither can get meaningful leverage because of the toxic transfusion now running in the veins of our electoral system — Citizens United. What were once elections are now well-funded auctions.
Change won’t be easy. President James Madison once said, “History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance.”
I think he was kind of a homemade dishcloth-bag guy.
The advantages and disadvantages of plastic or paper bags are very clearly differentiated. This blog is quite effective and informative. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I bring my own bags for shopping; I have for years. I always have a Chico bag (which folds into a self-contained pocket) or the like in my purse, and use a canvas bag with comfortable handles (wide, so they don’t bite my little shoulder) for heavy groceries.
There IS a difference between the major parties, although I’d love to see multiple political parties develop (Green!) in the US, as they have elsewhere. If the Dominionists formed their own party, perhaps the Republicans could regain some of their sanity (although I suspect it’s too late). I’m sure you heard Money Boo Boo’s unscripted fundraiser moment, when he let us know what he thought of the 47%. Never mind that they’re seniors who spent their whole lives working, or service men and women defending Halliburton, I mean, defending democracy, or students who aren’t making any money yet, but will contribute income tax once they graduate and find work. Apart from that, only one of the two major parties wants to shrink government until they can drown it in a uterus or some such nonsense.
I’ve been using my own bags for years and carry them in the trunk of my car so I won’t forget to take them when I shop. It was interesing when we spent time in the northwest highlands of Guatemala. When you shop you are expected to bring your own bags – the shops and market, for the most part, don’t offer anything beyond wrapping something breakable in an old newspaper.
As for the check-out line in November, I won’t have any trouble deciding paper or plastic, Democrat or Republican. Shannyn, I’m just not as pessimistic as you are about President Obama and I don’t think he has a weak spine – quite the opposite. I guess we just have/had different expectations of what he could accomplish when he took office. I never expected him to be as progressive as some of us hoped (and I include myself). The President can’t do all that alone and it was clear from the beginning that he wasn’t going to get much help from the republicans. And as it’s turned out, he’s gotten even less than I thought possible for people who were sent to Washington to do a job for all of us.
It won’t be at all difficult for me to vote a straight Democratic ballot this year. Are they all perfect? Of course not. But neither are those of us they represent.
This is a tough call all the way around. Who needs trees? According to venerable rwnj Potii they cause acid rain(Raygun) or forest fires(dumbass dubya). Besides,if we didn’t have trees we could actually see the forests. Plastic,on the other hand,is one molecule more than margerine-so I was led to believe. We could always eat paper or plastic if one gets hungry enough. I have often wondered at the wisdom of banning creoste on wooden posts/poles because it is a known hazard and replacing those posts with wood infused with arsenic(as a preservative) and then placing those posts in playground equipment for children. Don’t we love and cherish our children? Is it some people place profits and corner cutting costs above their children? Without the choice of a hand made bag-one would have to assume even nutters would prefer paper over plastic guy Romneydon’tcare. Where was I? Oh yeah,gotta take paper with reservations or maybe something better comes along in the meantime. BTW-I hear they are making railroad ties out of recycled plastic,thereby sparing more of those pesky trees. More farmers and ranchers are using railroad ties(wood) for feedlot posts. Haven’t read or heard if plastic ties will work on farms.
I opt for neither. I just bring my own canvas bag. It has lasted for years.
Clever example leading to significant points; if you had submitted this in one of my English classes, you would’ve earned an “A” 😉