Diary of a future rentier (63)

There Rat Race will never cease to impress me. The capitalist world has inexhaustible and unsuspected resources to condition our lives, suck up our income and make us work. I recently had three examples that I would like to share with you.

A few weeks ago, I invited a group of friends to come and eat at home. A few days before the meal, a girl told me that she had recently converted to "vegan" and asked me if she could bring her food with her, knowing that I am a carnivore from the very beginning. No problem for me, I even offered to cook something specially for her, but she preferred to bring "her products". On the day in question, she took out of a bag, obviously from one of our Swiss distribution giants, a kind of pseudo minced steak wrapped in plastic. I put it in the pan, wondering how you cook a steak without meat, the very concept of "rare" being totally irrelevant here. I wondered especially about what was in it. Since I know a bit about cooking and nutrition, I'm already making a small, amused mental image of the instructions written in small print on the back of the packaging, which I ignored and threw in my trash, out of politeness towards my guest. Not exactly zero waste either. Once the meal is over and the guests have left, I throw myself on the trash in search of the object that arouses all my curiosity. No mistake. Full of crap like modified corn starch E 1442, thickener E 461, various flavors... Even more surprising: sugar and orange juice! In the end, the protein content is low relative to meat (14g/100), with a proportion of carbohydrates almost as high. Not to mention that this crap sells for almost the same price as a real ground steak. In short, veganism, originally a movement supposed to make us eat healthier and more cheaply, has been taken over by industrialists to make us eat even worse while paying a high price. Let's be clear, even if I love meat, I'm not criticizing this way of life. Everyone eats what they want. What I'm pointing out is how capitalism manages to transform a risk into an opportunity and how most of us, simple consumers, fall into the trap.

In the same vein, I recently saw a report on TV that said that sales of water bottles were currently exploding. Riding the wave of "zero waste", manufacturers have started to produce containers of all shapes, materials and colors imaginable, with patterns for all tastes. This has been taken up by "stars" who show themselves with "their" water bottles, which have become, in spite of themselves, a fashion item. So yes, of course, it is better to fill your water bottle with tap water and reuse it for many years, rather than buying PET bottles. That being said, given the turn of events, I would tend to believe that the cure in this case is worse than the disease. Everything suggests that these water bottles, made of hard plastic or even metal, will end up in the trash in a few months, when their colors and patterns have faded or simply gone out of fashion. I can see kids in the aisles begging their parents to buy the latest "Pokémon" or "Paw Patrol"... So we end up with a situation almost identical to veganism, with a capitalist world that manages to make new profits from an a priori threat, while making the situation even worse, with the blessing of consumers. I am already looking forward to the new debates in a few years around the pollution caused by these gourds, followed by new remedies proposed by manufacturers and the immediate reaction of the consumer sheep.

The last example is a little different but gives even more food for thought. A few evenings ago I came across a "health" documentary about the skin. Starting from the observation that soap had an unfortunate tendency to dry it out, an individual showered for a week with just water. A check-up by a dermatologist was carried out before and after. The verdict was clear: a clear improvement in the condition of the skin, less dry, fewer spots, redness and itching. In terms of odors, after the first few days of adaptation, there was no difference. In other words, soap (and any lotions/creams to moisturize the skin from the dryness it causes) can simply be thrown in the trash. Ok, you might ask, what is this cosmetics course doing here? It's simple. Our parents soap us for the first time within 24 hours of our birth. Right after Pampers, this is the first consumer good that is imposed on us. Unlike the first, this one will continue to accompany us throughout our adult lives (we find Pampers much later, but that's another story). We are conditioned to wash ourselves with it, to the point that it becomes just inconceivable to see things otherwise. If you have never read the cave myth, I encourage you to do it, because here, through this tiny example, all of humanity is immersed in it. What a godsend for Procter & Gamble or Unilever. Imagine if we all freed ourselves from this little chain, overnight. It could be done with a simple snap of the fingers, a little tweet that goes viral, and no one would soap themselves anymore. I dare not imagine the faces of the leaders of the two aforementioned companies. The dividends would certainly not be paid the following year!