Most Americans get stuck buying IRL things from a series of interconnected big companies. They’ve hogged the middle and leveraged that position, making it work to get out from under their thumb.
Edit: Most Americans also only see upper middle class urban European things and living. Farmers in rural places don’t live exactly healthy, idealized lives. They put their pear brandy in old Fanta bottles they drank themselves. Ployester and Ikea and the cheapest Chinese plastic goods are everywhere. Please keep expectations real.
First, buy local to the greatest extent possible. Do anything you can to starve big business. But local produce, local art, anything. Buy second hand as well. Repair things first before discarding.
Second, engage in lifestyle change that befits less consumerism. Use less paper products, get a bidet attachment, compost and garden, stop buying highly processed foods. This makes buying imported goods like olive oil more bearable.
However, buying things like Mexican Coca cola are silly - it’s still fucking Coca cola. If you buy imported mayo, is it still from a Unilever company? Nestle is fucking terrible. Don’t just shift your money to a horrible European company.
For tech, that’s eaiser. There’s tons of lists of personal tech stacks that omit US-based for profit companies. Proton and Tuta and Mailbox.org and Qwant and Startpage.
Most Americans get stuck buying IRL things from a series of interconnected big companies. They’ve hogged the middle and leveraged that position, making it work to get out from under their thumb.
Edit: Most Americans also only see upper middle class urban European things and living. Farmers in rural places don’t live exactly healthy, idealized lives. They put their pear brandy in old Fanta bottles they drank themselves. Ployester and Ikea and the cheapest Chinese plastic goods are everywhere. Please keep expectations real.
First, buy local to the greatest extent possible. Do anything you can to starve big business. But local produce, local art, anything. Buy second hand as well. Repair things first before discarding.
Second, engage in lifestyle change that befits less consumerism. Use less paper products, get a bidet attachment, compost and garden, stop buying highly processed foods. This makes buying imported goods like olive oil more bearable.
However, buying things like Mexican Coca cola are silly - it’s still fucking Coca cola. If you buy imported mayo, is it still from a Unilever company? Nestle is fucking terrible. Don’t just shift your money to a horrible European company.
For tech, that’s eaiser. There’s tons of lists of personal tech stacks that omit US-based for profit companies. Proton and Tuta and Mailbox.org and Qwant and Startpage.
Hej! No shade on IKEA!