Gene Ayres, Your Consumer Curmudgeon

I have long been about as far from the mainstream as a person can be when it comes to fashion awareness, or having the slightest interest in it. But things can change when you have a young daughter (step-daughter in my case) who is closing in on puberty at an alarming pace, whose first female idol was Barbie (this, a girl who was born and raised in China), whose subsequent favored role model is Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, from Legally Blonde, and whose idea of education is to learn the latest girls’ popular cultural raves (is that an allowable word for a 6th grader?) or rages.

She’s a very smart girl, mind you, but a ready target of so much media marketing it’s really almost impossible for her to avoid these social, media and cultural pressures to be in style, in fashion, be cool, have the right look, wear the “right” brands, and so on. Meanwhile it’s impossible for a concerned parent to head it all off at the pass, or anywhere else. We limit TV to a couple shows a week (we allow PBS for kids, and don’t get Disney Channel, thankfully, but her friends all do). Internet means Disney.com pretty much period, and even there I was alarmed to hear the latest pop hit song about a girl proud to be a Barbie girl, who sang: “You can undress me anywhere.” Do eleven and twelve year old girls really need to hear this stuff, or am I sounding like an old grump (or curmudgeon, maybe?).

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By Gene Ayres, Your Consumer Curmudgeon

Correction and update:

In my last dispatch I repeated my assertion that tap water was as good as, and actually safer than, bottled water. While this used to be true in most areas of the civilized world including the U.S., recent developments, as reported this past week by The New York Times, have revealed that this is no longer true. While bottled water does contain cancer-causing plastic contaminants, at least it isn’t the color of coal and loaded with arsenic, barium and lead like the water now coming out of taps in West Virginia, or laced with sewage and e-coli like the farm-runoff contaminated tap water turning up in Wisconsin and other agricultural regions. In fact, the Times has found that contaminated public water supplies exist now in every state of the union. So, much as I hate to do so I am forced to drink my words. Bottled water may actually not only be safer, but an absolute necessity if you or your water supplies are anywhere near large agribusinesses, including poultry, livestock, and any non-organic produce or grain growers. I would say this: read your labels carefully. Spring water might once have been the best choice, but even springs can risk contamination, since water pollution became virtually unregulated or enforced during the Bush era. Your other alternative would be an expensive water filtration system, such as reverse osmosis, which would be better and cheaper in the long run than bottled water in any case.

Meanwhile, for this week’s topic, as usual: corporate malfeasance, hypocrisy and deception remain in the forefront. The latest scam is the new so-called “Smart Choice” labeling program recently put into effect by the largest corporate food processors such as Kellogg, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, ConAgra, and Kraft. Trying to further capitalize on the “green foods” movement, these folks have helpfully set out to relieve us weary and wary consumers of that tedious task of having to read food labels to sort out all those unpronounceable chemical additives, preservatives, and sugar and fat content in their food products. Mind you, the contents haven’t changed at all. Only the labeling. From now on, all these foods, formerly known as “junk foods,” will be relabeled as “Smart Choice” foods, with a nice handy green check mark on the front.

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By Gene Ayres, Your Consumer Curmudgeon

We have, as a culture, been so victimized and indoctrinated by commercial media into thinking we want, or worse, need most of these products and services, that we take them for granted. Now would be a great time to make some real savings for things you may actually need (like healthcare).

I’ve written about most of these things before, but a good list (such as the one modified and edited below that was first published by Woman’s Daily last July) is always worth repeating. Somehow we ignore facts, no matter how elegantly or precisely stated, in favor of opinion, especially when stated loudly enough. But one of the most useful means of lifestyle change and modification I have found over the years is to make and keep a simple list. Such as this one, which might find a good place on, say, your refrigerator.

I’ll start with the health-related items I mentioned last week, because they are so basic, and simple, and offer such obvious savings:

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By Gene Ayres, Your Consumer Curmudgeon

Here’s a wild and crazy idea to assure affordable healthcare: stay healthy! Wags have been posting various takes on this insane notion for some time now. Of course it’s usually along the lines of “best way to avoid massive hospital bills: don’t get sick!”

But this idea actually makes sense. The one thing the AMA, health insurance industries, for profit hospitals and Big Pharma never, never mention, because they don’t even want it on the table, is preventive medicine. Which is to say, commonsense, practical, no-nonsense steps the average person can and should take to stay healthy.

A healthy lifestyle might just be a good way to start. Here are some numbers to think about:

Obesity costs the American healthcare system more than $100 billion annually. Diabetes care costs another $150 billion. Heart disease costs double that at $300 billion per year. These are bills all of us are footing either as taxpayers or fellow workers, including those of us who actually don’t live from one KFC to the next, or consider opening the next box of Dunkin’ Donuts as our version of daily exercise.

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