So about this club we're starting

I did some redecorating. 

So, this week is interesting in that I'm not totally swamped with work. That means I can do things kind of leisurely and take on a few extra projects. I'm currently painting some temporary wallpaper in my friend's dorm room, as well as putting together some t-shirt designs for the band my coworker is in. 

So, all in all, things are going pretty good. 

I have three paintings due in the next two weeks, though. That might end up being a stretch. I've been trying to get as much of a jump on them as I can, though. 

Hopefully, this week we'll hear back about our club status. I haven't mentioned this before because we weren't sure when we were going to be official, but I'm starting a club at school called "Students for Responsible Consumerism."

Basically, it's about the individual's role in the overall scheme of capitalism. I began brainstorming it last spring, turned in the paperwork the first week of school....and still haven't heard back from them.

In the meantime, our blog will be at http://responsibleconsumerism.tumblr.com

There's nothing there right now. 

But when there is, everyone should totally come check us out.

Now, I know the name of the club sounds too exciting for words. 

I'm hoping that the Occupy movement will increase interest in the type of message we're sending. We're also going to be working on a variety of things to try to make it more appealing. 

Because, really, it's quite interesting -- here's a breakdown:

We live in a supply-and-demand economy. While there are many other influences on the transaction between corporation and consumer, at the very core the main interaction is such: the corporation must make a product that is desirable to the consumer, and the consumer purchases that which they find most desirable. 

Now, here's where the problems start.

If a corporation wants to make a cheap product to meet the demands of the consumer, they have to have cheap labor and resources. This is what begins the cycle of exploitation. For instance, many companies seek labor out of the country in order to lower costs, taking advantage of less regulated places (such as China), where they can get lots of labor with minimal cost. 

That's bad in terms of both social justice and the outlook of jobs within our own country. 

However, we can't just demand that companies not do that. Why? Because we endorse it. If we are buying the products that they are creating through exploiting labor where the rights of workers aren't as protected, then we are also exploiting those workers. 

So, instead of just pointing fingers and demand that companies fix themselves, we need to actually change our own attitudes. We need to understand the value of a product and the labor behind it; we need to learn to appreciate what we have and not continue to seek extraneous cheap products; we need to support locally produced products and small businesses. 

Or that's the big idea, anyway. We're going to be fleshing all of this out with time.