The ecology argument makes sense, of course, insofar more of the sales are in the US than Asia. Nonetheless, it seems to me that it's usually more of a convenient side-effect than the actual motivation. But thanks for your perspective.
Some of the Kickstarter project take manufacturing to an extremely local level. In the project description it will say that their costs are higher because the designers want everything to be manufactured in their hipster town. I feel really uneasy about such sentiments. (And mind you, people call me a hipster all the time.)
As for the Chinese economy, I try to be optimistic. However… The housing market seems really unhealthy. You'll pay more for an apartment in a not-that-great neighborhood in Beijing than for one in an awesome neighborhood in the capital of many European cities. Meanwhile, the quality of the Beijing apartment will leave much to be desired and the building is actually built on land that is merely leased from the government! Consumerism is crazy too. Did you know that on China's Single's Day (one of the many holidays in China invented by marketeers) sales were higher than on the US's Black Friday?
Finally, the Chinese definitely don't care about the environment. It's not in their mindset at all. Everyone wants to drive an SUV (while public transportation is dirt-cheap), the amount of plastic packaging they use is insane, the only recycling is done by homeless people who collect plastic bottles from trash cans, etcetera.
The ecology argument makes sense, of course, insofar more of the sales are in the US than Asia. Nonetheless, it seems to me that it's usually more of a convenient side-effect than the actual motivation. But thanks for your perspective.
Some of the Kickstarter project take manufacturing to an extremely local level. In the project description it will say that their costs are higher because the designers want everything to be manufactured in their hipster town. I feel really uneasy about such sentiments. (And mind you, people call me a hipster all the time.)
As for the Chinese economy, I try to be optimistic. However… The housing market seems really unhealthy. You'll pay more for an apartment in a not-that-great neighborhood in Beijing than for one in an awesome neighborhood in the capital of many European cities. Meanwhile, the quality of the Beijing apartment will leave much to be desired and the building is actually built on land that is merely leased from the government! Consumerism is crazy too. Did you know that on China's Single's Day (one of the many holidays in China invented by marketeers) sales were higher than on the US's Black Friday?
Finally, the Chinese definitely don't care about the environment. It's not in their mindset at all. Everyone wants to drive an SUV (while public transportation is dirt-cheap), the amount of plastic packaging they use is insane, the only recycling is done by homeless people who collect plastic bottles from trash cans, etcetera.