Crush Bottle After Use

CRUSH BOTTLE AFTER USE   is a notice appearing on most water bottles in India.  Why is that important? At first, I thought it had something to do with recycling.  There was recycling going on, but not the type I had imagined.  I was corrected and learned that this notice was a measure to prevent against fraud.  What kind of fraud would that be?  It turns out that uncrushed bottles were being fished out of trash piles and refilled with tap water to be resold as bottled water.  Ingenious!  The sellers, in their ostensible zeal to offer great customer service, would quickly "open" the bottle for you, while handing it over.

What would compel someone to deceive a buyer in this way?  These bottles of water are not that profitable, and the potential for harm is high.  In a nation crowded with poverty and resourcefulness, this practice was widespread enough that it warranted the notice.  Can we really blame someone for trying to eke out an existence on the few rupees they could get by selling "recycled" water bottles?  Aren't they just looking out for themselves in a world that offers no alternative?  A CEO doesn't want you to be homeless; he is just making sure the company's stock is valuable.  The small businesswoman doesn't want to lay you off, but she can't stay competitive with operating costs inflated by your salary.  It is what is required.  


If you don't like this "ruling value syntax" (John McMurtry), then see how you can change the value orientation.  Until you realize the condition, a bewildering array of symptoms will continue to proliferate faster than you can imagine them.

Indentured Students

From a radio broadcast on kpcc.org:  http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2011/09/02/20539/student-loans/

"Total amount owed in college loans across the country: $1 trillion (more than all U.S. households owe on credit cards). Number of undergraduates who have gone into debt for their education: two-thirds."--KPCC

"These are 18-year-olds, who are indenturing themselves for life."

--Andrew Hacker, Professor, Department of Political Science, Queens College

Professor Hacker correctly identified this problem by saying these students are becoming indentured.  Their student loan debts cannot be forgiven--even with bankruptcy!  Essentially, the banks have a lifelong leash on these students, regardless of what happens to them financially.  If they become stuck in poverty because their degree didn't pay off as they were told to believe, then that is just too bad for them.  Their wages, tax returns, social security checks can be garnished.  In a society that promotes higher education as the golden key to "getting a job" so one can "earn a living" (because you're right to life is not guaranteed), despite the fact that getting a job is not guaranteed, nor is earning a livable wage enforced by any regulatory agency.  Simply, this is a scheme that promotes only the interests of money investors, not of society's youth.  Why not invest in a student loan when there is total protection from bankruptcy?  It does not matter how destitute the person becomes, the money investor still gets to rope in their share, even if that rope is around the former-student-not-getting-paid-enough worker's neck.

Professor Hacker suggested that all education should be free, which I appreciated, but that is unlikely considering the driving value program of our time: money-for-more-money (John McMurtry, Cancer Stage of Capitalism).  Without a shift in the underlying economic paradigm, debt servitude will continue.  Because the last two decades have seen an exponential redistribution of wealth up to the top 1-3% of the global population, the remaining 97% will feel ever more severely the burdens of this value program, worsening as one goes down the socio-economic scale.