What Do These Stories Say About Our Country?

I was stunned when I saw an advertisement in the local grocery circular for Spaghetti O’s Organic. I have written many times about how organic foods are no more nutritious than the non-organic, how pesticides used in organic farming can be more dangerous than conventional pesticides and generally how consumers are paying more for a mythical “healthy halo” associated with words like natural and organic.

Intrigued, I went looking for those Spaghetti O’s at the store and found, as expected, that the price was about 35% higher for substantially the same product: same size can with very similar ingredients and nutritional value.  (The original had 10 more calories and a little more sugar.) Taking that 35% and applying it to the average family grocery bill of $600 per week* gives a potential waste of $210 per week or nearly $11,000 per year. Of course it is currently impossible to substitute organic for everything on the grocery list, but each individual choice is contributing to a part of that potential of $11,000. 

* Estimate is based on the low end of the Official USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food at Home, “Thrifty” Plan, U.S. Average, April 2018, so the potential waste for many families could be higher (up to double).

But we are not just talking about kids’ food. This equally shocking report came from the CBS Sunday Morning show a few weeks back. Celebrities are endorsing recreational marijuana in states where it’s legal. Tommy Chong, from the Cheech and Chong marijuana movies, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dog, Melissa Etheridge and Whoopi Goldberg are putting their names on products as a marketing ploy to enhance sales. As the pot marketing expert told CBS, “stores can basically charge an average of a 25% markup over the same type of product that doesn't have a celebrity name on it."  

So people are willing to pay 35% more for canned pasta and 25% more for their weed, based on the packaging, with no substantial difference in the product.  These are the same Americans who stress about retirement insecurity.  Fifty percent don’t have $1000 set aside for an auto repair or a medical emergency and one in four couldn’t come up with $100 in a pinch.

Meanwhile, instead of offering advice on how to live a more financially stable life, the news media fills us with more reasons to spend money needlessly, because Americans are so focused on celebrity endorsements and fads.  We are fed stories about how the Mediterranean diet is being replaced by the Nordic diet as the healthiest way to eat, apparently because it replaces the focus on olive oil with a preference for rapeseed oil/canola oil.  New fads bump out the older ones, but some can't even keep up. Things are changing so fast ; the news cycle and the viral cycle have accelerated to the point where it is no longer profitable for companies to print today's memes on t-shirts. By the time they hit the shelves, they are out of date – and no one wants to be seen in a shirt with a wise or funny saying or image that’s no longer relevant!  What would your friends think?

These are just a few examples of a serious shortage in critical thinking and perspective. Doesn’t it make you want to roll your eyes, shake your head, and hope that people come to their senses soon?