Feels like wherever you turn, you see a high-trust society disintegrating into a low-trust one.
This stuff sticks out because it’s getting caught and called out. There was a time when information spread slowly, tracking supply chains was basically impossible, and many businesses would do shady things because they knew they were unlikely to get caught.
Now we can sample things like honey with lab equipment that is basically magic compared to technology 50 years ago, so these things are getting caught. We also have the internet to share stories, so they’re getting seen.
So while people are becoming more aware, I think these things are actually better than in the past.
However, pick up a high value product and it’s likely to be some effectively identical fake while still being sold by the company it says on the box. An expensive restaurant is quite likely to be selling you fish when it says it’s fish but it may not be the correct species of fish etc etc.
Eating at a random food truck is safe because we care a lot about safety, but let the buyer beware around just about anything else.
What is this supposed to mean? Every high value product I purchase is definitely unique to the company that makes it. My laptop, GPU, car, and phone are definitely not some rebranded items.
Clothes, chargers, cables, etc are counterfeit because it isn’t nearly as obvious.
Name brand foods often come with significant markups and would be fairly easy to counterfeit premium bottled water etc. Except as the article mentions food substitutes generally happen earlier in the supply chain not at the grocery store.
You are correct. At least in the United States.
There was a university agronomist on the radio a couple of weeks ago talking about how people get all worked up about food recalls. They act like there are more of them than ever before.
She said the amazing thing is that there aren't more recalls, since we produce and consume so much food than ever with so much involved in the process.
She says the system isn't perfect (no system ever is), but it's far better than what we've had in the past and the results are remarkable.
I lived in a developing country in Asia and the number of food safety concerns that popped up was far, far lower than what you see in the West.
When another foreigner mentioned how "safe" the food was, I said "yeah, concerns don't pop up because nobody is looking for them".
I still hear younger coworkers snidely remark that the US is an “third world country with cellphones” while they live a lifestyle with safety, comfort, and luxury that puts them in the top 1% of people in the world. It’s wild.
Given how things have been going in the US the past few years, I am frankly inclined to agree with them.
Healthcare aside, here is but one example: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/08/14/new-video-shows-...
So sure, the pursuit of profits is impactful; but the lack of repercussions (when making choices that hurt others) is a pretty major player, too.
I get annoyed at "capitalism is bad for the environment" because it ignores the Soviets' environmental devastation, which was done in the name of improving society. The truth is that environmentalism is a distinct ideology from purely economic concerns, and it wasn't until the 60s that environmentalism became a left-liberal agenda item. I think it is similar with authoritarianism versus democracy. Democratic capitalists work for their workers; authoritarian capitalists work for their investors.
One of the most ancient examples of the written words we have is from a copper merchant complaining about the quality of the ingots he received[1]. The tablet could just as easily have been a complaint about the quality of honey purchased.
This is a reversion to the mean.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-nāṣir
For instance, Chinese mother refuse to buy powder milk in china since there has been so much fraud. Manufacturer put melamine (a plastic chemical) in powder milk for years to make them appear with more protein than reality, inducing kidney damage to newborn.
That kind of thing doesn't happen in civilized society, this require a complete lack of morality and wide corruption.
What you may actually be witnessing is a low awareness society turn into a high awareness one. What is being highlighted is you never should have had that trust in the first place.
Actual snake oil in the 1800s came from Chinese water snakes, and Chinese laborers who immigrated to the U.S. shared it with fellow workers as they helped build the transcontinental railroad. This type of snake oil, Pedersen says, was indeed an effective anti-inflammatory.... Enter the mysterious Clark Stanley in 1893.... Standing on stage in front of a growing crowd, Stanley pulled a rattlesnake out of a sack resting near his feet. In dramatic fashion, he slit the rattlesnake open with a knife, placed the snake in a vat of boiling water, and watched as its fat rose to the surface. Stanley sold his product, dubbed “Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment,” in liniment jars, boasting about its healing powers. Of course, Stanley’s snake oil was a marketing gimmick from the very start.
Stanley's oil's actual ingredients: "mineral oil, beef fat, red pepper and turpentine". (Above article).
His and others' deceptive practices lead to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.
<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-snake-oil-beca...>
Wikpedia has more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil>
PE squeezing hospitals, nursing homes, and rent is a new thing. Look at rents - the inflation of them is not something that happened in the past.
In the case of rents, the evil landlord raising rents and kicking people out is a trope you see in 1910s fiction. (probably before that, but I haven't personally read much fiction older than about 1910)
I just don't see a reason to believe that. I've seen things change dramatically in my lifetime.
So I'm asking why you think nostalgia is more powerful than: 1. the dominant narrative 2. The possibility of that narrative being true and living it.
Old people are not easily scammed because they are inherently stupid. It's because they grew up in a time when fewer people were trying to scam them, and are not on guard. I don't think seniors from the Soviet Union have this problem.
Fixed that for you.