![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not Economically Viable
Jun. 20th, 2008 07:20 pm1. Public Services
Last spring, the Post Office announced that it would be closing our local branch, as part of its new policy of closing and consolidating those branches that were not making a profit. There was an immediate public uproar. The petition against this collected over 15,000 signatures between March and May of last year, in a town with a resident population of only around 21,000, including students. Hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals wrote personal letters of protest, only to be blown off. "Public consultation" (see previous link) ended last August. The post office officially shut earlier this month.
2. Mainstream Recycling
I'm an almost obsessive paper-saver. I hate to waste it, even to recycle unused paper. I'd been using the backs of last year's page-a-day calendar as scratch paper well into this year, though I eventually had to give it up when I moved. Unsurprisingly, I don't buy stationary very often. A few days ago, I finally finished a mini-notebook / diary that I bought in 2005, and spent ages searching for just the perfect mini-notebook to replace it.
The last time I was in Bess, our Students' Union stationary shop, it had just one kind of recycled paper, from a brand called 'Rhino' and stacked with all the other paper, equal partner amongst them, indistinguishable but for the label. This time, I went in to find just the perfect little mini-notebook, again from the 'Rhino' brand. It proudly announced that buying it would, somehow, save the rhinocerous, but I was much more interested in the waterproof cover, the inside pocket, the bonus mini-ruler, and, most important for diary-making purposes, that it had the correct number of lines. What it did not have was a line of print assuring me that the paper was recycled.
Then I noticed the shelf in the corner. It was stacked high with coarse brown notebooks, also of this same 'Rhino' brand. A green sign hung above it all, announcing that this shelf had all of the recycled-paper stationary. Yet while the notebook I'd found on the 'normal' shelf was sleek and pretty, with several convenient extras, its recycled-paper equivalent was ugly and ragged-looking. It had a shitty cardboard cover, and the paper inside was yellowish and grainy, presumably so that you would know that it was recycled. There wasn't even an inside pocket. But, you know, I was supposed to want to buy it anyway, because it was *~*~recycled~*~*, and I am a supposedly 'ethical' consumer -- and everyone else could know it, too, since its recycled nature was also printed proudly and large across its cover.
Of course, I bought the nicer notebook. I'll be using this thing for at least a year, after all, it might as well be nice. And I am someone who's actually concerned about all this shit. Someone who doesn't give a damn might have bought a recycled-paper notebook if it were as good as the others, but only the dedicated would buy them when they're of a significantly lower quality.
The stupidest thing is that, normally, recycled paper is completely indistinguishable from normal, tree-killing paper. There is no need for it to be grainy and horrible, except that it makes it "look recycled", since 'ethical consumerism' has become a niche market just like any other. Because capitalism has the unique talent of absorbing and perverting everything it touches (see: 'biofuels').
3. Job Satisfaction
I'm really annoyed with my manager lately. This is for all sorts of reasons, but the most persistent is that he keeps scheduling only one person to work in the kitchen. This is okay a few days at a time, especially when it's quiet, but I'm getting pretty tired of it. It is lonely, after all, and I've grown tired of all of my CDs, and there are no interesting radio stations. Furthermore, it means that each of us gets fewer hours every week, and the hours we do work are more stressful and exhausting.
There's a lot of ongoing of prep and maintenance and such that would be easy enough with two people, but becomes incredibly annoying when it is punctuated by having to fill food orders, and makes filling those orders far more stressful than it would be otherwise. Yesterday was particularly bad, as the other cook had left me a huge list of prep to do, and it was fairly busy to boot.
On my way home, I found an IWW sticker stuck to the pavement.
Last spring, the Post Office announced that it would be closing our local branch, as part of its new policy of closing and consolidating those branches that were not making a profit. There was an immediate public uproar. The petition against this collected over 15,000 signatures between March and May of last year, in a town with a resident population of only around 21,000, including students. Hundreds, maybe thousands of individuals wrote personal letters of protest, only to be blown off. "Public consultation" (see previous link) ended last August. The post office officially shut earlier this month.
2. Mainstream Recycling
I'm an almost obsessive paper-saver. I hate to waste it, even to recycle unused paper. I'd been using the backs of last year's page-a-day calendar as scratch paper well into this year, though I eventually had to give it up when I moved. Unsurprisingly, I don't buy stationary very often. A few days ago, I finally finished a mini-notebook / diary that I bought in 2005, and spent ages searching for just the perfect mini-notebook to replace it.
The last time I was in Bess, our Students' Union stationary shop, it had just one kind of recycled paper, from a brand called 'Rhino' and stacked with all the other paper, equal partner amongst them, indistinguishable but for the label. This time, I went in to find just the perfect little mini-notebook, again from the 'Rhino' brand. It proudly announced that buying it would, somehow, save the rhinocerous, but I was much more interested in the waterproof cover, the inside pocket, the bonus mini-ruler, and, most important for diary-making purposes, that it had the correct number of lines. What it did not have was a line of print assuring me that the paper was recycled.
Then I noticed the shelf in the corner. It was stacked high with coarse brown notebooks, also of this same 'Rhino' brand. A green sign hung above it all, announcing that this shelf had all of the recycled-paper stationary. Yet while the notebook I'd found on the 'normal' shelf was sleek and pretty, with several convenient extras, its recycled-paper equivalent was ugly and ragged-looking. It had a shitty cardboard cover, and the paper inside was yellowish and grainy, presumably so that you would know that it was recycled. There wasn't even an inside pocket. But, you know, I was supposed to want to buy it anyway, because it was *~*~recycled~*~*, and I am a supposedly 'ethical' consumer -- and everyone else could know it, too, since its recycled nature was also printed proudly and large across its cover.
Of course, I bought the nicer notebook. I'll be using this thing for at least a year, after all, it might as well be nice. And I am someone who's actually concerned about all this shit. Someone who doesn't give a damn might have bought a recycled-paper notebook if it were as good as the others, but only the dedicated would buy them when they're of a significantly lower quality.
The stupidest thing is that, normally, recycled paper is completely indistinguishable from normal, tree-killing paper. There is no need for it to be grainy and horrible, except that it makes it "look recycled", since 'ethical consumerism' has become a niche market just like any other. Because capitalism has the unique talent of absorbing and perverting everything it touches (see: 'biofuels').
3. Job Satisfaction
I'm really annoyed with my manager lately. This is for all sorts of reasons, but the most persistent is that he keeps scheduling only one person to work in the kitchen. This is okay a few days at a time, especially when it's quiet, but I'm getting pretty tired of it. It is lonely, after all, and I've grown tired of all of my CDs, and there are no interesting radio stations. Furthermore, it means that each of us gets fewer hours every week, and the hours we do work are more stressful and exhausting.
There's a lot of ongoing of prep and maintenance and such that would be easy enough with two people, but becomes incredibly annoying when it is punctuated by having to fill food orders, and makes filling those orders far more stressful than it would be otherwise. Yesterday was particularly bad, as the other cook had left me a huge list of prep to do, and it was fairly busy to boot.
On my way home, I found an IWW sticker stuck to the pavement.
