 Here's a theory I've been thinking about. It could reduce waste, make you more money, while keeping our economy going. One of the first questions we have when we see something new is how much does it cost? This is kind of a big deal to us, picking things that are cheap. We're always on the hunt to find the lowest price. And companies know this, so they try to make their things more affordable. We build our world on this philosophy, making things cheaper. But making things as cheap as possible is wrong. See, it costs money to make something, like this hammer. And like everything else around us, it costs manpower, energy and material to make it. So let's say this red chair, a pretty basic red chair, let's break down the cost. It takes material to make, needs to be produced, transported, people need to be paid, and some profit for the company. Every step has its price, which makes up the final price for this chair, 32 dollars. Now you can make it cheaper for let's say 24 dollars, and the company selling the chair doesn't want to lose profit, which means that everyone involved has to pay for it. Companies are good in finding ways to make things cheaper, by building bigger, more efficient production lines for our gadgets, finding ways to harvest more food each year, or having people in developing countries make your clothes. In the end, someone somewhere in the world will earn less, because, well, you spend less. And here comes the most bizarre thing of it all, you are that someone. With your job, you're probably involved somewhere in these steps as well. Probably not with red chairs, but any company that sells products, holidays, foods, clothes, insurances, etc. The cheaper they sell their things, the less budget there is to pay you. And people earning less is a big downside, but there are a few more. To make stuff cheap, it needs to be made quick, which means more work pressure. Factories are moved to places where companies don't have to pay for environmental loss, products are made using lower quality tooling and materials, which break easier, and so more stuff ends up at the landfill. Now overall, you can buy things cheaper, but everything else gets worse. It doesn't seem like a way forward, right? So here's my theory. What if we would all just stop going for cheap stuff, no one ever, anymore, no more cheap? Naturally, everything will cost more and we will buy less. But because the price goes up, there's also more budget available to make things properly. We can create better jobs, there's less work pressure to make things quick, so less stress and burnouts creating a healthier workspace. We can put more time in research and development, designing better products, not like the shitty, quickly designed things. With a little bit more research and engineering up front, we can make products much better. We can use only decent, sustainable materials, all sourced the right way, fair, organic, recycled, materials that don't damage our environment. We can afford to create only high quality stuff, using better tools and materials to make things that last for generations, not months. And since things aren't cheap, there's more budget available for everyone involved, like you, right? And everyone else that helps out making the products. And finally, when you pass away, which you probably will at some point, you don't leave a house of junk behind that is thrown away, but you leave a mind of valuable goods. This isn't perfect yet. There's no guarantee that companies will spend their money on this stuff. But at least in this way, there's budget available to do it. And if we keep making things cheap, it's definitely not going to happen. Now this is a huge change in our economic system. And here's probably the coolest thing of it all. We could just start this, like tomorrow, all of us. See, currently the cycle is like this. You buy shitty cheap stuff, so there's no budget to make things properly, exploiting our environment, which also means people get paid less, so they buy cheap stuff, which completes the circle. But if we all make a small change right here, it changes the whole cycle. Suddenly, there is budget to make things properly. So also people involved get paid more, so people will earn more and they can buy decent things that are properly made and last longer. So in this way, companies still have their profits. We do less harm for the environment, create better products and better work conditions. Seems like a better way forward, right? Thanks for watching this video. If you want to chat about it, or leave your feedback or discuss, go to our forums. And if you want to see more videos, visit storyhopper.com.