Just a Buck
Late last year, Fox signed me up for a service called Bobcat in a Box. Based on an xkdc comic, this bot goes online every day and purchases an item with a cost of one American dollar or less, and has free shipping. You wouldn't think there would be a lot of stuff out there for under a buck that ships for free, but it's amazing what shows up in the mailbox. So it was a smart move on his part - I like small random objects I can use in my art, and I like receiving mail. It makes me feel important.
Ads are always asking, "What can you get for a dollar nowadays?" Usually the answer is something like a taco, or one day of life insurance, or feeding a kid in some third world country. So far, I've gotten lots of costume jewelry, a pad of sticky notes shaped like band-aids, a plastic mushroom, a tiny wooden sign, a toy animal that might be a shark, and a spudger. To my mind, this is money well spent.
Sometimes, though, I find myself wondering about all the other costs associated with this. Everything I've gotten so far has come from China. Some human has to stick an item in an envelope and either take it to the post office, or another human comes and picks it up. Then it gets put on, I assume, an airplane and flown over to America, where more humans handle the package, put it on trucks, take it off trucks, until it ends up with my rural route carrier who plonks it into my mailbox. Each one of those humans does this because it's their job - some other human gives them money to do it. But how much jet fuel and diesel does this use up? What about the manufacturing of all those little plastic envelopes?
But back to the service. You sign up from month to month and pay thirty dollars up front. If you want to, you can auto-renew. Thirty bucks is not an inconsiderable amount of money - it could be part of someone's rent money, or it could buy enough food to get a small family through the week. Thirty dollars could get you a nice hardback book, a pair of pants, or a bottle of liquor. If you split it in half, you've got fifteen dollars, which might get you a printed t-shirt, or a couple of manga. Split into thirds, it's ten dollars, which is about what you might spend on a fast food lunch. But what else can you get for a single dollar? At the farmers' market, it might get me a cabbage, a couple of lemons, or some mushrooms. By itself, though, a dollar doesn't get you much at all. Even a bottle of coke or a bag of chips is more than a dollar, and then there's sales tax.
What can you get for a dollar nowadays? Nothing, really. If you've got thirty of them, though, you can get a whole bunch of weird Chinese crap!
Ads are always asking, "What can you get for a dollar nowadays?" Usually the answer is something like a taco, or one day of life insurance, or feeding a kid in some third world country. So far, I've gotten lots of costume jewelry, a pad of sticky notes shaped like band-aids, a plastic mushroom, a tiny wooden sign, a toy animal that might be a shark, and a spudger. To my mind, this is money well spent.
Sometimes, though, I find myself wondering about all the other costs associated with this. Everything I've gotten so far has come from China. Some human has to stick an item in an envelope and either take it to the post office, or another human comes and picks it up. Then it gets put on, I assume, an airplane and flown over to America, where more humans handle the package, put it on trucks, take it off trucks, until it ends up with my rural route carrier who plonks it into my mailbox. Each one of those humans does this because it's their job - some other human gives them money to do it. But how much jet fuel and diesel does this use up? What about the manufacturing of all those little plastic envelopes?
But back to the service. You sign up from month to month and pay thirty dollars up front. If you want to, you can auto-renew. Thirty bucks is not an inconsiderable amount of money - it could be part of someone's rent money, or it could buy enough food to get a small family through the week. Thirty dollars could get you a nice hardback book, a pair of pants, or a bottle of liquor. If you split it in half, you've got fifteen dollars, which might get you a printed t-shirt, or a couple of manga. Split into thirds, it's ten dollars, which is about what you might spend on a fast food lunch. But what else can you get for a single dollar? At the farmers' market, it might get me a cabbage, a couple of lemons, or some mushrooms. By itself, though, a dollar doesn't get you much at all. Even a bottle of coke or a bag of chips is more than a dollar, and then there's sales tax.
What can you get for a dollar nowadays? Nothing, really. If you've got thirty of them, though, you can get a whole bunch of weird Chinese crap!