Thanks to Captain Crab for letting me know about this fun 20-minute video by Annie Leonard called The Story of Stuff. It it, using animation, she explains how “[f]rom its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad.” Basically it’s about the externalized costs that allow us to get things for $1.99 at our local big-box store:
Found at The Story of Stuff.
NOTE: As several commenters have pointed out, this video is definitely a simplification–it is, after all, a very brief overview of an extremely complex process. The video still provides a fairly accurate portrayal of some concerns expressed by critics of globalization, despite the simplifications.
One commenter in particular argues that the statistics used in the video are flawed or even entirely made up. I really have no way to judge that one way or the other, not being an expert on this. At the website for The Story of Stuff, there are citations for all of the numbers used, so if you’re really interested in that, you might want to look more fully into where the data came from. Again, I can’t take a real stance here one way or the other because this isn’t my area of expertise; the data might be flawed, but the commenter doesn’t provide other data to contradict it. It might make for an interesting discussion on the use of data and why people with different views on globalization might use different numbers. You take students through it and ask “What’s useful here? What statistics might be inaccurate? Why might they be presented that way? Why is it possible to come up with statistics that say completely different things about the same issue?”
Click here for a discussion of how one Professor uses it in a Rhetoric and Writing class.
Comments 11
Keith — January 29, 2009
Interesting video. Cute and simplistic. I felt it was a tad preachy in parts, but creative.
As a former computer tech and the son of an Intel engineer, I felt the part about 'one piece in a computer' being all that was needed to replace was terribly inaccurate, but the video is worth a look.
Tyrone — January 29, 2009
Wow - this is like Clarissa Explains It All...about consumption
Ryan — January 29, 2009
You folks seen "slumdog" yet? Sort of gives you that same guilty pit of your stomach feeling as this video.
Zach — January 29, 2009
Please take econ 101. Thanks, this video is so wrong...sheesh, it amazes me that an academic would post it.
Also, where did she get her figures? I'm working on a waste management data set from the CBO right now and she either a.) made up her numbers. b.) she did actually make up those numbers.
Gwen Sharp, PhD — January 29, 2009
Zach--Isn't that the instructor's job, to walk students through data they see and question the numbers? That's what I did--we just had a whole section on it in class. The entire point was to present various published or publicly-used statistics that disagree with each other and ask why and how they might do so, and whether that means someone is "lying."
Matt K — January 29, 2009
Unless that note was posted before Zach's comment (of which I have no way of knowing) then Zach really had no way to tell that you did go through it in your class. Posting it up here without that walk-through, perhaps, is what inspired his comment.
Gwen Sharp, PhD — January 29, 2009
Yeah, I forget sometimes that what it seems obvious to me that I would do in class isn't obvious to other people. To me sometimes the very fact that something is perhaps a little sketchy is part of its value (or maybe its only value), but I can forget to mention that.
Zach — January 30, 2009
Thank you for the update. If you were critical of it in class, I suppose its a very different story.
However, I am still frustrated at what I appear to be a failure to embrace globalization by the left. The "liberal" appeal to globalize is a powerful voice--more so than one coming from a government or major company. The ability to lift literally billions of people out of poverty and to create interdependent ties that would soften conflict are both exceptionally powerful reasons to embrace it.
Unfortunately, what we have instead is a poor understanding of economic theory [exemplified par excellence by the video in question] and the vilification of individuals by using the word "neoliberal."
Abby — January 30, 2009
FYI, the Story of Stuff website has citations for the claims made in the video (in case anyone wants to check out where the numbers came from and figure out whether they are plausible or not).
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