Reflecting
the
true cost
The price of ourrelentless obsession
with cheap
That price tag you see in store? That's a fraction of an item's actual price. Welcome to the world of hidden costs, where 'cheap' is never quite what it seems.
Take the of a cheap, cotton t-shirt from a fast-fashion brand:
True cost $10
Economists use the term 'externalities'. We think 'someone else is carrying the cost' is more accurate.
Historically, that's meant poor people and vulnerable communities. More recently? Think of the LA fires. The Venice floods. The cost of cheap is now banging at the Global's North's door.
Each time we underpay for artificially cheap things, we rack up yet more unimaginable debt.
What are you prepared to pay for?
Price is a powerful mechanism for driving behavior.
If prices reflected more hidden costs, how would your own buying behaviour change?
Do this the next time you go to the store. Imagine what the price would be in a world where they reflect more of the cost to people and planet.
And then imagine how you would act instead.
Now with mandatory long-term software updates, repairable design, and guaranteed access to affordable spare parts.
The price now includes costs for mining impacts and toxic waste, carbon emissions, fair labour conditions, and e-waste handling.
This price has become lower by moving subsidies from harmful fossil fuels to services and products that support repair, reuse and low impact living.
The price now includes costs for water use, pollution, harmful chemicals, carbon emissions, soil damage, living wages, waste and end-of-life disposal.
The price now reflects this farmers contribution to healthy soils and biodiversity, water retention and resilience, and fair working conditions.
The price now includes the real costs for pesticides and soil degradation, water overuse, and underpaid and unsafe working conditions.
The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the reverse.
Let's flip the script.
Imagine a rational economy. One where sufficiency, care, health, and quality drives financial success. And where wastefulness, planned obsolescence, predatory extraction, and pollution makes zero business sense.
Think how quickly things would change.
Rewrite the rules
How could businesses reflect true costs more often? Let's experiment...
Who's attempting to level the playing field? Explore who's doing what. And ask yourself, what would your version look like?