Thoughts on Research & Destroy and The Consumer:A Republic of fact

Research and Destroy


I find this quote, from the reading, to be very interesting. "We no longer have any desire for design that is driven by need." So we don't need that new phone that just came out, but its so much cooler than the one I have.  That basically drives our need to buy something that "looks" cooler. Its like we have confused the idea that design is needed in the beginning for problem solving, like the article states.  When does the designing process end? Does it ever? 
"Design is added value. En masse, designers throw themselves into desires instead of needs."  I agree with this statement.  It goes along with talking about how there are cheaper versions of hotels that can suit our needs just fine, but we spend more money on hotels that feed into our needs.
Design only generates longing. The problem is the problem of luxury. We have too much to choose from. We design more things, people want to buy it because of course its better than what they have right now. This, in the long run, is just going to create more problems.

The Consumer: A Republic of Fact

In the early days, Americans would drink a lot of whiskey because that was what you could make from corn. 
Now you can use corn for pretty much anything. It sweetens your food, you eat corn as a vegetable, it is used as fuel, feeds the animals so we can eat their meat, and more. Farmers these days produce too much corn out in the field.  So, we drink more calories than we eat because of high fructose corn syrup.

"The Alcoholic Republic has long since given way to the Republic of Fat; we’re eating today much the way we drank then, and for some of the same reasons." 

This paragraph explains it all:
"You hear plenty of explanations for humanity’s expanding waistline, all of them plausible. Changes in lifestyle (we’re more sedentary; we eat out more). Affluence (more people can afford a high-fat Western diet). Poverty (healthier whole foods cost more). Technology (fewer of us use our bodies in our work; at home, the remote control keeps us pinned to the couch). Clever marketing (supersized portions; advertising to children). Changes in diet (more fats; more carbohydrates; more processed foods)."

America is in a epidemic of obesity because of the way we make food. 

"Corn sweetener is to the republic of fat what corn whiskey was to the alcoholic republic. Read the food labels in your kitchen and you’ll find that HFCS has insinuated itself into every corner of the pantry: not just into our soft drinks and snack foods, where you would expect to find it, but into the ketchup and mustard, the breads and cereals, the relishes and crackers, the hot dogs and hams."

"While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest." What does that say about our country?