The Price of Pineapples
This is my son.
He’s a lot like most two year old boys, he’s full of energy, loves trains and he’s a bit of a picky eater. His diet consists mainly of foods from the “nugget/stick/n’ cheese” food group, but we’re lucky in that he also loves fresh fruit. You can put pretty much any kind of fruit in front of him and he’ll eat it. However, there is one fresh fruit that he seems to love above all others, pineapple.
Once a week, Mrs. Geek or I head out to the local Wegmans to pick up a fresh pineapple for the boy. We bring it home, dice it up and he eats it like it’s the last pineapple on the planet. The other day, our local grocer was out of pineapple and another female shopper in the produce department was a bit upset about it not being available. Evidently, she had some critical recipe which required it and it not being available launched her into an epileptic seizure fit of frustration. Watching this woman get all upset about the lack of pineapples in Buffalo, NY in the middle of February got me thinking…what a bunch of assholes we are.
We take a lot for granted in the world. We’re roughly 5,000 miles from Dole’s pineapple plantation in Hawaii, and here’s a lady bitching that the world does not bend to her consumption whim. Here’s a tip, Dole runs a huge plantation in Hawaii, employs thousands of people. They pick, clean and wax tens of thousands of pineapples each day and then ship them 3,000 miles across the Pacific. When they arrive in the CONUS, a logistics company moves them from the port to grocery distribution centers all over the fucking country and they are eventually shipped to your local grocer, where some guy stacks them up on a shelf for you to buy at a price of $1.99. Forgive us if the entirety of that supply chain is not fucking nimble enough for you.
Think about all of that for a minute, this fruit travels all across the world and all the people involved in that process need to be able to make a profit on it’s shipment and eventual sale. $1.99 for a pineapple.
These are things I know, but rarely think about. How the global economy, which is powered by the availability of cheap oil, has radically changed our consumption patterns and the eventual shockwaves that will ripple through our economy when that cheap supply begins to dry up.
Anyhow, I know this article was trite, but it’s something that has been kicking around in my head for a few days and it was serving as a mental block for other things. I was watching Conan O’ Brien the other night and Louis CK’s riff about what ungrateful and self-centered assholes we are really crystallized it for me.
Anyhow, I feel better. Do you?
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Yes, I do.
And you know what… Libertarians are the most ungrateful, most self-centered, most assholic Americans of all. Well, ok: Rich people first, then libertarians.
That, too, was trite, but I also feel better. Thanks!
(ps: solution- join CSA, buy share in cow, eat locally & seasonally, &c.; tell kid to eat what’s on plate or starve like most humans for most of history.) (and no, I haven’t done most of those things myself… yet.)
Well in the lady’s defense, canned pineapple can’t hold a candle to the fresh stuff.
Oh and Ethan, I couldn’t agree more. Libertarianism is just a way for rich assholes to feel high minded about not wanting to pay their taxes.
What about broke libertarians like Mike in WNY or Ostrowski? What’s their excuse?
I sent the video link along to a few friends with a note that said “This video should be sent to every damned ungrateful bastard and teenaged asshole you know in this country and should be playing in the middle of Times Square in my opinion. It just makes you stop and think of how lucky you are, well at least if you have a brain anyway.”
Thanks for posting this.
And one additional note I forgot to write – We have to listen to the OctoMom bullshit ad nausem but when someone finally comes along with some voice of clarity the media will mostly ignore it.
mmm, well, I suspect it’s a delusion about their potential to eventually ever be seriously rich coupled with their childish concept of what “freedom” actually means in the context of a democracy (all derived from a fundamental misinterpretation of economic & political thinkers from Plato to Smith, Locke & Mill).
Or not; I donno why some people just don’t value social responsibility. Pathology, maybe?
As my son told me, what you want and what you need are not necessarily the same thing. A sense of inflated self – importance and a need for instant gratification will definitely skew priorities. The video was priceless.
I like pineapples too.
I am an asshole.
How the hell did this go from pineapples to a bash on libertarians?
The pinko at the top of this comment thread started it!
I don’t have a problem with libertines….
Awhile ago I saw something similar at a department store (crazed customer berating an employee for out-of-stock but advertised item). My first job was at a Tops and then I worked retail for a few years and I remember similar situations back then. I felt so bad for the employee, who was a bit shaken up, I apologized to her on behalf of every other customer.
Yes, I also like sometimes to eat up pineapples, think not wherever they will disappear, let price even and will a bit grow up. And a that woman would be necessary to be written down to the psycho-analyst. I think so
You two know those asshole libertarians want to legalize pot, right? Sounds like some common ground for you…
mmm, great. Look, we see eye-to-eye on a number of things (equal rights for gays, abortion rights, civil unions for all, prostitution, de-coupling church & state, etc.) but I still think they’re the political equivalent of two-year-olds: all Id. So sure, I hope they’re all pouring their money into NORML, but I’m still not gonna vote for one.
Im too don’t have a problem with libertines….