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We’ve Outsourced Our Lives

By Frugaling 9 Comments

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Outsourced food preparation meals

Michael Pollan likes to talk about food. In fact, he’s written six books on the subject. Some of his highly reviewed books include Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and Food Rules. Amazingly, Netflix caught on to Pollan’s popularity and turned his latest book — Cooked — into a series.

Cooked is about the transformation from raw to cooked foods. This simple difference is what Pollan thinks distinguishes man from the rest of the animal kingdom. He’s got a point: we love our cooked food. The flavors ignite. Further, when we cook food we chew less and do more than eat all day.

In the first episode of the Netflix series, Pollan explains how hunting, farming, and scavenging have all been outsourced. We’ve simplified the process of eating on every level. Corporate giants have vertically integrated food prep and delivery with surprising efficiency. From frozen meals to prepackaged sandwiches, everything has been prepared for us. For example, the turkey has been raised, fed, slaughtered, plucked, deboned, frozen, thawed, sliced, seasoned, and placed. We don’t see the life and death — we’ve outsourced everything.

The reasons for the decline in food production and cooking are multifaceted. It seems work and productivity have motivated us to pursue this path. Imagine the busy lawyer or medical doctor having a catered lunch because they are “too busy” to prepare and eat. We accept this in society — hell, we encourage it. We accept there’s a certain class of people who cannot “afford” to spend the time making food. And we accept that people should specialize until they merely focus on their vocational tasks.

As the episode unfolded, my appreciation of food outsourcing shifted more globally. I thought about what else gets outsourced. Our society has taken almost everything off of our plates so that we can focus more time on other activities. We continue to specialize well beyond food.

The decline of manufacturing in America can largely be seen as an effort to reduce costs, time, and environmental burden on the countries that now produce. We’ve outsourced the “negatives” and taken the cost savings. Comically, we criticize China for using so many coal-fired power plants and then click buy on our new computer, coffee maker, smartphone, etc. — all made in China.

We’ve outsourced reading longer books and research to journalists and even computer algorithms. Now, people read books for us and distill what we need to know — what’s most important. Consequently, this means we get a synthesized perspective of a book. It’s like playing the telephone game through articles, but most of the time we read that review to understand the book.

Even budgeting and financial management are thrown to others. We use Mint.com or other financial software to manage and update us about spending. There’s no need to balance a checkbook anymore — I’m not sure if I’d even know how. We trust financial advisers and/or digital facsimiles to manage everything for us. We’ve got better, more important things to focus on!

More and more, we watch sports and reality TV shows instead of playing outside and engaging in our own relationships. The drama of a royal, elite families and others’ lives encapsulates our attention, as those nearest us seem to wane. Many watch the throw, shot, or pass, but I’m not sure how many are making that throw, shot, or pass themselves anymore.

Even in academic circles, professors and graduate students are using other people to do their statistical analysis. Academics can even outsource their statistical analysis to India for further review and completion. Afterwards, with a nice, clean result in hand, researchers can write up the interpretations — or pay another person to do that part.

And as I type these words, they’re being stored in a cloud server for safekeeping, backup, and preparation for publication on my website. Both the cloud and website servers are miles and miles away from me. I’ll never see the computers, nor would I need to. I’ve outsourced these storage needs — someone else is handling them for me.

Again, I settle on this simple conclusion: we’ve embraced the streamlining of our lives for the purpose of efficiency. But what is this efficiency for? Is it so that we can focus on work more? Is it so that we can make more money? Is it so we can relax more?

Absent of answers, I wonder where we’ll be in a few decades. When asked questions about our personality and identities and hobbies, will we reply that we enjoy watching and reading others’ accounts of life? Will we effectively outsource our identities to the TV shows, movies, and reviews of reviews?

Filed Under: Social Justice Tagged With: Books, China, Cloud, Food, iCloud, Life, Meals, Michael Pollan, Netflix, outsource, outsourced, preparation, Reading, storage, Work

Piracy And The Rise Of Subscription Services: Are They Worth It?

By Frugaling 4 Comments

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Spotify Premium Subscription Service
Screenshot of Spotify, a popular music subscription service

Problematic piracy, answered by private corporations

Subscription services have become a popular way to access media content ranging from books, magazines, television, and films. Before analyzing what subscriptions might be worth your time and money, I wanted to give a little historical context for their popularity. For many content creators, the rise in subscription services was scary, as they were linked to declining revenue growth. But increased interest in subscription models was actually an answer to something that’s been seen as even more malicious by copyright holders: piracy.

In France, if you were caught pirating digital (i.e., downloading a film, book, magazine, etc. without consent from the copyright holder) material three times, the 2009 HADOPI law (French acronym for the policy) would restrict your access to the Internet. Suspension of Internet services, depending on the level of piracy, would vary from 2 months to one year. Opposition groups argued and protested the law, arguing that it restricts a human right to knowledge.

In recent years, France curtailed the targeting of individuals’ copyright infringements, in favor of prosecuting major corporations and hosts of pirated materials. Today, TorrentFreak, a popular news source about pirating, reported that the organization now had five years of data to share. HADOPI has given warnings to 3,249,481 people, which suggests that about 9% of French Internet users are participating in possible copyright infringement (French report, PDF). That’s a staggering number, and it’s likely greater because some people can circumvent basic detection of copyright infringement.

Anti-piracy groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have lobbied for greater Internet restrictions for infringers in the U.S. and around the world. The MPAA has suggested that if piracy were “properly” dealt with, revenue to the film industry would subsequently increase (researchers and scholars at the London School of Economics have suggested otherwise). It’s no surprise that the trade organization for content creators would like more control over copyright concerns. But the answer to their calls for action actually came from private companies starting subscription services.

What do subscription services offer?

They usually provide a simple, monthly fee that gives users access to everything. It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet for digital content. Subscription services offer somewhat ancillary but important benefits to copyright holders and consumers, too: they manage and lessen the cost to enjoy content. It even attracts those who would otherwise be pirating content! Effectively, as Kevin Spacey suggested, when users are given an affordable product and given complete control over when they’d like to listen, watch, and read, piracy will naturally decline.

In this article, I wanted to analyze three popular subscription services: Amazon Kindle Unlimited, Netflix, and Spotify. Each offers a different selection of content and unlimited access for a fee.

If you join Netflix’s subscription service, you’ll gain access to thousands upon thousands of movies that can be instantly viewed. Similarly, Spotify provides “premium” users access to millions of songs, playlists, and radio without ads. Amazon Kindle Unlimited is the newest platform and offers frequent readers access to a tremendous library of ebooks for Kindle (or Kindle apps).

Should you pay for a subscription service?

I’m not going to answer that, as everyone’s preferences are different. Instead, I want to provide you with some straightforward questions to consider before purchasing any service.

  1. How much does it cost?
  2. Are there any student discounts and/or free trials?
  3. Can I share my account with other people? Could I split the cost with someone?
  4. How much will you use the service?
  5. Are there other ways to get the content without the cost?

Amazon Kindle Unlimited (Link)

  • Cost: $9.99 per month
  • Access: 600,000 books
  • Student discounts and/or free trials: No student discounts. Yes, there is a 30-day free trial.
  • Sharing: There are no reports that you can share this subscription.
  • Usage: Are you reading all the time and traveling a lot? Then this really stands out as one of the best subscription services.
  • Review: It’s by far the greatest collection of books in an unlimited, checkout service. By paying for the subscription fee you also get unlimited audiobook listening, too. If you are reading and then hop in your car, you can continue the story at exactly the point you left it! That’s a pretty incredible benefit if you frequently travel. One caution: there’s no information about how many books you can checkout at once. My guess is it functions on a one-at-a-time checkout basis — meaning you’ll need to “return” the ebook before you can get another one.
  • Other ways: Libraries are free and increasingly offering ebooks for electronic checkout.

Netflix

  • Cost: $7.99 per month
  • Access: Netflix doesn’t publicly list all the films, but a popular site that catalogues the digital store says there are over 10,000 titles.
  • Student discounts and/or free trials: No student discounts. Yes, there is a 30-day free trial.
  • Sharing: You can share your account with up to 2 people when you upgrade to the $8.99 per month subscription model. This could effectively reduce the cost of Netflix in half.
  • Usage: For the frequent TV or movie buff, Netflix is an easy first choice. Watching a movie could not be simpler and the bandwidth is impressive. You can easily stream HD-quality content on multiple devices (i.e., tablets, smartphones, computers, and televisions).
  • Review: The instant, on-demand collection that Netflix has built is impressive. Although, keep in mind that they have stiff competition from Amazon’s Prime media service. Netflix is a steward in the media distribution industry. They noticed that accounts were frequently being shared between other people and didn’t stop the practice. Instead, Netflix instituted a reasonable sharing and account model to allow members to split the costs.
  • Other ways: Hulu, Crackle, and YouTube all offer vast media stores where you can find tons of free content.

Spotify Premium

  • Cost: $9.99 per month
  • Access: Millions of songs, and offline access.
  • Student discounts and/or free trials: Yes, there is a student price of $4.99 per month. Yes, there is a 30-day free trial.
  • Sharing: Spotify explicitly states that you are not to share the service. If two users begin streaming at the same time, one user will be cut off. Spotify only allows one person at a time.
  • Usage: This is best music subscription service out there. Tons of companies have started their own, but Spotify leads the way. If you are listening to music everywhere you go and on multiple devices, no service is easier.
  • Review: It’s important to note that Spotify has a free, base level of usage. You can make playlists, listen to music, and start special Pandora-like radio stations at this ad-supported level. Once you pay for Premium, the ads are removed and you can save songs for offline use. This definitely comes in handy for the frequent air traveler or the ad averse.
  • Other ways: You can always keep the free level or use YouTube to listen to nearly any song.

For a price, the content world opens up and becomes an amazing buffet of entertainment. Over the years, premium services have become more affordable. But frankly, there’s still more progress before the prices are easily affordable for everyone across platforms. To enjoy the benefits of each platform to the fullest, you’d be spending about $30 per month. While not an exorbitant sum, this may not fit within a tightly constructed, frugal budget. The choice is yours, but it’s never been easier to go without pirating copyrighted material. That’s progress.

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: Amazon, Books, cost, Fee, Films, kindle, Monthly, Movies, Music, Netflix, Premium, Prime, service, Spotify, Subscription, Unlimited

Need For Spend: The Secret To Stop Shopping

By Frugaling 2 Comments

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Need For Spend: The Secret To Stop Shopping. Research suggests that the longer you spend in a store, the more you spend.

Born, Bred to Buy

My grandmothers read continuously. One purchased books and the other went to public libraries. I have fond memories walking to the public library with that grandmother. Entering the large buildings of books, magazines, and computers made it fun. I would scour the shelves for new reads and sometimes checkout books I could never finish. I brought my nose to the pages and smelled the well-read scent. I loved that it only required a library card.

As I grew older, that lust for the library vanished. The plastic wrapped books felt lesser than. I wanted my own books. I wanted to feel crisp bindings and stock a shelf full of my own books. To hold, cherish, and covet my collection was important. The bound pages were a representation of me – an identity. My bookshelf consistently grew year after year, causing the slat to become concave under the pressure. 

The books followed my every move. I packed a couple big boxes each time, until I purchased a Kindle. The lightweight, 30-day-battery device was this terrific space saver. When I moved to the Midwest last year, I had 5 books and hundreds on my Kindle. Suddenly, I was free from the physical clutter, but still buying new Kindle-version books for about $9.99 a piece.

This was just one of my many spending problems. Put me in a mall – before I was frugal – and I had to spend my money on something. I felt an undeniable energy from start to charge.

The Shopper’s High

Malls glisten with an unnaturally bright sheen and stage-like lights that beat down on its entrants. Shopping centers catalyze a rush of heightened smiles and joy – its a kind of high. These bastions for consumerism test the very foundations of frugality.

Research suggests that the longer you spend in a store, the more you spend. Places like Barnes & Noble play comfortable background music, keep a temperate climate, and often have Starbucks coffee shops in tow. The aura suggests escaping from the world while you find the perfect book. You can finally find peace and happiness in purchase.

Marketers prey off of three psychological emotions: sex, fear, and happiness. Consumer research and psychological studies continually show that advertising that amalgamates these factors, wins.

Apple’s store openings are filled with a rousing cheer from an audience of employees. Attendees (shoppers) raise their newly-purchased electronics like Rafiki held Simba. Jubilance. This is where you’re supposed to have fun. And an ingenious staff bolsters the moral of many who outspend their budgets and follow into income/debt traps.

With friends like these, my purchases always felt justified, necessary, and right. Thankfully, I’m living and spending differently now. Every now and then I experience an undeniable urge to spend, and that’s when I try to mimic the shopper’s high for free.

The Secret to Stop Shopping: Your Local Library

I frequently purchased new clothing at name-brand retailers, electronics, and new books for my Kindle. These were black eyes to my budget. This continued until I found elation at the public library. It solved my urge to shop for clothing, electronics, and new books.

No longer do I need to own books and buoy the local Express retailer; although, I still have cravings to spend money on things I really don’t need. The trick to controlling spending is realizing the power of your public resources.

Here are the 5 secrets to stop shopping:

1. Customer Service

Shopping genuinely gives consumers a short-term high. When you’re in a crummy mood, it can fill that gap, temporarily. An outlet that can fill both the good and bad times is necessary to frivolous, discretionary spending.

The high is natural. It’s often influenced by strong, friendly customer service. A representative that is attentive, kind, and helps without reservations makes you feel special. That smile they offer you when you walk in the door is potent. The amalgamation of positivity is all designed for your comfort.

Libraries are a comparable outlet for the need for spend. Librarians are the attentive, customer service counterpart. They can guide and help with research. Their task is to help customers find, access, learn, and check-out. That dedication is important to feeling good about your experience.

2. New Release Rack

What could possibly replace Redbox and Amazon for movies and books? These companies have a focus on new releases and special offerings.

There’ also a diversity at your public library. If they don’t have it, they can usually order it from a partnered source. This can be a powerful tool when researching or just looking for a popular DVD. Each year, libraries cycle through new and old books. Tax contributions allow libraries to purchase new books with surprising regularity.

3. Digital Services

iTunes, Amazon, and various digital stores offer millions of books, music, and magazine subscriptions. They’re advertised heavily and are gotos in their respective domains. But, libraries have actually been in the business longer.

Looking for audiobooks, music, software, and eBooks? Your library may have everything on your list already; if they don’t, request it. Intricate networks and databases greatly expand the reach and can provide you with hidden gems of opportunities.

Over the years, libraries have changed immensely to meet evolving technological demands. Libraries contain books, magazines, DVDs, and powerful community resources. And nowadays, they also have eBook libraries for Kindles and Nooks. Free rental books can be wirelessly delivered to your favorite reading device.

Want to put your hands on the latest technology? Tablets and computers are popular accoutrement to any good library. Now you can browse, write, and learn in style. On top of everything else, you can also rely on the library for free Wi-Fi. Maybe you can even stop paying for Internet at home!

4. Extracurricular Activities

Even if your search takes you beyond the library’s walls and academic world, it can be a great, frugal-living resource.

Ready to check out some local attractions? Public libraries often provide access to day-passes to aquariums, parks, and museums. By checking out a pass, you can save $20-30 – sometimes more – every time you visit.

Legal troubles taking a bite out of your budget? Oftentimes, you can find legal and federal forms – free of charge – at your library. With the helpful assistance of desk staff and librarians, you might even understand your taxes this year!

5. Peace And Quiet

People pay good money to find sanctuaries around the globe. The irony is that they can be found at a local library. There’s no expectation to spend money, plenty of room to spread out, and the quiet will make you far more efficient (contrary to the popular desire for coffee shop din).

These are hubs and havens for saving. Use the resource, get rewarded, and join the new library movement.

What other places can you go to replace the need for spend?

Filed Under: Save Money Tagged With: buy, Library, Netflix, Redbox, Shop, Shopping, spending

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