Minimum Pricing on Alcohol backed by Commons Health Committee

The SCPO has sent this this update on the minim pircing for alcohol campaign.

The Commons Health Committee published a report following their inquiry into Alcohol in England and came out strongly in favour of minimum pricing, arguing that evidence shows that a rise in the price of alcohol was the most effective way of reducing consumption. It also attacked the strategies anmd responses of successive Governments in tackkling the proble as ranging "from non-existent to ineffectual".

Towards a History of Needs

I was reading the blog of a friend and she pointed out that Ivan Illich was one of the first to point out the marketisation of our needs. Have you ever wandered why we are made to feel that there is always a porduct to solve any of our problems? Illich ponted out the fallacy of this consumer apporach to solve our problems. the following link is a snippet of his work on "needs".

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Photograph by JoseMota

Let's shop. We are helping the economy!

We keep hearing that it is important for us as consumers to shop so that our economy will come out of depresson and will start growing again. However, is endless growh possible? Have a look at the impossible hamster film. It gives a good laugh but there are truths embedded here.

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Phtgaph by Carolyn Coate

Do you really need to go shopping?

Do you buy something because you need it or because shopping makes you feel good?

According to Dr. Marc Kern people that are addicted to shopping do so not becuase they need the object, but because the whole experience of shopping makes them feel good. "I am feeling something that I do not want to feel and this object is going to make me feel temporarily, something quite different, maybe powerful" he states. He has produced a series of videos explaining the reasons behind shopping addiction and relating them to other forms of addiction. You can consult the vidoes by following this link.