naivety or plain stupidity?

pat has advised me against about bitching about this, but i can't help it anymore.... my greatest pet peeve is ignorance and stupidity, so this is going to be a fucking long post!! hahahaha! before i leave you for another week...

have u ever visited the etsy forums? i almost never do, but i did last night, it annoyed the shit out of me. so therefore, i shall staaayyyy awayyyy... far far away from them all... there are like a gazillion different people at etsy, be it selling or buying, as a hobby, past-time, pocket-money resource, earning a living off it full-time place, or etc. etc. from all different walks of life, nationalities, races etc.

so. i'm cool with the peeps doing it as a hobby, trying to make some little pocket-money doing something they love. these people, more often than not, seriously undercharge on all their products, afterall, they are just doing it to pass their time and have some fun. that's cool. they almost never charge for their design (i'm not saying their design is fantastic since many of them are just normal plain things we can get pretty easily), idea, and labor (handmade and they don't charge for it being "handmade". fucking big joke) except for their materials, maybe. they absolutely have no concept of money. they undercharge, and yet proudly proclaim that they absorbed this cost and that charge, and how they are so fucking noble to make things to sell almost for nothing, and then earn nothing, just to make people happy, about how they will go the extra trouble to go to and fro the post office with just one pathetic order package to get the exact correct shipping charges. okay. that's cool with me. they're doing their own thang. i always respect that. to each his own.

but it's so fucking uncool when these people start to bitch, whine, complain, preach about the other "expensive" products there, or about how certain businesses charge for this and that, and how there are hidden costs or etc. etc. and blah blah blah. what gives them the right to ignorantly bitch about this??? the fact that they probably get some monthly allowance from their husbands??? parents??? loving rich father????? wealthy boyfriend?????? hey. if you want to do charity, this is not the way to do so. why don't you volunteer your free time to help the needy people or save the earth??? nothing is free in this world my dears. wake up. or maybe you live in a farmland with poultry, meats, veg, water, and even know how to make fabric. then yeah, kudos to you. i don't. i pay for everything i use, even the paper to wipe my ass. i bought it with money i earn myself. i need to pay proper wages to my packing and shipping assistants. sure, i can do it all by myself. then i shall not be able to design shit stuff. no wholesale orders will be fulfilled. i won't have enough new designs to keep buyers interested, and then i won't be able to fully support myself doing what i love.

i don't know which planet they are from. maybe they don't use the paper dollar notes we do. they use monopoly money to buy food, pay rent, pay utilities, pay petrol, and basically live a life. for my case, it's living a life in an expensive city with high-living standards. singapore. i am a singaporean chinese girl, an asian, albeit with certain westernised values, but i pay for what i use. and i give my parents money. that's fulfilling part of the asian value of repaying our parents, and being a responsible adult.

these peeps are in it as a hobby and yet feel like they have a right to put down others for doing it like a business. fucking hilarious.

then. many are unhappy about the cheap labor rampant in asia. to them, cheap labor means china and malaysia (and some don't even know how to spell malaysia properly, i think they watched zoolander and that's where they got all those skewy information!?) first of all. i've something against the cheap china sweatshop labor thingie. but. not everything made in china is cheap. in fact, china is one of the more expensive places to manufacture products in asia now, more expensive because they are better skilled workers than say... indonesia etc. and anyways, not everything in asia is cheap. japan isn't the only expensive asian country. well, these ignorant people most probably don't know that. and just live in that small little air bubble that surrounds them. different countries have different living standards and currencies with different rates. do they not know that??? dear gawd. for their own sake and the world's and etsy, i hope they are all junior high-school kids...

come to think of it, i think i'd rather buy some commercial mass-made product, at least it has provided a job to someone out there who needs it, instead of feeding the ego of some very silly person who thinks they are so noble in undercharging since they don't have life responsiblities to shoulder. i refuse to pay ignorant and silly folks who has criticised others who are trying to make a full-time living.

i don't know where this is all going. so i apologise. i just want to say. please carry on with your hobbies and pocket-money making ventures. but save the criticisms for large conglomerates who most probably provide jobs to millions of decently-well-paid blue-collar workers. yeah. see. the irony. if they don't charge you, then let's hope that no one you know who works for them has their wages cut, or worse still, be retrenched.

you pay for what you use. if you're not happy paying, then fucking don't use it. you can't? then you're most probably paying for an indispensible service or product. indispensible = expensive. that's common life vocabulary. learn it. and yes, idiots will know that i'm obviously not referring to life necessities like water or air. why complain that prada is expensive? you feel that they overcharge? don't buy it then! they're hot because their designs are hot and desirable to people who like them. thought about whether you'd still sell anything if you made your very cheap products more expensive? think about it. you're making sales most probably on your very cheap price-point. and any reasonably intelligent person will tell you that selling your handmade products cheap is.... a big joke.

okay, my hot air's all gone. ha! till next week... take care peeps!