Juggling Dynamite

For centuries humans used biodegradable and reusable packaging for our goods.  From hemp to burlap, paper, cloth or banana leaves, ‘smart’ packaging was the norm.   Now with petroleum-based plastics clogging up our land and waterways and leaching health-harming toxins into our food, everything old in packaging is becoming new again.   When consumers reject plastic in our consumption choices we force the changes needed.  Just say no!  Tell stores and suppliers we want non-toxic packaging, and it will come.

This story is one of may good developments now happening, see Grocery chain replaces plastic produce packaging with banana leaves:

A supermarket chain in Chiangmai, Thailand, is doing its part to stem the tide of single-use plastics flooding into the ocean.

While most supermarkets bundle their strawberries in plastic boxes, their corn in plastic shrink wrap and their mushrooms in plastic produce bags, this grocer has come up with an innovative, eco-friendly solution.

Banana leaves are a plentiful and nearly free resource, except for the cost of gathering them.

They’ve been used for millennia as plates and food wrappers and are still used as stylish serving dishes today in Indian and Filipino restaurants.

Banana leaves are said to lend a special flavor to a dish and can even be used to steam foods like Vietnamese sausage.

Not only do the leaves make for a lovely presentation, but it is believed that an enzyme on the leaf, which is released into the food, aids in digestion.

Born between 1981 to 2000, Millennials now average 26 years of age, and comprise about 27% of the North American population. This generation is coming of age in precarious financial circumstances.

Their elders have led them poorly and allowed debt-sellers and other predatory business models to prey on the young. For a brighter future, we need to get the masses out of endless debt holes, and into some financial stability.  We must focus policies on making education, job training and shelter options more affordable as well as on increasing savings rather than increasing debt.  Older folks need the younger to get on solid footing so they can help pull the economic cart and help fund the entitlement programs that boomers are banking on.

This new documentary offers insight into the issues at hand.

Canadian consumer debt has been a popular topic in the News over the past few years. Because of this we know Canadians are carrying more debt than ever, driving up the debt-to-income ratio. But what else is happening that we aren’t seeing? Here is a direct video link.

I have been pointing out for a few years, that two decades of falling interest rates and rising real estate prices enabled much malinvestment in oversized, expensive-to-maintain homes, that an aging population will want to downsize.  This is happening now.

When the Greenspan-led, US Fed first turned a blind-eye to ‘irrational exuberance’ in financial markets in 1996, the leading edge of the baby boomers (born 1946-1965) was 50 years old, and the majority were already homeowners.

After 22 years of asset inflation efforts from central banks and governments driving boom, bust, and repeated bail-outs of lenders and speculators, the average age of boomers is now 61, and 10,000 are turning 65 every day in America alone.  Meanwhile, safe yields on savings have been moribund for a decade.  Not surprisingly, boomers en masse are now looking to downsize high-maintenance, expensive real estate in favour of smaller, more efficient shelters that are easier to look after and within walking distance of amenities.

There are 73.8 million baby boomers in America alone and millions more in this cohort worldwide.  While they own an estimated 40% of homes today, their ownership concentration in the more expensive real estate is higher.

The next demographic behind the boomers–Generation X, people (born 1965 to 1980)–are an average age of 44.5 today, smaller in number (65.8 million in the US) and less well-off.  (See Just Do The Math).  Most still owe mortgages on their existing homes (bought at inflated prices in the last decade) and have more consumer debt, of all kinds, than any generation before them.

The Millennials coming behind Gen X–born 1981 to 2000, now an average age of 26.5–are today too young, under-employed, cash-strapped and struggling with record debt of their own, to be meaningful asset buyers or investors for the next several years.  Moreover, amid escalating environmental and financial strain, people of all ages are quite rationally becoming more focused on more sustainable lifestyles, spending less and saving more, rather than taking on massive single-family dwellings.

The trouble is, with prices falling and life-clocks ticking, selling pressure is already swamping buyer demand in most markets, and this is likely to worsen over the next decade as more boomers move into their 70’s and 80’s.  For more insight see A growing problem in real estate:  too many, too big houses.

Large, high-end homes across the Sunbelt are sitting on the market, enduring deep price cuts to sell.

That is a far different picture than 15 years ago, when retirees were rushing to build elaborate, five or six-bedroom houses in warm climates, fueled in part by the easy credit of the real estate boom. Many baby boomers poured millions into these spacious homes, planning to live out their golden years in houses with all the bells and whistles.

Now, many boomers are discovering that these large, high-maintenance houses no longer fit their needs as they grow older, but younger people aren’t buying them.