If you think too much, bringing a note might be a great idea.
One of the things that I regret is basically not bringing a small note everywhere I go. This morning on getting my coffee, I had a few interesting sights. Now, the moment I am drinking coffee, I can only vaguely remember about them. It’s quite hazy but somehow I remember about romanticizing poverty, chinese-made products and its stigma, and how my caffeine tolerance is even higher. It’s why bringing a note would be a great idea for me because sometimes those golden nuggets shouldn’t be missing from being explored.
Okay, let’s talk about Chinese made products and its stigma. In the past, Chinese made is often associated with poorly made and less durable products. But in recent years, that stigma slowly fades away. A lot of our appliances are somehow chinese made and even famous brands that we know of also assembled parts of it in China. These days, we can’t really escape Chinese made products just the same way we can’t boycott certain products because we don’t align with their political views. Thanks to globalization, I guess.
Welcome to my brain dump, it’s morning and when I am able to sit down, sipping a cup of coffee while contemplating about life and emptying it out a little.
These days in the market Chinese products are still known to be very reasonable and cheap. But there are rising brands such as Xiaomi that are quite competitive as well as the hot topic, their EV car line up “wuling”. In Indonesia, while wuling isn’t so common around but they are already seen around the country since 2022. These days, there are even smaller EV from wuling. And now, we also have electric bikes that are mostly dominated by China. While it’s difficult to remove the stigma that comes from being chinese made but because its competitive price, a lot of people opt for that.
Personally, to me there are some things that I think China is doing quite well. Their plastic-made household is pretty okay but when it comes to electronics, I am still skeptical as a consumer. While I am aware a lot of things are made from china, but I wonder if there was better quality control from let’s say EU based companies or even local companies. I am also pretty skeptical even more because when I brought the latest smartwatch from them, it didn’t last longer than a year. So, that stigma is still difficult for me to erase because I kept getting disappointed when I purchased from brands like Xiaomi.
But I do recognize that they provide things that are useful for people to have. Where else can you get cheap tech wearables and stuff if not from brands like Xiaomi?
Okay I guess now we move on to the topic of poverty. Sometimes it baffles me how poverty is defined. We easily throw words like “being broke”, “ I am poor help me” or subtly showing how poor we are. I mean, when you can upload it online, I doubt that’s actually poor but I recognize something called “urban poverty” and “hidden poverty”.
I wouldn’t say expert on finance either but where I am from, there’s a little disconnect and understanding of needs. A lot of people prioritize their tertiary needs rather than their primary needs. I find this pretty intriguing because as I learn more, each of us are taught differently.
Here’s a picture. Growing up and at schools I was taught needs were based on primary, secondary and tertiary needs. Primary needs were food, home, and fashion” secondary needs were everything that are not primary needs. Meanwhile tertiary needs are everything that is considered luxury. However, in western teaching there’s a guy who defines need differently. Meet Abraham Harold Maslow or you know him by his “ Maslow’s need diagram”. I wasn’t taught this growing up but I guess a lot of us would be a lot happier with this definition of needs rather than the ones I learned as a kid.
An average people where I am from, their prioritization would look something like,
- Having a job
- Having a house
- having a family
- Buy a nice outfit a couple times/year
- Having a motorbike/car
- Having a phone and not necessarily a laptop
- Doing some type of religious pilgrimage once they’re a little older
- Exit route is a graveyard.
And these days with internet and social media, the needs have become a little dissonance where people “dream” about luxury things/and watches while they still struggle meeting their daily needs let alone even affording their secondary needs. These days having a phone is also a primary need rather than a secondary need. But laptops and other electronics are still classified as secondary needs. It’s certainly interesting and Idk, even from the basic idea of needs can tell a culture apart from one another.
So, if you can afford some type of subscriptions and even have your house full of electronics, consider yourself “not poor”. Be a little grateful with life 😂and even from me, by understanding that, it also personally helps me even more grateful about life.
That’s all from me today and see you tomorrow morning!
 | 𝘔𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘫𝘢 & 𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘳 . 𝘈 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨, 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴, 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘖𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺. 𝘚𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴. 𝘍𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯! 𝘋𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘱𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦, 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰. |
I am quite happy with my Redmi Note Phone that I have been using ( heavily ) for almost 3 years now. It lasts longer than my previous I phone, was way cheaper and is still going strong. I am wary of (Chinese) products that are extremely cheap though.
I have a Note 9 Pro that has been through hell and seems to hold 88% of its battery capacity (my four month old macbook pro has already lost 3% for comparison). I purchased it in 2020. I've dropped this thing countless times in recent months, even yesterday on a marble surface. It is accumulating dents and scratches quite fast, but it is holding up quite well.
My problem with these products is the spyware side of it all though. And the 'higher quality' Chinese tech is just doing what all tech does: pulls you in with a cheaper product and then slowly raises the price once you're hooked into them.
Here in Armenia is see the lower end of Chinese trash far too much. Shops here are riddled with the cheapest Chinese crap that doesn't last a week. Especially on the tech side. I can't stand it sometimes. My option has to be importing or buying from Russian marketplaces that'll deliver to Armenia. Even for simple things like actually decent extension cables.
Extremely cheap chinese product is something we all should be wary of. Cost is also consideration these days where often chinese goods can be quite competitive too and they also target different market from low to high end ones.
I don't consider myself poor since we can eat good food daily, we have phones, I can buy buy the things we need and I don't have any debt
That's definitely something to be grateful about. Most people have debt and sometimes when you factor their cashflow and assets, their debt ration is a lot higher.
Yes less stress if you are debt free that's why I always choose to save if I wanted to buy something. Most people will choose to take loan or borrow money just to get what they want or need.
I also tried spend not beyond my salary. I also do lots of side hustles while working so I can have extra money and a savings too
I'm more interested in how the Chinese were able to change the narrative and stigma of their products to a more durable and preferred place to assemble some of these gadgets. I guess other countries need to learn from them
And for poverty, another level of poverty i find intriguing, is emotional poverty, its often not heard off because we believe money answers all things
Definitely. It's interesting how they turn the narrative. It's safe to say that they can scale up really fast when it comes to distribution. It's not going to be easy to keep up with them but learning the way the do things is fascinating.
That's another layer to it too. Basically, the more we know, the more we don't know :D
My definition of poor depends on how my country's statistics authority survey says from a technical standpoint like wages and needs. But I learned I'm not going to be that fun at parties if I insist people stop using the word loosely if they can't tell the difference between not being able to pay for something even if they have the disposable income to do it vs not being able to pay because they got nothing on their wallet even if they really wanted to. I'd use Chinese electronic products but have the preconception that these aren't for long term use like chargers and minor gadgets.
hahaha it's probably why I don't really get invited to parties. I just think a lot of us easily label ourselves without truly understanding the said word. It has huuuge implication when we label ourselves.
These days I try to avoid cheaper/cheap chinese product as much as possible. I just realized if I buy something cheap, I wouldn't treat it well xD but if I buy something a little more expensive, I'd treat it like the most precious thing in the world. They also last longer and I won't misplace it too.
China took the task really serious because they technique they use was quite strategic and now see how they are benefiting
China is a huge and powerful market
I started using it much 10 years ago when I had business selling their goods, and customers always were happy to get GOOD things for cheap prices
the same with me - there are very few things that were not good, all the rest were really of good quality and for low prices
So China isn't always bad;)