Why am I stuck with costs that I did not incur?

Insatiable Consumerism

I think I am like most people when I say that unless I am bombarded with media generated commercials and or posters reminding me about the things I neglected to purchase, I will never respond to or maybe not even be aware that there is yet another need out there.
Maybe we have become complacent to what is being thrown in our faces because quite often what is being offered is more or less a need that is being created where none existed before. I am convinced that the commercial success of the electronic age is more the result of the proliferation of media commercials than the existence of a real need for these products.

Granted we do worship at the alter of insatiable consumerism so there is a constant need for new products to be created. The fact that we prefer one product over another has more to do with our exposure to that product through advertisements than the real value of the product or service. Are we not more concerned ostensibly with what we can display than what can be of the greatest benefit to ourselves. Let's face it who wants to be the guinea pig for new products. Yet by a strange twist of fate we all want to be the first on the block to have the bragging rights to ownership of every new gadget on the market. Okay so maybe we are not willing to take any chances with an "unproven" product per se but I seem to recall that through time even the "proven" products can also come with their own risks. How often do you hear it being said " they have not got all the bugs out of that item yet".

Indoor AllerGen Control

What, you may ask, does this have to do with anything? Beside the fact that there are gems out there to be discovered that does not require mass media advertisement to be brought to our attention. One such gem is in the area of " indoor allergen control", a subject that's described at length at
http://reecerecon.googlepages.com/






This subject has been given considerable exposure over the last decade in particular but yet it remains nothing more than a curious news item perceptibly without any relevance in our daily lives. Without the mass media coverage necessary to put it on our consciousness or at least until such time it will remain relegated to the "back burners " of everything we do. And therein lies the problem. What problem? The fact that we suffer from certain allergies which emanate from our beds, and invariably our only recourse is to treat the symptoms and not the cause.

As long as big pharmaceutical companies can keep us satisfied by treating the symptoms only, the control of allergens will remain the bane of our existence. Instead of concerning ourselves with the cause of our discomfort we resort to what big business has convinced us we need. At best that amounts to some form of temporary relief and at worst a placebo remedy.
There is nothing new about any of this how often have we witnessed it in the past... palliative instead of preventative solutions. I am convinced that we will need to reverse the psychology that got us here in the first place. There is no denying the grip the large pharmaceutical companies have on us.

Incurred Costs

When you consider the fact that the drugs for which you might have paid literally hundreds of dollars might have cost the manufacturers mere pennies to produce., then and only then do you realise that you were asked to pay all the costs incurred in getting it to you. Costs like sales pitches, mass media advertising an all the other costs that did not add any value. Maybe even if the ancillary costs were to be reduced, it would have little or no effect on the final costs to the consumer.

I would be the last person to suggest that there are large pharmaceutical companies out there which are determined to perpetuate a conundrum of continuous ill health for their own gain. But if profit and monetary gain are the motivating factors here , then I am convinced they would care very little how it is achieved.