commodities - a brief examination of paper

Excerpted from here:

From: hizuki0723
Date: October 28, 2006 1:55:11 AM EDT
To: Dan Kennedy
Subject: A Paper-Related Problem for a Paper Expert

Dear Mr. K.:

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the Asian paper industry, but here is my paper-related problem anyway: Why is it that recycled paper products are more expensive than those made from fresh pieces chopped off from trees? And just how can we stop the nuns in a Catholic girls' high school from using those pale-green, fragile, and stinky recycled paper products? If you can't think of anything to respond with, that's OK. I understand. Asia (Taiwan, to be exact) is a little bit too far from NYC.

Sincerely,
Victoria Chang

Hi, Victoria—

Sorry for the delay. I know you wrote me back in October and I'm just now getting around to typing out a reply. I had actually worked out a dance-based reply for your note. It was inspired by some of the moves that Ladysmith Black Mambazo do when they interpret the lyrics to Paul Simon's 1986 hit album Graceland. It was intended to be a festive number that would be interpreted as the dancer (me) being trapped in an Asian all-girl Catholic school and taking a stand against a gaggle of nuns. It got weird, though. Somewhere along the line, my routine took a pretty big departure from Ladysmith Black Mambazo's traditional steps and veered left into a crazy drugged-up (DayQuil) rave number that ultimately failed to address your question regarding the price point of recycled paper products in the Taiwan market. Anyway, on the price thing: it costs more to do the right thing—plain and simple. Want to eat food without pesticide's and bioengineering's dirty mitts all over it? Want to support a family farm instead of those huge multibillion-dollar conglomerates that buy out family farms by signing folks to half-million-dollar debts, then sitting them down in front of a thick rule book from the parent company about how to work their family farm for massive productivity? Cool, but, you know, put your money where your mouth is, sister. Same goes for paper: Want recycled product instead of sucking up the sweet, sweet discount offered by a huge paper house raking another patch of clear-cut through what's left of our globe's forests? Cool, but it might cost a buck more. You know what? I don't even think stuff costs more as much as some things have cost too little for too long. You know what I mean? We were never supposed to get a 4-pound chicken breast for $2.99. Hell, chicken breasts were never even supposed to be 4 pounds. But huge corporate farms get the birds beefed up on drugs, cram 90,000 of them into a shed instead of a few hundred, a gigantic grocery retailer orders 7 million at a time, as opposed to the small family-owned store ordering maybe 50 a week, and all of a sudden everybody gets used to the idea of enormous chicken breasts for three bucks. You know what I mean? Best lesson in the world to learn the easy way: the cheap stuff always costs you more sooner or later. And I've said this next phrase a million times, although never in this context—but here goes:

I think the nuns are on to something, Vicky.

Does any of this even apply to the paper situation in Taiwan? I have no idea, as I've lived a relatively sheltered life in an orgy of middle-class conveniences.

If it's any consolation, I lack fortitude.