Why People Don't Anymore Want Cheap

Store in Hanoi. Source: aesta1

We're at the beginning of a sea of change in the whole world. Whether its Manila or New York, Phnom Penh or Shanghai, people want better. People will pay a little more for a little better. The day of the Happy Meal is over. The cheap t-shirt is toast. The appliance car will sit alone at the dealership.

I don’t want to be the same as you. My hamburger has to be different. I want my food to have colour and taste. I’m not interested in a stripe shirt and a tie. I’m more interested in experiences than things. I don't want television networks. I want my own Netflix. I don’t want to be part of anything. I don’t mind things being part of me. It's a new age, it's a new role. It's not just a new fashion. The starvation level of poverty is so unusual now even intrepid journalists have trouble finding anything to shock us. The new poor are looking for variety. They like to travel. The new poor can make a living and don’t live in the same desperate situation as before.

The desire for differentness has changed Europe from a world of lumpy babushkas to a culture of crazy colours, discordant ideas and bizarre hair cuts. Even the wealthy are chafing. They can’t give it away fast enough and there’s more prestige in the goodbyes of money than the hellos. The world's changing not at its edges but at the hard core.

ISIS young people wanting to do something because they’re sick of being nothing. They don’t want average, they don’t want everything the same. Good is better than cheap. Trader Joes and the rebirth of small markets in small towns is not the triumph of cheap it is the triumph of better.