how people in western world can learn from the people in Thailand

Hi follow Steemit-ers,

This is my first post on this platform that I like very much, being the concept and the stand it takes to pretty everything on the internet what we are used to consume daily.

I plan to being interesting and sometimes personal stories and voewpoints to you. Looking forward to discussions, something I really like. Not only Inlike discussions, but I truly beleive discussions will lead to a better understanding and therefore will lead to a better person. And more "better persons" we need in this world. I try to be part of that community.

To fully understand the topic of today: people in the western world can learn from the people in Thailand, you should know that recently, together with some friends, I started a new project: transforming old and sometimes worn textiel and turn them into new products. Although only a couple of months into the project, we've received great responses. But we seem to struggle with convincing people to properly pay for all the work and effort that goes into the whole project.

For now, enough about my background...

This year started great for me. After 3 years, I'm for the second time in Thailand. My friend and I decided to stay away from the overcrowded Bangkok and the main tourist places in the south, and headed north to Chang Mai right away. A cute little city with a super relax athmosphere.

Like in Bangkok, also in Chang Mai a lot of markets and shops offer local crafted textile products, home decorations etc. It is very interesting to discover products with worn looks are more expensive over the shinny factory looking products. Just 2 days ago while talking with a local shop owner, I realised the products with the worn looks are crafted in quite a similar way as we are trying to do back home: old textile, great design, and voila, a new product. Already many times I heard the statements: "it is old material, that is why it is so expensive", "wesupport the handcraft workshops, that is why it is so expensive". And yes, the time and effort it takes to produce by hand, and the amount of people in the chain from first steps to a product to finally the hands of the consumer is considerable, therefore it needs to reflect in the price and it seems people have no issues to pay for it; espacially when they hear "it is made of old materials".

Lessons learned from my recent experiences for our own project back home (the Netherlands) is just that: whenever someone tells me the hand crafted products we make from old textile cloathing is to expensive, I shall simply state: "the product is made of old material". What works in Chang Mai, shall also work in the Netherlands :) Hope it does! :)