Design for the Real World Human Ecology and Social Change Resource Type: Book Published: 1973 While two-thirds of the world's population lives in poverty, valuable human and natural resources are used to produce: fur-covered toilet seats, electronic nail polish dryers, diapers for parakeets, and mink-oil fertilizer for "the plant that has everything." Papanek discusses why the things you buy are expensive, badly designed, unsafe, and often don't work. He proposes alternative ways of thinking and alternative designs for safe, inexpensive, and desperately needed products.