[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')The working classes shop at Walmart because...

[Hawkcreek]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hey shop at wal-mart because they want cheap, not quality. When you vote for cheap over quality again and again and again, it sends a message upstream and before you know it you wind up with Big Macs & Hot Pockets, plywood McMansion exurbs built by illegal aliens, lead painted toys, and melamine in baby formula.

For instance, my dad, unsatisfied by the worn down toaster we were using, decides to buy a new toaster. Sure, the new toaster looks good out of the box. But within the first week of using it the knob snaps off. Then he buys a couple new chairs for the living room. Turns out one of them didn't have the metal threading installed for one of the screw-on feet. My dad is a frugal shopper and that's what happens to you when you shop based on price alone.

In a normal universe, because of population increase and "peak everything", you'd have price inflation. Instead, in order for everybody to keep up appearances, we resort to this sleight of hand. Furniture is made of sawdust and glue with a cheap woodgrain sticker applied, and sold for what solid wood furniture used to sell for. Food portions shrink, either with or without the box. Everything shifts from metal to plastic (I remember the first time I saw an all-plastic VCR, insane). You name it, someone will try it. It's "they don't make em like they used to" write large. And you wonder why people jones for Steampunk, even if it's faux steampunk.

We're basically living on the equivalent of movie props rather than real products.

[2cher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')The working classes shop at Walmart because...

[pablonite]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'T')hey shop at wal-mart because they want cheap, not quality.

[Stonemason]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'A')nother anti-outsourcing diatribe. Let's be honest. We voted for outsourcing with our wallets.

[Sixstrings]

While we're on the subject of Walmart.. here's how Walmart avoids a lot of state taxes:

http://walmartwatch.com/img/blog/wsj_taxrelief.gif

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'p')lywood McMansion

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'p')lywood McMansion

[MarkJ]

When I was 14, I worked at a relative's glove manufacturing business. Customers (including employees and locals) voted with their wallets. They stopped buying high quality hand made leather gloves in favor of dirt cheap lower quality imports. Since demand was down for high quality and hand made gloves, the majority of skilled workers were eliminated. Floor space that once was used for leather processing and glove manufacturing equipment was cleared to add shelves, storage and order processing space for imported gloves.


Since the business started handling mostly imported gloves, most highly paid skilled employees and semi-skilled piece rate workers were replaced with unskilled warehouse workers, shelf stockers, order takers, pickers and shipping/receiving workers.

Like other glove shops, these unskilled workers demanded more money, more benefits and attempted to unionize during a time when mills, factories, tanneries, cottage industry and heavy industry was dying in the region. These unskilled workers wanted skilled wages, plus benefits and perks for performing unskilled tasks.


Around the same period of time, my brother worked in the warehouse of a furniture manufacturing business that made decent quality wood furniture. Even though the employees received a substantial employee discount, they voted with their wallets for dirt cheap alternatives. They bought cheap sawdust/glue/cardboard tables, cabinets, desks, entertainment centers, microwave carts and hutches form discount stores.


Many of the former manufacturing workers and local residents still gripe about the loss of manufacturing in the region, although they failed to support them when they still existed.

Long before WalMart stores moved into the region, it was discount stores like Ames, Jamesway and K-Mart that introduced locals to cheap sawdust furniture, futons and other cheap imported products. Ames had several lawsuits due to accidents from their cheap chair/table sets with light gauge tubular steel frames. Many people were injured when the chair frames collapsed. Obesity was becoming more common in the region at the time, so inexpensive furniture wasn't capable of supporting 300 plus pounders.

[MarkJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'ve seen some sheathed with a brown crumbly board that you can poke your finger through. I guess it's strong enough to support vinyl siding.

[mcgowanjm]

You're describing the transfer of production to financial. People in Ag have grown up with this meme.

Major inflection points: 1968 and 1980. $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Charles H Smith', 'T')he monetary-policy terminology of "quantitative easing" and "bail-out" is a masterstroke of propaganda, for it purposefully masks an unprecedented transfer of wealth from future taxpayers to the Financial Power Elite.
I want to be crystal-clear here: what Bernanke & Co. represent as "monetary policy" is in fact a massive transfer of wealth from future generations of U.S. taxpayers to Wall Street and the banking/mortgage industries.

[Ferretlover]

Guideline for the Economics & Finance Forum:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')color=blue] Economics & Finance[/color] Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of hydrocarbon depletion.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cloud9', 'C')learly the development of cognizant machines has significantly reduced the need for slaves. If the New World Order does not need the teeming billions of workers, solders and sycophants, why are we still here? Surely a few million in a carefully controlled under class can provide our masters with all the worldly delights they desire.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MarkJ', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')'ve seen some sheathed with a brown crumbly board that you can poke your finger through. I guess it's strong enough to support vinyl siding.