Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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Butch you swing a hammer pretty well, because you have hit the nail on the head. Even though many of us work, regardless of income level, we are mostly servicing each other. Don't get me wrong, we would have to export nothing, as long as we import nothing. It may be a bit too late for that. There was a joke about a fast food order taker's job moved to India, the voice on the speaker comes over trans-Atlantic lines as do the instructions on what the order is. Somebody popped in and said they are already working on that. So we live in an age where it is cheaper to keep an open channel halfway around the globe, pay someone, include what their boss makes, and all that is cheaper than hiring someone for minimum wage ? It seems to work with telemarketers and tech support. Makes one think that these conditions did not just happen, that they were caused. As scary as that is, that big money and government want to destroy us so badly that they go to these lengths, it is time to recognize that it just might be true. China and Russia are both ticked off at us for our antics, just not enough to do anything about it.........YET.
Hunky, I completely gave up on nail clippers years ago, I need wire cutters. Of course even those are imported. Thing is we could tell China to keep most of their junk, their plasma TVs, lead laden toys, poison pet food, but they are not the only country with which we trade. For example, the fuel injectors and some other electrical items in your car are made by a German company called Bosch. Yes I mean the Chevy, the supposedly American made car. When the dollar drops and we can afford less plasma TVs and all that garbage, we will also be able to afford less components for our vehicles.
We are looking forward into a world where that $3,000 plasma TV only lasts about two years. There are practically no parts, and I am on a very private website where we have to engage in STEALING service information just to repair the few we can. We have been reduced from being able to simply order a nice new part for something, to operating like a junkyard. But we are adapting, we have our vices along with other needs. You would see American inginuity at it's finest in the industry, and parts distrubutors now get parts from the same places where the manufacturers get them, because no matter where it is built, no one company makes each and every part. The last time we saw anything like that was at the Ford Motor Company back in the 1930s. We find ways to get the job done, much to the dismay of the manufacturers which would rather sell a new one. We are at war. Now, aftermarket parts manufacturers are on the scene, which helps, but sometimes the parts are a bit out of spec and of course we must adapt.
All this goes on as Walmart is denied permits to build in smaller towns, and then proceeds to drain their coffers with lengthy lawsuits claiming that they are a variety store rather than a department store, crap like that. What they really do is to sell at a loss until all the competition goes out of business, and then raise prices. I don't think Sam Walton intended to create this monster, but the world made it a reality.
If for some reason I absolutley had to buy a new TV (don't hold your breath) I would go to a place called Wellman and Griffith. Classy place, manufacturers would beg to get their products into the showroom, I know, I was there. They used to have a service department, and they listened to the techs. When we told them something was junk, they no longer wanted to sell it. You go to Walmart for a TV, you have a disposable item, no matter how much it costs.
Have you bought a can opener lately ? Notice how long it lasts. Can openers used to be handed down from generation to generation, now you are lucky to get a year out of one. Why ? Simple, they want to sell another one. One sad fact we can't ignore is that nothing happens until something is sold. No sinister hand made that true, it is a simple fact in business. But what they did subsequently is criminal.
They made an environment which destroys the middle class. They allow companies to sell shoddy products with no support. The $3,000 TV ? A buddy of mine bought a nice DLP last April. It broke down around Thankgiving, and still sits there broken because parts are not available. This thing was under factory warranty ! He has the paperwork to prove he called during the warranty period, and a factory authorized service company came out. Imagine paying all that money and the thing doesn't work through the holidays, and still doesn't to this day. The state attorney general has a whole bunch of complaints against the manufacturer and is considering action, like a class action lawsuit, but don't hold your breath, because it is clear that they are not on our side.
As I have said before, sometimes you can back figure the motive by the action. Applying that logic one conclusion seems the most likely. They want to destroy us to the point where we will become the cheap labor that is available in other countries. If that is correct, it is a conspiracy. From screwing up the schools so our workforce is on average, less competent, to moving factories, to extending people credit to buy this junk.
Far fetched ? Yes, but take a look around. If true, and thusfar all I see are facts supporting the hypothesis, that means that molochs are running the world. It also means they are running it into the ground. They don't see that they are destroying one of the greatest markets in the world. This whole thing is going to bite them in the ass, and I want to be there to take pictures. I mean when we can't afford the junk anymore, I mean when China's economy topples because none of us can afford to "keep up with the Jones's" any longer.
We could reverse the trend if we had anyone good in government. We The People can do something, refuse to buy the crap. I refuse to buy anything. The newest vehicle in my driveway is a 1995, my TV and monitor are twenty years old, the PC about ten. I will need a new PC soon but I will wait till the very last minute.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel though. Although money is not a good thing to have right now, non-necessities will be catching up. You will be able to buy things for pennies on the dollar if you avoid this rampant consumerism. Those big booming car stereos you hear will be going for twenty bucks for gas, or a rock of crack, but what do you care ? Even the car itself, just give it a little time.
As long as people stay ignorant this is our path. Fortunes were made in the great depression, and that will happen again. Stocks in large corporations becoming penny stocks. Houses sold for pennies on the dollar to get food, and along with that, squatters rights being traded on the street because of all the foreclosures. It is already happening. I could do it right now. There is a house down the street right now that has been vacant for over five years. I could easily break in, change all the locks and simply rent it to someone. I've heard of such things happening already. You really don't know how much of this is going on, you only hear about it when the real owner actually shows up.
People do nasty things to get ahead at others' expense when times are good, what do you think they will do when times get bad ? I did not say if. If something doesn't change drastically and soon, you will see things you never thought you would see. Keep your powder dry is all I can say.
When people get hungry the world is going to become alot more dangerous.
What can we do ? I have a plan but people won't go for it right now. The plan is to buy nothing. Essentials like food and all that, but pass on anything else. TV breaks, get a library card. Get a PC and surf the net. I know people who walk around with three cellpones, WTF you only got two ears !
People put two thousand dollar stereos in six hundred dollar cars. They take their five kids to the store and use the food stamp card to get each a jug of juice of unknown origin and a bag of chips, and then pull out thirty bucks at the lottery counter. People have a 1984 Honda and think it needs trick lights underneath and a custom paint job, rather than an oil change with some slick 50 or some other treatment. Of course they have to put a thousand watt stereo in it.
Enjoy these days now, they are coming to an end. Then when the companies that sell all these non-essentials go out of business, that will serve to exaserbate the problem. There will be more and more criminals, and less and less working people.
Welcome to the future. You can move away, in Cleveland it was called white flight, but that is not totally accurate. Almost anyone who could afford it moved out from the urban areas. It's working for them at the moment but it won't last. The problems will come to them, proving something my Father said years ago "You can't run from your problems". I am not being driven out, and that's why there is a full clip sitting right in front of my printer. I live in the city, this is my home, and I am not going anywhere.
If we survive, we are going to live through some hard times. Some people are desperate now, but there are many more to follow. Even if each and every one of us refuses to buy anything except essentials, causing the collapse of what they call the economy, we will live it.
The disparity between the rich and the poor was caused by the rich, and allowed by the poor. You think I think I am rich ? I would need a single digit IQ to think that. What's more every dime I have is worth a bit less every day. That's the beautiful part of it, it will come to them as well.
Think of the time when money is practically worthless. It levels the playing field. I am capable of designing and building a house, and repairing almost anything. Another is capable of sitting on the board of directors at General Motors, but can't change a flat tire. Think about that. The haves will become the have nots, and vice versa.
I hope to live to see that day.
T
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The little Man, the middle Man and the middle class - 
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