Things are not looking too good on the "cheap stuff" market this morning, at least not for Walmart. It would seem that several other stores arre beating them at their own game. It is sorta like America is getting whacked by other countries. Once the proud leader of mercantilism, Walmart is sliding off into the muck of reality. You can't get any ammo thre anymore. They can't keep it in stock. No one wants to buy their Chinese crap any more. I read where their big flat screen TV's are off 30% of their normal price. I guess all of us buying at dollar stores has put them in a bind. Big Lots has hurt them also. I think we may as well declare the collapse being started and be done with it. Whew! At least I don't have to wait for THAT anymore.
The big talk of the moment is the Austin plane wrecker. I think this is a good example of thin wire versus thick wire. You put too much current through a thin wire and it heats up and maybe even melts. A thick wire will most generally take the juice in stride and not offer any problems. Joe Stack was a thin wire. It finally melted in half. I am not saying there are not problems in this world and that making a living is not tough. Not at all. Things really ARE tough in this old world. But many of us are holding on and making our way through the crap of this economic meltdown with our heads held high and our noses into the wind. But a lot of folks cannot take too much pressure. They cannot take the normal load of electricity. And they will snap. Like Joe Stack snapped. And this kind of action is going to happpen repeatedly as things get tougher. Sorry, but it can't be helped. We all have our moments of despair but we shake ourselves back into some semblance of order and we go on. Joe Stack had reached the limit of his particular psyche. You just never know who is going to be next to fall into the bottomless pit of negativity. And it will happen, don't think it won't. Keep an eye out for the "melted wire people." You don't want to become part of their sacrifice.
We replenished a lot of our used up stash yesterday. Good canned goods to make up for what we have used to make a few meals. I'll have to wait until the season to get more Butter Beans but they are worth it. There was a delicious harvest last year and it will be hard to beat this year. Oh, and the Handmaiden finally found a non-electric perculator at Walmart and we have one proudly esconced in our home. It is a real gem. If you have heat you have coffee or whatever the hell floats your boat. I just checked the country of origin on the coffee pot and it is an Oregon Trail brand made for Walmart, in China. How can we ship scrap steel to China, get it reprocessed into steel that can be used, forn it into a coffee pot, bake on some blue enamel and ship the pot back to the United States CHEAPER than we can just do it ourselves? Makes no sense to me. And this is where I disagree with the market. We have no business doing this kind of crap when our own people are out on the street, going hungry and losing their homes. It is a sim against mankind. "He that careth not for his own household is worse than an infidel." The scripture is pretty plain spoken on that one. I think you will need to find out who is financing all of this market mayhem. They are our enemy. Got rope? Stay alive.
Michael
mboone@rtccom.net
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4 comments:
Michael, Good post and I agree, I wrote the article below with my thoughts with thoughts on china, wal-mart, cheep junk and how it's killing us.... feel free to use the article or re-post..
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Buy American
Buy American, A slogan we have seen here and there but what does it really mean.
With our economy in dire straights and the country still bleeding jobs at an alarming rate not to mention the people who have quit looking for jobs now is not the time to buy foreign products. While the urge to buy something for a lower price is something many people are doing right now it really hurts our economy and in the end it really costs more in the long run. When we buy products that are not made in this country we hurt the American directly by lowering their orders to their companies, that in turn cuts their hours and eventually can put them out of work. Once out of work if they can't find new work they turn to unemployment, welfare or other Government programs so in the end we pay for it.
This country has a long history of manufacturing and we are good at it and we can put out a Quality product for a fair cost. Now for the kicker, nobody wants to pay a fair cost so who is to blame? Nobody but ourselves. Again we have no one to blame but good ourselves. We wanted cheap and we paid for it with our jobs and now we want the Government to fix it, Newsflash, it is not up to the Government to fix it, we are the ones that need to fix it by buying American.
Some would argue that green jobs, new technology, Higher taxes and more free trade is the answer to our problems, that would work if we would do it here in the country but we won't, no one is going to make solar panels here when they can make them overseas for less, yes some are made here but they are leaving. New technology would be nice but it does not get enough people working and as for taxes lets make every one pay their fair share, as in collecting it from the 50% of people in the country that do not pay taxes.
Many countries practice protectionism or use tariffs, the effect of this is that the host country takes care of their own people first and foremost as it should be, we need to create over 100,000+ jobs a month to keep up with new potential employees coming into the job market in order to hold any kind of a steady unemployment rate. Right now we are not doing that and we are paying for it with a horrible unemployment rate as a result, we need to take a drastic coarse of action in order to stem this bleeding that we have, It is time to be a manufacturing power again, we need to be a producer not a consumer so buy American.... Scott
It ain't easy to find, and costs a bit more, but I still find a few things American made. Like you, I can't see how it's cheaper to go through the rigamarole to put Chinese crap on the shelves. Saw where one of those big container ship engines burns 1,600 gallons of heavy fuel oil PER HOUR. And that ain't counting the generators! For a month long voyage, that's 1,195,200 gallons of fuel, just for the main engine. Wow... Then there's insurance, crew pay, dockage, harbor and pilot's fees, etc... What a racket.
Another good alternative for a coffee pot is this one. Although it does need a burner under it, and it can't be put on a wood stove.
Not as good a the old fashioned percolator, but it should due the trick.
http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_Id=2000000719
Grrrr...
China crap.
I hear ya, someone is getting their asses kicked, somewhere. My buddy bought me a set of kitchen knives for my birthday. Twenty knives, from steak knife to Butcher knife with a sharpener to boot, for ten bucks.
Someone lost their ass on that deal, I don't care where it was made, someone lost their ass. My gain, their loss. There is no where on earth that anyone could have bought the raw materials, forged it, paid for the labor, packed in a big blister pack of plastic, shipped it around the world and made a profit.
Impossible.
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