It is an interesting world we live in today. I hear a lot of cheers for the current administration in DC and what they are doing all over my haunts on the internet. As I write this, I am sitting in a beach side condo on the Big Island enjoying a getaway for some relaxation. Yesterday, Jan connected with some old acquaintances we hadn’t seen for some time who live here now. Originally from CA and now retired here. They regaled us with the benefits of living here and how much cheaper it is than the left coast.
Irony I would call it as we paid $25 the other day for a very bad Mexican watermelon. His accounting seems to add up to me though. It’s mostly about taxes and the breaks one receives for being old like we are. Problem though is that I read that as little by little dumping the bill in some form of credit on the younger people. Nothing is free! If you are realizing a reduction of costs associated with the government then you are being subsidized by your peers or your children.
Perhaps you’ve heard the analogy of the frog and the lobster? You drop lobster into boiling water which kills them instantly, otherwise when the water gets too warm they will crawl out of the pot. With frogs, you put them in a pot and slowly increase the temperature until it is too late; they’re cooked. If you drop them into boiling water they will immediately jump right back out. Slowly though, they enjoy the water until all is lost.
This is the nature and culture of the American at present. We’re in the slowly boiling pot. One day it will be too late. I ring this bell with hopes of opening some eyes to this reality.
Examples of this are all about if we care to look. Example: the other day I ordered some door hinges for a project at the house. By practice and intention I avoid shopping at any multi national enterprise or BOX stores. I was searching for double swing hinges, you know, like the ones you see in western movies on the saloon doors. Sure enough none are made here or anywhere else in the developed world except for good ‘ole Cathay. Not only was it difficult to find them, it was difficult to find them outside of that southern rain forest company. None of the descriptions are complete or accurate. Which means you don’t know what you are buying but hey they’re cheap. I decide to buy them from Wallyworld which is preferred over that rain forest company.
Come to find out not only is it made in Cathay but is also located in Cathay and will ship from Cathay. None of which is obvious from Wally’s website. Likely if I ordered from them more often I would be abreast of such things, fortunately I do not, so I am not. In any case I discover this because of the great delay in its arrival which goads me into checking the delivery tracking info. First location listed Guongdong.
The screwing is so seamless now that these big corporations don’t even inventory the crap like they used too. Somehow now an individual item can make to the US of A; product, handling, shipping and tax all for less than $39.95! There is a real problem here! Read it like this if you’re like me and give a shit.
If I want to buy a cheap house where I live I need to make $120,000.00 a year to be able to afford a mortgage with 15% down. Mind you, that would be difficult to do where I live on the coast, much easier in Wyoming and other places I know. In any case that works out to be $1.77 a minute, if it took me 15 minutes to go the post office to retrieve it that would cost me about $26.55. That’s just to pick it up! (Includes wages, $75G car, gas and maintenance)’
That my friends is evidence of a boiling frog, along with the underhanded info about where it is presently. We have big problems on the horizon. We need to start making better economic decisions for ourselves and stop making ones that benefit the Fortunate 500. Companies stripping the wealth from the small business and working class. You can’t even begin to explain to me the benefits of getting a forty dollar hinge from China, when I can’t go down the road 15 minutes for anything at half that cost!
We need to turn off the stove and stop boiling ourselves! Be local, buy local. It’s a choice. Please decide to do it with every purchase. Vote with your dollars. Whenever possible pay the higher price and buy from a guy you can see, talk too or read about who he is. We need to get out from under these mega matrix companies and go back to the nature of the human being, relationships. Stop the siphoning of our wealth to tall glass Manhattan bankers.
Here are rules that I use. I do not buy from any box store unless I can not find it from a local establishment or used already in my community. I avoid the most egregious, Amazon at all cost. Under no circumstances will I go there, same with Costco. Not because they are as bad as the former but they are a ‘sell out’ to the small businessman. If I have to I will go to Wally but only because they have brick and mortar which keeps some capital local. Not nearly enough but some. I look for any company that is regional to local. If they operate outside of my region I avoid. Understanding that you are not actually saving any money but selling yourself out. I want handmade things that will last my lifetime or a lot of years. I want to see my hard earned effort go into my neighborhood not a corporate stock ticker.
Don’t get me wrong, we do need the stock ticker but leave it to things like airlines, oil companies, mining or large manufacturing; otherwise we’re losing out by leaps and bounds, to kill the frog analogy.
Hey, go be great in that wonderful life you’ve been given!
Greg