As a teenager, my Grandpa rode from Missouri to California hanging on to the OUTSIDE of a coal train for exactly that reason.
Hitch hiking may have been better. The trains were coal fired, so riding on the outside left you covered in soot. He had a description for it that probably belongs in the Ferg thread
This is why we never get to the root cause. We lack the honesty and courage to look at problems and plan a proper work plan to address the issue and eliminate the problem. No one is saying keep them poor. However, to promote maintenance is not a problem solver. Let me postulate simple steps borrow from safety in the workplace: 1. Indentify the hazard or issue. 2. Eliminate the issue. 3. Engineer around the issue. 4. Administe. 5. PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). Federal/Gov't assistance is PPE, at Level 5. If that is the best we do, we have done nothing but provide a warm fuzzy feeling for some. Now, we can alternatively issue PPE to those in need not as protection in earlier levels: 3, or 4 as a measure of control, and to some extent in less significant sum to greater effect. Answer this question, do you wear motorcycle protective/riding gear for a crash or control? If you wear your helmet to see better and eliminate some of the fatigue from wind, if you wear your gloves/boots to provide you better control over the controls, you have better change to prevent the crash. And, your helmet/gloves/boots go a long way into your future. Good investment. However, if you wear simply for crash protection and all you do is crash, it gets expensive. This is where our social engineering has gotten us. A weak product at high cost. And has done little to elminate or mitigate the issue of hunger, or any other.
To rob your neighbor. The other side of the coin is that keeping people with nothing to do all day from becoming desperate for survival helps insure that your society doesn't fall apart. Longterm abuse is only one aspect. But since that's the focus of this thread now: What about Walmart? They used a business plan to put people on government assistance. Did you guys take the moral high ground and quit shopping there?
Nope. I did what I had to do to make sure my family was taken care of. No one is compelled to work at Wally World.
I stopped shopping there long ago but it was not due to social justice. Rather, I dont appreciate low quality goods, near expired foods, and 2 checkout lines for 20 lines worth of people.
Some may not have a choice. Walmart does not exist without the customers. This is viscious circle or spiral. Much has change in the mechanics of our consumerism, since the 80's. I just don't feel comfortable bitching about Walmart without acknowledging the many factors that justify or secure its existence/need. Low quality is the norm. We don't fix or repair. We buy/replace. I am not judging where we are. However, I am not opposed to changing back to higher quality but that quality comes at a price that include cost to produce. I don't think the masses are ready for a return to yesteryears. And, they are definitely not willing to pay premium, in part because they themselves are not making premium.
Not judging the people who shop at Walmart at all. I am judging their goods. I also dont own Chevrolets, Taurus firearms, or race in CCS. Its a quality thing. Besides, who am I to stand in the way of Americans creating Chinese jobs?
Add vehicle risk to that list for me. Last time I went there I almost got hit 3 times in the parking lot. Saving a few dollars shopping won't cover the costs of a parking lot accident.
My point to you was, that you have a choice. I have a choice. Other may not have the choice you and I enjoy/exercise. Yes, their good is low quality. But that low quality and price that accompanies the products is the bare minimum some required and are able to pay. Quality is a funny thing, isn't. It is not afforded to everyone. Or not everyone can afford. I stand by everything else. American has become a service industry. Manufacturing is not our game anymore. Our economy is based on consumerism. We need China, and they need us. Unless, we are ready to do a 180? Which I don't believe we are willing to endure. The case can be made that overall our standard of living is best, even when we look at the poorest among us. This is not to say it is perfect but it is what we have. And, for some reason people feel better about themselves when they are shopping. Do I wish we had more homegrown products? Yes. But are we really ready to refocus our values? I remain doubtful. IMO - we went all wrong in the 90's when zero percent interest was afforded to the mob. Our economy was more about image than substance. Hence, quality is sacrificed. Maybe, the hope for the US is Unions. Perhaps, when the Unions do what they did here in China, some jobs may return.
I am pleased that you too have a choice. We cannot simply do away with Walmart because of anyone's political agenda, or environmental/social persuasion, or risk to dent. Walmart survives and grows as our Nation declines because in part, it is feeding, clothing, and to a lesser extent employing folks.
Because keeping them fat, dumb and entitled has worked so well... If they are not willing to work fuck them. If you want to pay for them fine but I would rather buy MR2 to get the extra HP that I really don't need than feed someone who is too lazy to work.
