Last Splash

The gene pool could use a little Chlorine.

Consumerism

Among other points...I'm sick of people saying that consumerism is bad. Consumerism can be troubling if you are buying things you cannot afford, this is true, but no one is making you buy them. I've seen people talking lately about American consumerism and how greedy and selfish we are. I'm sure this is true in some cases, and a lot of Americans have yet to recognize and figure out a way to contribute to huge worldwide problems, but everyone seems to forget that consumerism is what drives our economy. It creates the jobs of all the employees that work in retail, food and service, the hotel industry, plus all of the corporate and wholesale jobs that the retail world creates. Most importantly, it puts money back into our economy and tax system, so that our income taxes don't go new-asshole-tearing high.

A very smart man I know wants Congress to come out with the all sales-tax based tax system. Imagine: you might pay 20% sales tax, but every cent of your paycheck comes to you. I'm sure lots of people will cry that the rich are putting more taxes in than the poor, but it works because your taxes are based on what you buy.

And an addendum to the Wal-Mart thing, I'm not anti Wal-Mart in any way. I actually think it's a great company providing jobs for a lot of hard-working people that my tax money would be paying to support if they didn't work at Wal-Mart. And people can complain about their low wages (no lower than an average retailer, especially big box retailers) but Wal-Mart is a PUBLIC company, and what is their best employee benefit? Stock options, hello. Everyone, from the CEO to the lowliest stockperson, gets stock options. That's like a built in bonus. If I have any complaint about Wal-Mart, it's that I wish they wouldn't choose a location so close to an existing location, clear a swatch of trees to build it, then leave the old one sitting empty for years.

posted by: Cannonball14 at 14:47 | link | comments (5) |
the retail beast, political bullshit

Comments:

#1  14 December 2005 - 15:08

 

The problem we are faced with in terms of consumerism is not consumerism itself, rather it is becoming the sole engine for our economy, and we cannot do that over the long term. If we are not producing products in this country for other countries to purchase, than our balance of trade ratios get out of whack. As it stands now, our economy is being held up by foreign investors who are purchasing our dollars to finance our debt. So, in the short term, we are ok, in the long term--unless we begin to produce products, rather than just consume,we will be in trouble. As for Walmart--80% of the goods sold by Walmart are made in China...so much for the Made in USA label that they espouse.

JustMe63

#2  14 December 2005 - 17:15

 

Ah, true, JM63. Of course, I see one of the major reasons that we have trade deficits is that they make stuff at least as good, if not better than we do here in America, yet at the same or lower prices. I'd love to blame cheap overseas labor, but I think the biggest reasons are management's unwillingness to change their approach to quality and to their people. I'm afraid that the attitude of "they'll come here regardless of what we turn out" is still the mentality of U.S. management, just as it was at the end of World War II. Except for a few, hard-core "buy American" folk, the rest of us are trying to get the most bang for our buck.

If we really want to turn around the trade deficit and grow American business's strength in the world economy, it's time that executives stop looking at the short-term bottom line, and investing in a real corporate focus at delivering innovative, reliable products at the lowest price possible.

Windhazel

#3  14 December 2005 - 17:36

 

Definite agreeal with both of you there. I would love to buy American, especially when it comes to say, a car, but as long as American companies are building crap cars, I will stick with my beloved Nissan.

I've never thought about management having a lot to do with it, but this might be true, WH. I've always just thought it's because American's are lazy and don't pay attention to detail, but I guess if I worked for a boss that I never saw that did nothing but criticize his own company, I would probably be inclined to do shoddy work as well.

That is what's happening in our breakdown of State Government in NC. The few that are actually willing to do their jobs well never get rewarded for it, while the majority of state employees mumble about "that's not in my job description" and work at a slow enough pace that good employees pick up their slack. And it takes the state forever to fire/hire anyone.

Cannonball14

#4  15 December 2005 - 14:50

 

Really, I think that management is the key. Certainly, people can be lazy or unmotivated, but really management sets the culture of the company. It's up to management to develop new ways to tap into the creative parts of the people who are working with the same parts every single day to find ways to continually improve their products and services.

I think one of the companies that I most respect is Microsoft. They may have "stolen" the Windows idea from Apple, but they are continuing to develop new technologies and helpful features (can you say, "XBox" or "MSN Messenger"?). Certainly, they enjoy a certain amount of success due to their "search and destroy (or buy)" methods, but they stay on top because they are such a moving target...the Microsoft that somebody wants to shoot down today is going to be much further down the road by the time you get your aim set where they were.

Windhazel

#5  07 January 2006 - 22:43

 

I was reading an article today, and I remembered this post. I think it's very germane to this conversation, and echoes my comments (except Mr. Patton is much more eloquent).

Until I figure out how to insert a link, here's the web address of the article.

http://qualitycurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2006/01/cost-of-quality.html

Windhazel

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