Consumerism from beginning to end

Good video to curb shopping craze

It’s a little long but helps you understand the big picture.

Here’s some info from the video:

99% of the stuff we buy, using up our planet’s resources,  polluting ourselves and the environment, creating crappy working conditions for Americans and others, making ourselves less happy, and creating waste . . . 99% of it ends up in the trash within 6 months!! Unbelievable!  At least if we used it someone could try to justify it but seriously!

The wheel of our lives:  we work hard so when we get home we veg in front of the tv, the advertisements tell us we have the wrong car, wrong clothes, vacation in the wrong place, have the wrong furniture . . . so we go shopping and then we go to work to make more money and then we go home and watch tv . . . .

Planned obsolence and perceived obsolence.  Back in the 1950’s corporations started figuring out how to make their products break down after a period of time but not too soon so consumers would still have faith in their products!!  And why are there different styles of clothing and computers, phones, etc every year?  So you feel left out if you don’t have the latest.  I’ve had a hunch for a long time that in the world of technology they have the know how to make the phones/computers they’ll be making several years from now but they dole each feature out one year at a time so you’ll keep buying.  I realize it’s also conceivable that people are constantly figuring out new things to do but either way the techno world is NOT trying to reduce waste.  It doesn’t matter if they start accepting old computers in an effort at recyling, they will never try to make the one you buy last longer because they want you to buy, buy, buy.  I refuse to fall into this trap.  I only bought a new phone because mine finally just gave up, I wear shoes that were “in” several years ago (I will until they break and they’re very determined for cheap shoes) and my 1997 car is still holding on at 187,000 miles.

So you SUCKERS need to wake up!!

Algo se muere en el alma cuando un amigo se va

This makes me so sad

Freud

Freud’s legacy

The matrix

anarchy

polling

NewDeal vs business

These are all thoughts I had while watching this video.  I couldn’t get the last two parts to work and it’s been awhile since I watched the first two but I’m finally getting around to posting this.

. . . Brainwashing as it were, can be done by both sides (government/business and individual naturalists or whatever)  so . . . never believe anything . . . . . no, just don’t be like I am most of the time and assume that the opposite of something wrong must be 100% right.

Wal-Mart brings down American empire

Not that I’m pro empires. . . .

I still have not weaned myself completely of Wal-Mart.  I go probably once a month for things I can’t buy elsewhere locally.  And I’ve been thinking about that.  So many little towns whose closest retailer is Wal-Mart. . . . I don’t think it matters even if we get the word out because people have little alternatives for appliances, electronics, cosmetics, etc.  There’s no excuse for buying clothing and food at Wal-Mart, though (if I do it’s because I’m there for one of the other items) except maybe baby clothes because where else?

The Beast

Someone can tell it like it is

Good news for and from Texas politically and maybe for the rest of us too!

Car dealers

How to beat the four square

Long artice but good read on undercover writer in car dealership

More on Wally World

http://www.inspiredprotagonist.com/blog/what_is_it_they_still_don_t_get

integrity

I recently finished the book, integrity, by Henry Cloud.  Excellent, excellent book.  Hard to read, especially for me and I think in a way I hate Dr. Cloud.  But it is excellent.  He wrote it for people who want to succeed in business but it applies to life (and he refers to examples in life).

Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is

Since writing that Wal-mart post I’ve been wondering if I’m overdoing it.  Reinhold Niebuhr in a partly famous prayer I will quote in a minute says to take this sinful world as it is. We can’t attain heaven this side of death. And there’s probably a lot to be learned from that. I’m naturally an activist so my knee jerk reaction is to try to change things. The problem is you can stop going to Wal-mart but clothes made at Goody’s, CATO’s Penney’s, etc all might be made in deplorable overseas conditions too so unless you want to live in a bubble . . . . . But another part of the prayer asks for courage to change the things we can.  God does want us to stand up for the underdog. Maybe initially we can’t avoid these stores but when we get a handle on our finances and form new habits we can shop at the more expensive stores which don’t exploit workers.

Even if you find that you can’t avoid all the stores that do wrong in one area and/or the store that succeeds in that area has a wrong in another area, we can choose the lesser of the evils. So maybe one store still uses deplorable overseas conditions to make their clothing but they treat their employees with dignity, respect and honesty versus Wal-Mart. And the trail they leave is less bloody or whatever. But, if all else fails and you still have to shop at Wal-Mart, at least you know. Let’s not kid ourselves about the kind of world we live in or be ignorant of the greed and deception that motivates companies.   And do something proactive like reach out and love a Wal-Mart employee.

 Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

~ Reinhold Niebuhr

Walmart

Please watch this video about Walmart. It’s an hour and a half long so, you know, watch in installments or whatever. After watching this, I am partly ashamed that I ever shopped at Walmart and that I wanted our town to get the Super Walmart and that I still haven’t weaned myself completely (although I haven’t done regular grocery shopping there in years). I’ve written about this before but I’ll say it again: We need to train ourselves and our children to ask why things are so cheap and is it worth the non-monetary price for cheap goods. In this video you will learn about the way Walmart does not value its employees (it makes them work overtime with no pay, has terrible insurance, and it discriminates against women and minorities), the way it abuses tax payers money, the way it LIES (promises things with no intention of fulfilling those promises both to the community and its employees) the way it destroys the lives of business owners in the area, the way it supports deplorable working conditions overseas . . . . (I worked for Meijer one summer in Indiana and I suspect they do things very much the same–they also were very touchy about overtime and they wouldn’t give you the hours you wanted. They would hire you full-time and then cut back your hours gradually.)

Now I need to qualify this some. I understand some of the attractions of Walmart. And some of the things I don’t have a problem with: having one place to stop for all your needs, that it’s a chain, . . . I’m a city girl at heart and have moved enough that I like the recognition of a Walmart. If you pull into a town you’ve never been to and see a Wal-Mart, it’s familiar and I’m more comfortable going in there than somewhere I’ve never heard of. BUT I don’t understand the greed and I don’t agree with cheating employees out of a right to a full-time job, the pay they earned or good health benefits or cheating communities, etc just so you can be richer than rich. The other thing I don’t understand is not caring about the businesses they put out of business. Having our society move from small business to big business . . . maybe it’s a bad thing, but maybe it wouldn’t have to be so bad. The small business owners could be offered jobs in management. Of course, they may not want to take them, especially at a dishonest company which Wal-Mart has apparently turned out to be, but I’m just saying I don’t think that all the premises of a big company are 100% evil. There might be a way to do it with integrity. But that has not been the case with Walmart so I am going to try to wean myself of the last few things I still go there for.

I also wanted to comment on the China part of the video; some of the unfortunate practices, like the dormitory, have to do with China in general and is not per Walmart’s instruction although as you’ll see in the video they don’t care. (This reminds me that I wanted to mention a great book, Around the Bloc; I will post on that soon.) And as for almost all the products Walmart sells coming form China, I am not against imports; I don’t believe that everything Americans buy should be made in America because there are mutual advantages to importing and exporting, BUT I think it can be unbalanced and if the reason it’s coming in from outside is because they can get away with deplorable working conditions, then that’s a problem. One that doesn’t appear it will be remedied in the foreseeable future.

By the way, back when we lived in Kentucky, I had a co-worker who worked part-time at Wal-mart. I don’t know if it was for financial purposes or to keep plugged into the company (she had worked there back in Nebraska). I’m not still in touch with her, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she could corroborate much of this. It seemd she either couldn’t get the hours she wanted or they worked her when she didn’t want to because they “had nobody else”.