reply to post by bekod
That is a problem and one that TPTB I believe have thought about. They realize that in order to sway the public, they have to have the price point. I
do not think we should look at it in terms of when we go buy things from our local farmers market as paying a dollar or two more than what one would
at the local W
(cant bring myself to type the rest of the name), but as taking money away from the large corporations. As an example, I buy a bunch of tomatoes from
a local farmer for 6 dollars, but the local big grocery has tomatoes for 5 dollars. Now, I would rather my local farmer(because he is my neighbor)
take my 6 dollars than to send my 5 dollars to some other country across the pond. Yes, the buy local motto does tend to cost a little more, but I do
not blame the local industries for that, they have to charge enough to keep themselves above water too and in someway compete with the big boys, just
like every one of us. But the kicker is, once more and more people started buying locally, the prices would eventually decline. After all, it would be
much harder for the local people to get away with price fixing, gouging, or whatever, when they live next door to their very customers. And then
something else we need to change is the quality vs quantity debacle, citizens tend to understandably go the cheapest route, but is it really cheaper
when you pay 10 dollars for something and then turn around 3 months later to buy it again after it breaks, whereas, the same person could have bought
the same but better product for 15 dollars from another manufacturer and it lasts indefinitely. This is part of the reason our economy is based on
waste.
It can be done on other things too, like services. For instance, if you have a computer problem, do not call the geek squad, find a local person that
does computer work on the side, they are out there. It is really amazing how much talent, knowledge and skills out there that people really have, but
the so called "experts" have setup another illusion that if they do not have a certification or some sort of "piece of paper" the person does not know
what they are doing. BS. In my line of work and experiences, I have started taking notice of something that in certain cases, that the more educated
someone is, even in their particular field of study, the less they really know.
Another thing that can be done is start paying cash for things as much as possible that way we do not at least keep feeding the credit card companies
with their .03 cents(or whatever it is) charge that gets assessed to the place of purchase. Yeah, you may be giving a large company business(against
your will) but you can cut something being fed directly to the credit card companies. Think about it, if the credit companies charge the establishment
.03 cents for the use of a credit/debit card then lets say 100,000 people over a given week uses their cards then at the end of that week the credit
card company gets 3000 dollars for not really doing anything other than using technology that was originally designed to save money. As they told us
in the early 80s how all this new tech would make things so much cheaper, I tell ya, I am not seeing it.
edit on 31-1-2011 by Skewed because:
additional info
edit on 31-1-2011 by Skewed because: (no reason given)