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Originally Posted by Bella Figura
I'm glad to see we have common ground regarding quality. I am a big advocate of empirical data not intellectual theorey by others since one can always find something somebody wrote to support any point or idea...
I can totally see from your past experiences (as evidenced by your history posts on the Stevie Nicks board) how you would not be into roots and community. keeping on the move and not forming attachments is a good life strategy for you...Rush, Monica and Sean must keep you company as you travel and they are very entertaining...
my post related a personal case study. but I can see how you might have picked up the implication that the plant closed because of Walmart but I did not say that...
there are positives to unions and mom/pop establishments which are worth researching on a both theoretical and empirical basis...quality being just one...
lol, John Steinbeck may have been a communist but he was an American. and aren't the Chinese still "officially" communist...i must admit I do have communist leanings...but the reality is that human greed will always rears it's ugly head in any utopian society...
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You have totally misjudged me. I don't travel a lot anymore and I'm very into roots and community. I don't listen to Sean Hannity and I don't know who "Monica" is. I do listen to Rush, more for the entertainment factor than anything. I generally do shop at farmer's markets for my produce and when I need a quick snack or a drink, I generally go to mom & pop establishments. My macro economic view is that they don't add as much to the GDP of a community as much as Walmart does. Walmart can afford to employ about 100 people in a given town that were most likely only working one job, or were previosuly unemployed. Most mom & pop stores don't employ much of anyone beyond immediate family and the dollars of the other families in community don't buy as much as they would at Walmart. I do value community and am building a home in the suburb of Lake Stevens, near Seattle.
I do agree on utopian societies, the general fallacy with socialism or communism is that human nature is their weakness, whereas with capitalism, it exploits human nature in an "ethical egoism" context. Communism allows someone to get rich at someone else's expense and punishes success and excellence, whereas capitalism allows you to become wealthy by serving your fellow man and (generally, not always) rewards hard work and excellence. Capitlism is more social darwinism.