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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (5073)	7/18/2001 8:15:38 AM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 93284

I am objecting to the force of government, custom, and exigency limiting consumer sovereignty I agree with your first, government; custom or culture is inherently part of the market. Exigency depends on whether your talking real or imagined. If it's a real quality that may quite easily translate to unacceptable pricing. If it's imagined, I would agree. The point of my reference about line behavior is that Europeans are much more complaisant about putting up with inconvenience, likely a hold over from habits of deference developed in class ridden societies. That appears to me to be an ideological driven conclusion rather than a deductive one. There were also some studies that Europeans have any easier time with grays. Americans like blacks or whites; it's either yes or no, right or wrong. Lines and sufference within in them could easily be related to that difference in attitude. If I'm not getting immediate service the service must be totally incompetent. [Illustrative exageration.] I recall being in more than a few lines around the DC beltway and it wasn't uncommon to see a driver squirming to see what happened up front or pound his steering wheel in frustration. [As if that might make some difference in outcome.]I chose to roll down the window, weather permitting, find a classical station and relax. It never quite occured to me that my attitude could be a left over habit of deference developed in class ridden society. Recall the good ol' days of buy American, save US jobs. Lee Iococca even did a commericial along those lines. Oddly it was at the same time he was cutting a deal with Mitsubishi to get engines. But CEOs weren't the only hypocrites, the consumer was quite happy to say buy American and drop down to the Wal-Mart and buy Taiwan. Life will change it is inevitable. Wal-Marts business practices will continue; Main Street shops will continue to use zoning tactics; they'll lose, Wall-Mart will win. Wal-Mart will undercut prices due to their buying power. Main street companies will fail. Then the Wal-Mart will raise their retail price in a non-competitive market [part of their business practice] and the consumer will pay. It's a successful business model. I can't stop it; I don't want any legislation to stop it; but I don't have to like it and I can acknowledge that there are some penalties that the small towns will pay. All progress is not necessarily all good in all instances, but it will happen. jttmab