Fair prices are stupid

Well, OK thats not really how I feel about it. That is how I perceive how others feel about it though. For example, there are numerous grocery stores in my area. Having all of these stores around means competitive business, which should mean fair prices. Of course, thats not how it works. Most of the stores charge the same amount, save for a few items or offered discounts and raise their prices simultaneously when the market calls for it (or when the company decides they need a higher profit margin). Instead of one or more stores keeping prices low to keep all of them low and reasonable, they figure hey...if they can charge that much so can we.

Enter in the discount grocer. We had one open up a few months back. The prices aren't just a little bit less than the other stores, they're drastically less. I'm talking about a weekly grocery bill that has gone from $150-$250 to $50-$90. Thats massive. Of course, you don't get bags, unless you pay for them (3 cents a whack, oh my!) , and you might have to buy an off brand for certain items. Other than that though, they're pretty much the same as any grocer minus the meat and bakery departments.

So back to my point which is, if this store can make a profit selling items for sometimes less than half or more than it competitors, what does that say about the competitors? They're ripping you off, thats what. The line of bull that overhead is simply costing so much they must continuously increase their prices to magnanimous amounts is just that, a line of bull.

Here's the kicker though. Americans don't like saving a buck when it comes to corporately owned businesses. People who shop at said discount grocery stores are looked at like lepers. As if paying a reasonable amount of money for something we actually need (food) is indicative of an unhealthy lifestyle. Or that we're just too gosh darn poor to be able to shop at "real" grocery stores. Poor us, I just saved over $100 on items that will literally be gone before the end of the week. I must be an idiot! Why would I want to pay $14 for toilet paper when I can get the same thing for $1.99?

I'm literally flushing the product down the toilet.

But again, when it comes to products we need, and if its a corporation, Americans just look down on people who want fair, reasonable prices. They'll nickel and dime their neighbors at a yard sale for a $.25 mug...or haggle the local shop owner to get a discount on an already fairly priced item. A fair price is absolutely necessary when they are buying items they don't need (and can't afford anyway). But god forbid should they step foot into a discount grocery store. They would rather pay top dollar for items that will eventually be flushed down a toilet, shat out, or thrown away.

But thats just our country isn't it? Corporate is God, local business people and private citizens go to hell! We're shooting ourselves in the foot. We're creating corporate owned wage slaves. And for no reason at all.

The Fountain of Youth

For centuries upon centuries the lore of magical fountains, chalices and other devices meant for immortality or the the deceleration of the aging process have passed from generation to generation. The ideals of immortality have been sought after, fought over, challenged and coveted for about the same amount of time. Do you think we have ceased searching for the Fountain of Youth?

Think again.

We have continued the exhausting epic, no longer through tales, myths and magical means, but rather via the pursuit of sound, logical theories widely accepted by society. Its called scientific advancement, or more precisely, medical advancement. The shallow illusion of Eternal Youth is widely accepted as "plastic surgery" (as well as other non invasive or over the counter products claiming to have tapped the ever elusive Fountain). The search for immortality is now simply called called the Medical Practice. Everything from emergency treatment, routine care, medicines, and life saving or rather life sustaining surgery.

Think I'm exaggerating? What other purpose then, is that of the medical community? What has this advancement been designed for if not the forestalling of eventual death? There are of course benefits to all of this advancement. These benefits, while selfish in nature can and do prevent heartache, pain and grief. To save a life is to (hopefully) preserve the possibility of a valuable contribution to society. Of course, there's always the money end of it too.

The decrease in mortality rates of older generations, that is to say the preservation of vitality that leads to longer life spans has tapped, and strained our economy. This is where the downside of all this life saving comes into play. For every generation that survives well into or past their octogenarian years, we must have the an equal amount, or preferably greater amount of people coming up in the future generations to financially sustain the former. Also preferably, these people must be alive and in good health.

What does this all mean you ask? Over population. Its not a myth. While constant generation growths make for good current economies, it has a long term downfall that can, and will cost us all a great deal. We only have so much space in which we can live, work, rest and throw away our refuse. We have a finite amount (or a very slow renewal) of natural resources, and a finite amount of governmental financial resources to aid citizens. There are only so many jobs as well. When vast amounts of people begin living and thriving in a world that can realistically only sustain so many living creatures in all, we have a problem. It means clear cutting of forests not only for space, but also for wood to build the homes or offices that will be built there. There is no hope of replenishing the trees that will be cut down in those areas, in that area. Soon enough there won't be enough space to replenish trees or plants in the numbers that are required to maintain a natural balance in any area. Losing forests doesn't just affect wood as a natural resource, or the balance of chemicals in the air (namely oxygen, that gas that trees and plants emit that we kinda need to survive) but it also makes the soil nutrient poor, and in some cases can cause the loss of top soil altogether. (Meaning nothing can be planted or replenished there).


The increase of population will also affect things like social security (in America at least), but also health care, insurance and governmental aids like Medicare. It will certainly affect the employment market only not in a way that most imagine. Fresh water will only become more polluted by the factories that will need (and indeed some already are) to be built in order to handle the demand of whatever product they make. Utilities will be through the roof, as the natural resources used to make the power that we use everyday diminish. Prices for that will rise. Just this past year (August to August) our utilities companies have hiked their rates three times. We aren't even in a total all out no-holds-barred energy crisis yet.

Do I even need to mention the fact that so many people will inevitably change the face of the planet in such a way that the current global warming/climate crisis will seem like a bedtime story? I didn't think so.

And here we are, faced with people...everyday folks like you and I who are worried because people aren't having enough children. The quiverfull folks or just plain old devout (fundie) Christians who regularly lash out at anyone in a marriage who do not plan on having any children, or those of us who do not see child rearing as the mainstay of a good, solid marriage. They want to ban birth control , reproductive rights, and everything in between.

So much for reproductive responsibility. I actually heard one person ( a man of course) state that having as many children as you can is what everyone should do, regardless of health risks (to the mother), quality of life for the children, and the ability to afford so many children. He advocated going on welfare just so you can keep having kids. Wow.

Mother nature however, will have the last laugh. She always does. Because no matter how hard we try to stay alive, death will come. No matter how hard we try to stave off old age, it comes. If and when we become a big enough blight on this Earth, it will cure itself of the diseases. One way or another, nature always wins out.

Capitalists would do well to remember that. We are not the force that controls everything under the sun, and we never will be.

So much to discuss, so little time....

I had taken a break from the internet this week to catch up on my reading, half finished projects, and clean out my veggie garden. As it turns out I was not able to clean out my brain during all of this cleaning and relaxation time. Go figure.

After catching up on some articles from Harper's magazine my brain is spinning like a proverbial top. I also managed to see a PBS special holding the news media accountable for the mass amounts of misinformation circulating around since before "Shock and Awe". Great special.

Sometimes it gets to a point where I don't even know where to begin. Is it just a Corporatocracy that we have to worry about? Certainly this is a major issue, one that needs to be addressed if not for our own sanity, at least for the safety of the rest of the world. Or is there something more?

During all of my "winter nesting" projects this past week I've had the time to reflect on numerous conversations over the years with people, typically women, from many walks of life. The unfortunate similarity that I have found in those conversations (in retrospect) is that they all have the same outlook on life and responsibilities. Or I should say, to be fair, they have a similar outlook. It is rampant throughout Americans. It isn't just consumerism, it isn't just about "Keeping up with the Joneses". It isn't just religion, politics, social status, class and helicopter parenting. It is something more. Much more.

This threat, when paired with national fear mongering, blind nationalistic pride, and a lax education with regards to our own government is much bigger, much scarier, and a far bigger problem than Al Quieda, Taliban, Iraq, Iran, Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan put together.

Irresponsibility and the dollar. How can a nation recover, or thrive in any form of government when its inhabitants cannot take care of themselves? We live in a nation where everyone looks to someone else for blame, responsibility, and care. In an ideal Utopian concept we would all take care of one another, a tribal, village or communal style of living would allow everyone equality because everyone would help in taking care of everyone through various means. This simply cannot happen when the individuals cannot, or will not take care of themselves or will only take care of themselves.

Parents who 's only contribution to their family is the paycheck they bring home plus some "fun time" on the weekends (which is supposed to suffice for parenting and quality time). Young adults still thoroughly living off of their parents when the umbilical cord was clearly cut years ago. Adults who refuse to care for their own family members in times of need or ill health, or simply old age. "I'll pay for a room in a convalescent home, but thats about it." Is what you're likely to hear. People who are shocked to find out that someone like myself (of the fringe element that is) still takes time out for family, and actively participates in the lives of family and friends - no strings attached.

These people have refused to take part in the tribal nature of their own family for so long they can no longer even consider it because the money (which is the cause for not taking care of one another) has simply become too important. Never mind what they contribute to their community...how on Earth could they get beyond the basics to participate in a larger grand scale tribal/communal style of government?

I'm getting off topic a bit now...but this is something that really bothers me. It seems like a fruitless effort sometimes to try and talk to people, to get them to understand that a socialistic environment, under the right circumstances is not some Inherent Evil, but rather closer to the way things are supposed to be.

The American way as it is right now is to make money, spend money, and to hell with anyone who gets in the way of that pursuit. Children included.