Job creation

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thebluff

Member
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/01/dollar-general-retail-markets-equity-consumer.html

Our economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since Dec 07, seems quite a few jobs are being created too. Not sure they are the right sort of jobs to help us out though.

Our desire to buy the cheapest crap on the planet has to cause a shift into jobs like this for many Americans. Big box retailers like Wally World will continue to grow, crap will get cheaper and cheaper, bag boy jobs will be on the rise.

I know all the arguments. To some extent, we dont have choices in this anymore but other times we do. Most of us, most of the time, choose the cheap route. Our society, at least for now, is an expensive one to live in. Our taxes, social programs, environmental protections, and our choice (historically) to pay decent wages all add to product cost. Tough to compete with a 3rd world country that uses lead in paint.

I hope this doesnt turn into an "attack each other" thread. Everyone makes choices that seem best for them at the time. I think it wise to think about the future too. We wont prosper if we all work for WalMart and Dollar General. All of us, myself included, are guilty of what I suggest.

We have a ton of bugs to work out of our new global economy or we will no longer be the wealthiest nation on Earth...or even close to it. Each day, I find it harder and harder to drive past my unemployed neighbor, and look out for number 1.

The barter system sure has some appeal to me.
 
Y

yamahauler

Active member
So when times get better and people go back to the other stores more often, is dollar general going to lay those folks off?

It's just like the construction trade, was a need, huge amount of hiring, now a lot of them without work.

It's a weird cycle, that's for sure.
 
C

cdsprague

New member
We have a Dollar General here in town. Picked up about $50 of stuff. Crap! It is all crap! I think it is stuff that doesn't meet quality requirements, to be sold elsewhere. We won't be back!
 
A

anonomoose

New member
I guess I agree with most of what you say....as it is clear that if we don't pay attention to what we buy and we are actually not only ending up with poor quality products, but we are leaving OURSELVES out of the loop.

To keep this simple, imagine an island with 15 people living on it. One is a doctor, one is a builder, one is a maint. guy, one is a grocer, etc.

You buy from me, I buy from your neighbor and your neighbor buys from you. Now imagine that somebody plops a laptop computer in by parachute and you can now order stuff off the web. You are the doctor, and you buy groceries grown in Uruguay, and they are parachuted down to you. You aren't happy that 1/8th of the stuff isn't fit to eat, but you saved half on the stuff so you say..."I'm still ahead of the game, eh?" Meanwhile the grocer doesn't sell his stuff like he did, and he has to cut back, so he doesn't buy as many products from the guy who grows it on the island, and that guy now has trouble making ends meet and he gets sick worrying about it so he goes to the doctor and says, fix me...and the doctor does but then the doctor bill comes and it can't get paid.

In other words, what goes around comes around. The ocean is not endless, and when you buy cheap stuff from some place that pays $5 a week labor, and does not care if the air he breaths is poisoned by the smoke stack his employer blows in the environment, and is only glad to have a job so he can buy sandals to put on his and his families feet....we have a problem.

Until we take this seriously those jobs gone since December of 07 won't be coming back. The really sad part is that we are IN CONTROL of this because we can refuse to buy stuff that is made in some country we cannot pronounce.

While we keep doing this, we will continue to loose out. And it does NOT matter who you are, or where you work or what you do, it all comes back to whack you in the hind-end.

So then you have to really ask yourself, did that widget you just bought for a really good price actually ONLY cost you what you laid out at the cash register, or did it cost you a whole bunch more???

And if I have to answer that question for you...then go ahead and just keep pounding your thumb with a hammer...because you are too brain dead to figure out why it hurts so much.


Today, I stopped to buy some suet for my woodpeckers who appreciate the free handout and over the meat counter a new sign said, product of USA, Canada and MEXICO.

I said, what the heck....to the meat guy and he said, MOST of his stuff comes from local meat supplies, and I said....I will now buy my meats from the local butcher who has a shop two miles further away...ALL his meat is local.
 
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