"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

i'm moving
January 09, 2004 - 12:05 am

why you ask? this article: http://pittsburghlive.com/walmart.html

a $60,000 lawsuit over wal-mart grocery bags possibly being defective and/or over-stuffed.

insanity. absurd.

our culture - the one that has led us to think that we are the best in the world - that how we live should be how everyone lives... i don't know where to begin. that's such a simple, superficial argument.

it's the way we live that is doing the most damage to the world. it's lead us to value money over family. our good life is measured by the amount of things we own.

it's like.. someone who doesn't like how they look.. so they get depressed and eat. they look in the mirror the next day and get depressed.. so they eat.

our need for material items.. has us in a downward spiral. we think we are the best because we have cars with sunroofs.

a better example.. a 2 mega pixel digital is perfect for the average person taking snapshots. 3 is for those who are pretty serious about things.. and 4/5 would be for those who make a living with a camera. but who wants to settle for 2 when you know you could have a 5? do you need it? who cares! it's better, so i want it!

companies are forced to always have increasing profits. can't blame companies for that - blame the stockholders. only a few ways to always be making more money.

1) raise prices - people don't like that. we always want to pay as little as possible for things.

2) cut costs - all those nicely paid american workers companies have? that's a huge cost - never mind how much land and other factors cost. so why not move production to some other country were they can pay the workers pennies on the dollar.

3) come up with a new product - that takes research and development, both huge costs. why not do the r&d in a country with a lower cost of living?

it's our society, not companies, that are the problem.

i've heard people say they think everyone in the world should be equal. sounds dandy, no?

if you pause, that's pretty much what communism is about - everyone is equal with the twist of the state saying how much everyone should get.

i don't know too many people who say they support communism. of course, the theory itself sounds good. the problem was the people who put it to use - that's not the fault of the theory.

my point though, is that if everyone is going to live at an equal level and right now there are more poor people in the world than well-off.. that means the standard of living for the well-off must fall for the poor to raise.

it's pie. it's only so big. the wealth of the world must be redistributed in order to make everyone equal.. and in all honesty, that's exactly what's happening everytime you hear a company closed a plant in the states and move elsewhere. people here just got poor - the ones laid off - and people there just got richer - the ones newly higher.

the company is rewarded by the stockholders - costs are down.. which gives them the chance to reduce prices, but still make a higher profit. people reward the company, if they can lower prices, by buying more of the companies goods. pressure is put on competitors to follow suit.

or some new company, thanks to all the freetrade zones popping up, comes into a new market.. this new company comes from a low-cost country and beats the exisiting companies. the exisiting ones either close up shop or move production to another place.

in short, we are seeing the results of our society.. slowly starting to destroy itself.

pretty cool huh?

anyway, i'm going to move to a place, hopefully, where i won't have to worry so much about things like this.. though i doubt i will. good to look though.