Economic principle: Pay less. Get less.

Continuing from yesterdays posting on the idea of “Discounting.”

A blatant example of discounting occurred way back when. Pretty much the beginning of the discount rush to “discount” retail goods. I was living in Los Angeles back in the late sixties. My wife and I use to shop at Safeway for our groceries. One day we see this notice on the Safeway door. “For your convenience and savings, we will be closed tomorrow for our big change over. Safeway will be repricing its inventory to reflect the all-new discounted prices.

However, when the store reopened a few days later, here is what we experienced. First of all we quickly noticed some very empty spots on the shelves where product use to occupy. Looking like there was a shortage of can and boxed goods. Almost like there was a grocery rush by food hoarders. Or maybe, Safeway forgot to restock their shelves the night before. But, that was not the case.

The next thing we noticed was a absents of our favorite brand names. Del Monte, Libby, Kraft, Bisquik, and other familiar names were off the shelves. Gone. Perhaps awaiting discount agreements.

However, in their place was a cheaper store brand. Generic brands labeled for Safeway but lower in quality. And, certainly lower in price. Reinforcing the old maxim, “you get what you pay for.”

So, from that point it was all down hill from there. Not only did prices go down, quality suffered as well. From that point on there was a mad rush to compete with pricing and not quality or good customer service. Of course, the buying public thought they were receiving a good deal. A good deal of fakery that is. Receiving lesser quality and volume in order to offer a smaller price. Smaller packaging and less quality to offer a discount price. Reinforcing the concept of selling quantity at a lesser price. Certainly at the expense of and compromising quality.

The bottom line is you pay less, you get less. Les quality goods. Less volume. Less flavor. Less healthy product. More water and less food. Mostly stuff coming from China. We are not getting the same foodstuffs for a lesser price. Do you see my point? Consequently, the more we buy into this “Discount” notion, the more we have to buy. We have to buy more to get what we use to get way back when. Back when at a time we got what we paid for. Good product. Good customer service. Products made in America by Americans who could afford quality goods.

Discount is just code word for bigger bottom line for the business owners and their shareholders. Nothing more. Nothing less. It’s not about product or service. It’s max profit and minimum output. You get what you pay for. Low volume. Less goods and service. How sad. Once again, reinforcing the idea of the “Dummying Down of America.” We have been deceived. We have been fooled. We have been taken advantage of. Holy Moly! Discount. Schmishount. It’s a bunch of crap.

We have a garage filled with economy recking junk.

Our insatiable demands for cheaper goods, is what brought our economy down. Mostly goods with a short life. Goods tossed away in to ever growing mountains of junk. Instead of goods that could easily sustain a build and repair industry, we instead have a waste management corps of trash haulers. Grunt workers being paid a low wage.

Way back when at the inception of “Discounting” the idea was to make goods cheaper so more could afford to buy and buy more. Supporting a mass consumption economic model. A model that compromises quality for quantity. Only benefiting businesses and their investors. Certainly shifting production offshore in order to cut cost. Thus producing a cheaper disposable and less quality good.

Now that I have given you my basic thesis, I will continue this essay later. Later as soon as I have breakfast and have wakened. Good morning.

Your best buy is to not buy from China

“Made in China benefits US.” 

Oh really?  This was a headline in today’s USA Today.  And it tries to explain how goods made in China benefits America.  A China/America trade group propaganda piece if I have ever read one.  Even though a USA Today reporter wrote it.

This is a good example of how trade associations write their own misinformation and pass it along as gospel.  It mentions in the article who benefits the most from American/China trade.  And, it is not the common middle class folk or grassroots American worker.  But, the upper management, shareholders, marketing and sales gains the most from this trade relationship.  Not the blue-collar worker.  The worker who was the foundation of the American middle class.  Those jobs moved to China.  Which is my point.

Now, am I sounding a bit proletariat?  Well I should.  My dad was a working class American laborer and supported his family with his blue-collar wages.  It wasn’t easy but the middle class system worked well in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.  Then after that accountants and attorneys took over many manufacturing companies.  Shortly after Ronald Reagan came into the Presidency. 

At that juncture, shareholders and high-end executives ruled businesses in general.  Discounting became the marketing buzzword and the result was the American worker was laid off.  Manufacturing moved to China with the blessings of Washington along with many tax incentives.  And you know the rest of the story.

Nonetheless, I still believe in the notion of “Buy American.”  Congress is not going to change this gravy train for big business.  The president has little power in changing this imbalance.  So, the only force in America today is you and me.  The American consumer.

Just buy American made goods.  If Americans don’t’ make what you want, just don’t buy whatever it is you want.  Stay away from Walmart, Target, Toyota, and Best Buy.  I know it might seem harsh but it’s for the good of America.  The hope here is sooner or later Americans will start making what you want.  It might be a bit more expensive but it benefits the American worker and puts him or her back to work.  You and me.  God bless America and what it manufactures.

Let your voice be heard

How to really make your voice heard

Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 7:04:30 AM | Chuck Ayers

I am reluctant to say, in order to take back control of our country and give it control to the US citizenry we must bypass congress and the heavily monied lobbyists. All inside the beltway government employees (congress, Whitehouse, justice department, etc.) are not listening to we the people. But only to their reelection sugar daddies (lobbyist, large corporations, big oil, big banks, etc.).

How do we do this? Good question. Not really sure. But one way might be to boycott domestic and offshore companies with mostly foreign interests. Companies with cheap sweatshop labor in Asian countries. Domestic companies that import most their consumer products from Asian manufactures. All taken good jobs from America.

Also it is a well known fact most Asian countries (China, Japan, Korea, etc.) are becoming more protectionist. They too are boycotting. However, boycotting American made goods. All the while our American government is not doing much to protect our interest. So, we gotta get involved.

Boycotting domestic companies with large foreign interests will first of all get government and large corporation’s attention. Letting them know the consumer/citizen is not happy with what’s happening with big wrong-headed domestic companies and our recalcitrant congress.

Buy a Ford, not a Toyota. Fly American Airlines, not Air France. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally or only in America and not from foreign countries. Instead of buying cheap foreign produced clothing, go to a resale shop or thrift store and buy good slightly used clothing.

If you can’t find a product you want made in the USA just go without. It won’t hurt you. It’s all for a good cause. And in the process you just might be able to put the money you saved in the bank.

And again, it will get government and big business’s attention. Let them know you are serious. Tell congress to take care of our own first. When it comes to putting our own people back to work, we don’t need the help of foreign interest. We surely don’t need domestic companies whose interests are offshore. Boycott and boycott.