I miss Jobst

On Apr 13, 12:39*am, AMuzi wrote:
Chalo wrote:
L.H. Thomson is an Ayn-Randroid bloviating butthole. *

One may like and respect someone without sharing all their
opinions. Take you & I for example.

Bullseye!

On 4/12/2011 6:14 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Apr 12, 4:07 pm, wrote:

The median wage for a man in Texas is $12/hour. The median wage for a
woman in Texas is $10/hour. These people don't have to shop at
Hellmart, but they can't afford locally tailor-made clothing or Phil
parts for their custom recumbents.

I sometimes wonder about what people can afford, especially relative
to what my family could afford when I was a kid.

When I was growing up in the '50s, my father had quite a good job by
most standards. Mom was a homemaker. They were products of the
depression and chose to have a large flock of kids. So we had a small
house, especially on a square-feet-per-person basis. He gardened and
tended six apple trees, and she preserved food. Most cars were bought
used. He built the garage, paved the driveway and finished the
basement rec room himself, with family help. Despite his love of
music, we had no stereo, and (of course) just one TV. Household toys
were not extravagant, the most prominent being a ping-pong table and a
home-built pool table, plus lots of board games to play with the
kids. By today's standards, we kids were deprived.

These days, a person in his professional position would absolutely own
a home 2.5 times as large, even though there would be just one or two
kids. The cars might be Lexi or BMWs, there would be Wii, three
computers, four cell phones, a TV in each room with the main wide-
screen one hooked into a complete home theater system. But the music
part would be little used because everyone would have an iPod. There
would be more Nintendos than family board games. Kids would be given
cars at age 16. And it goes without saying, Mom would work full time,
because "things are so expensive these days."

Been in a grocery store recently?

In brief, it seems to me most middle class families are into buying
stuff, far more than they used to be. We're enslaved by our
possessions - or by the people who convince us to buy them. I think,
for most people, more modest living could yield a lot more real,
personal prosperity.

_Your Money Or Your Life_ was an interesting book somewhat related to
this subject.

$10/hour is barely enough for rent in most urban areas, if you want to
stay out of the slums.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

On 4/12/2011 2:46 AM, Çhâlõ Çólîñã wrote:
Ayn-Randroid bloviating butthole.

That is redundant.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

On 4/12/2011 2:01 PM, A. Muzi wrote:
[... in a world full of chiseling parasites who make nothing
useful [...]

I.e "Wall Street".

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

kolldata wrote:

New Balance, according to NB, are made in the US and offered online

Bought a pair for my wife some 8-10 years ago because she was looking
for comfy non-sweatshop shoes. By the time they were worn out, all
the specimens of the same brand that we could find were made in labor-
arbitrage countries. Maybe that's changed now, or maybe there are
legal technicalities or outright fraud that have resulted in a nominal
change. Whatever. If she wants another pair, I'll get her one.

Chalo

On 4/12/2011 7:06 PM, Jay Beattie wrote:
[...]
I AM smug about beer, being that it is on tap and freshness does count
-- and coffee. You can only dream of our coffee and beer. Christmas

Coffee is grown in western Oregon?

trees, too. And maybe salmon and crab. I'm sure our Mexican food is
not nearly as good as yours, though. You can be smug about that.[...]

Great beer close enough to Ride Bike! to on a day trip:
http://www.millstreambrewing.com/.

World class spirits close enough to Ride Bike! to on a long lunch break:
http://www.crwine.com/Spirits.html.

--
Tºm Shermªn - 42.435731,-83.985007
I am a vehicular cyclist.

In article , AMuzi
wrote:

Chalo wrote:
Dan O wrote:
Would you pay more to a seller who stocks only first-quality and will
do the right thing? (I do.) How about just to support a merchant
that you like. Buy local worth anything?

Service is inherently local. Goods never are (for the purposes of
this discussion).

Even Portlanders who smugly buy Chris King products because they are
"local" ignore the fact that Chris King relocated from Northern
California to dodge taxes and labor protection laws. How righteous is
that? L.H. Thomson is an Ayn-Randroid bloviating butthole. Should
Tennesseeans be proud to "buy local" from a social Darwinist
dicktard?

Business is business. Until the people get a handle on their
overseers, the best route is to buy super cheaply when you're not
verifiably putting money directly into a worker's hand.


Mr Thomson, who I was proud to call a friend, is dead.

He was determined to make quality products in USA and was,
in my opinion, very successful at that.

What's next, carping that Enrico Fermi never worked the line
at a soup kitchen? Sheesh, in a world full of chiseling
parasites who make nothing useful, you chose Thomson as a
target?

For someone who claims to make high quality mechanisms
himself, Chalo has a destructive streak that he needs
to attend to.

--
Michael Press

In article
,
Frank Krygowski wrote:

On Apr 12, 4:07Â*pm, Chalo wrote:

The median wage for a man in Texas is $12/hour. Â*The median wage for a
woman in Texas is $10/hour. Â*These people don't have to shop at
Hellmart, but they can't afford locally tailor-made clothing or Phil
parts for their custom recumbents.

I sometimes wonder about what people can afford, especially relative
to what my family could afford when I was a kid.

When I was growing up in the '50s, my father had quite a good job by
most standards. Mom was a homemaker. They were products of the
depression and chose to have a large flock of kids. So we had a small
house, especially on a square-feet-per-person basis. He gardened and
tended six apple trees, and she preserved food. Most cars were bought
used. He built the garage, paved the driveway and finished the
basement rec room himself, with family help. Despite his love of
music, we had no stereo, and (of course) just one TV. Household toys
were not extravagant, the most prominent being a ping-pong table and a
home-built pool table, plus lots of board games to play with the
kids. By today's standards, we kids were deprived.

These days, a person in his professional position would absolutely own
a home 2.5 times as large, even though there would be just one or two
kids. The cars might be Lexi or BMWs, there would be Wii, three
computers, four cell phones, a TV in each room with the main wide-
screen one hooked into a complete home theater system. But the music
part would be little used because everyone would have an iPod. There
would be more Nintendos than family board games. Kids would be given
cars at age 16. And it goes without saying, Mom would work full time,
because "things are so expensive these days."

In brief, it seems to me most middle class families are into buying
stuff, far more than they used to be. We're enslaved by our
possessions - or by the people who convince us to buy them. I think,
for most people, more modest living could yield a lot more real,
personal prosperity.

_Your Money Or Your Life_ was an interesting book somewhat related to
this subject.

Your standards are totally warped.

Warm dry, place to sleep.
Three hot meals a day.
Clean fresh water.
Sanitary sewers.
Public health infrastructure with teeth.
Ready access to instruction
in reading, writing, and mathematics.

--
Michael Press

anyone can provide an update/

Chalo wrote:
avid Scheidt wrote:
:
: Chalo wrote:
:
: :I used to pay a surcharge for American made goods, like shoes and
: :housewares. Â*Now they are scarcely to be found at any price.
:
: Nonsense. Â*Maybe not if you insist on shopping at China-mart, but both
: those are made in the USA. Â*Certain classes of electronics aren't made
: in the US, sure, but just about everything else is. Â*

:I wear US-made overalls, mostly from Tennessee or Oklahoma where they
:still believe people my size exist. (You tell me whether that makes
:them First World products, because it isn't self-evidently so). Some
f my shirts are Carhartt and possibly made in the USA, but Carhartt
:is no longer an exclusively American manufacturer. Same with Red Wing
:and Carolina shoes. The Converse shoes I wore in days of yore are now
:Chinese made, but my feet probably wouldn't tolerate them anyway. Not
:so long ago, most commodity T-shirts were made in USA; now most of the
:T-shirts I have are Pakistani or Indian made. At least they are truly
:big and tall, because American industry is not doing so well in that
:regard.

:These look super virtuous and aren't even too expensive, but they are
:unimaginatively sized so I have to look elsewhe
:http://www.sosfromtexas.com/about.htm

:For my kitchen, I can still get rugged plastic tumblers made in
:Houston, just like the ones at the pizza joint. I have no real use
:for plastic tumblers, and Houston isn't obviously better off for
:having plastic product manufacturers there. I do buy American made
:mason jars, though.

urable stainless steel cookware made in USA? That's a nice thought.

Vollrath. Dexter-Russel. Lots of others, not much sold at
china-mart.

You're deterimined to pay as little as possible, which means you get
****, and then you complain that you get ****. Buying cheap goods
that are total ****ing crap -- whatever their origin -- encourages
manufactures to think that what the market wants is cheap goods that
are total ****ing crap. That's how markets work. If you don't won't
total ****ing crap, don't buy it.



--
sig 32