What's he on about now?

In case the articles, essays and opinions throughtout this site just weren't enough for you, here's my online diary (a.k.a. 'blog'). It's as close as you'll come to the inside of my head, so don't say I didn't warn you
(and remember, you can always e-mail me if you love or loathe anything you're about to read)...


   Sunday, February 22, 2004

OUROBOROS

Whenever I start up one of my once-considered-moderate-now-considered-Communist rants against...oh, let's say Wal-Mart for one, people tell me that they shop at these big chains because the prices are better. God knows anyone taking care of children or paying a mortgage or coming up with downtown rent or just plain living these days needs to save whatever pennies they can, wherever they can. I can see this. My heart is not cold.

What gets me, however, is that these companies we're supporting are the exact ones who lay off hundreds at a time to keep the stock prices up and the wages down. They're creating the market that pays everyone so little in the first place. It's the snake eating its own tail.

I'm as guilty as anyone else -- I've got a flat full of IKEA -- but I try to buy from small chains or indie stores whenever possible. The cost isn't that much more and, nine times out of ten, you get a much better product. When everything we buy is coming from Indonesia, can we really get that upset when all the manufacturing jobs start appearing over there?

I look around these days and see a lot of people who've just given up believing they have any say in how things are run, reserving all their opinions for sports and movies. I love those things too, obviously, but this month's Janet Jackson silliness really showed me how messy our collective priorities are right now.

And that's today's once-considered-moderate-now-considered-Communist rant. Let's hear yours.