What I’m doing is arguing with you, which is entertaining.

No offense taken: enormous swaths of our country is indeed really fuckin’ stupid.

Jesus christ. Former rural Tennessean guy here and watching this.... almost makes me homesick. Because that’s exactly the kind of crap that happened in my neck of the woods.

Well.... Shit Far....

I wasn’t bitching.

whut?

Before I continue note that I’m very much in favor of safe working environments and the control and proper use and disposal of manufacturing materials. But what China lacks which contributes greatly to their advantage is a lack of employee safety as well as comparitively fewer environmental regulations.

I foresee a future where The advantages China has will possibly diminish. People are the same worldwide and with that comes the demand over time for better working conditions and higher wages. But all that means is that at some point another even cheaper place to make stuff will pop up and so the cycle continues.

Maybe this is a test mule car. But if they intend to make anything remotely close to looking like that.... uh oh... It looks really sloppy. As in they found the quickest, slipshod way to squeeze in some batteries.

I was curious as I havent looked through that catalog recently. I was off, but in the opposite way. An Emerson 15" color TV with remote shows up at $629. Hell- I remember a family down the street from me got a VCR at about that time and the thing was $1200.

No Thank You!!

China’s rise came from their communist party deciding to embrace capitalism in 1979. Prior to that their economy was almost entirely closed off from the rest of the world. Had they not done so China would probably still be much the same as it was back when Nixon visited.

I agree with much of what you have said and yes, Trump is very much playing into the fears and paranoia among some in the lower middle class.

I agree pretty much with what you’re saying. As as aside its also interesting to see what has gotten more expensive and what has gotten cheaper. I have a 1980 Sears catalog I keep for the hell of it. Back in 1980 a 22" color TV was around $650. Yup, $650 1980 dollars. Fast-forward to today and you can go buy a 44" LED…

I find the plight of the American middle class intersting. I grew up somewhat lower middle class in the rural south and now live in coastal California. Both of my parents worked, my brother and I saved for college with some help from our parents and lived the typical teenager lives many American youths do.

I grew up poor myself. Both parents worked and so too did my grandparents, uncles, and everyone else. We had no stay at home moms. I saved for college mowing lawns and repairing small engines. My brother did likewise. Now we both do reasonably well.

Interesting. Anyway I was being generically sarcastic: Americans enjoy complaining about not having this or that but yet these “problems” aren’t really as such when you compare what a great percentage of the world has to deal with: famine, war, poverty, dictators, etc etc...

Exactly. Meanwhile something like 80% of the world’s population lacks access to clean drinking water.

Those durned planes always burn my eggs and bacon...

This is sad and I feel pretty bad for the guy too.