This blurt is too long for the blurt thread and I don't want it to be isolated.

[ImOnIt]

I like how this board is unmoderated because I can write just about anything and it will often be fine. I am troubled (on an ongoing basis) by many many things. This frustrates me no end, for an equally large number of reasons.

I am really deeply disturbed by the expression of value both in myself, in other people and in parts of society as a whole. Also by news and other media, social networking and much more besides.



Where I live, near every house owns a lawnmower. One each. See also: cars with one passenger

Not only has someone been here before, they have BUILT A CITY.

Around here, rent in a mall is VERY expensive. By extension, so are the items sold. Knowing that, why do people buy things in malls?

Cheap shoes are $20nz or less (ie: 2 hours pay after tax on minimum wage)! How do you make shoes and everything associated and put them in a shop for an hours wages (on the employer end)





I'm not ok with these things (except number 2). But each of them (and hundreds more besides) makes my head spin. I may be more curious than average, but these things bother me! It feels like behaving correctly and justifiably will take so much thinking. If I am going to commit to behaving in a certain way, that will mean to refrain from the opposite behaviour (which may also be socially unacceptable). How hard is it to hunt down opposing viewpoints (each seemingly acceptable in isolation) and to pick one and stand by it. And to say no, no thank you, I hear that viewpoint and I reject it unless it can be proven otherwise.

Some people profess to holding a viewpoint and equally hold the polar opposite.

 

[Vixandra]

Ah the joys of capitalism, where the many are exploited for the benefit of the few. Least they're not saying its a diety-given right to do so much these days.

 

[ImOnIt]

This is a bit of a non-sequitur. I'll read it tomorrow daytime after working tonight (again) and see if its readable. Who knows, maybe somebody feels the same way.

 

[sb2009]

I just read an interesting SciFi anthology called "Metatropolis" and it was fascinationg (to me) and covered some of the issues you mentioned in your blurt.

I do am frustrated a lot by how I have to get in my car and drive if I want to do anything...get a gallon of milk, go bike riding, take my kids for a walk (no sidewalks in our area).

I would love to live in a walking distance community. Sigh. The compromise of having someone else make choices too. Fuck, what compromise? He makes the decisions. Sigh again.

 

[the captians wench]

Cheap shoes are $20nz or less (ie: 2 hours pay after tax on minimum wage)! How do you make shoes and everything associated and put them in a shop for an hours wages (on the employer end)

I worked in a shop making Harley Davidson headwraps. I was paid $9.50 an hour for this job, so were 2 part time workers. There were 2 people there who had been there for years, so I imagine they got paid a great deal more. The wraps sold for $9 whole sale. But we averaged 20-25 wraps an hour.

Factory work is all basically the same. You push out as many as you can and you pay your labor as cheaply as you can. The factory probably has a quota of 10 shoes an hour per person or something like that.

 

[Etoile]

The overwhelming majority of shoes are made in China. There's a good book about this called "Where Am I Wearing" - read it for sociology class last semester.

 

[the captians wench]

well yeah that's true too.

 

[the captians wench]

I just read an interesting SciFi anthology called "Metatropolis" and it was fascinationg (to me) and covered some of the issues you mentioned in your blurt.

I do am frustrated a lot by how I have to get in my car and drive if I want to do anything...get a gallon of milk, go bike riding, take my kids for a walk (no sidewalks in our area).

I would love to live in a walking distance community. Sigh. The compromise of having someone else make choices too. Fuck, what compromise? He makes the decisions. Sigh again.

You know, this bugs me as well. There's no buses here either. Dublin was really strange to me because we were out side the city, but still it was only a block to the bus stop that took you right into the city, and there were shops/activities with in 2 blocks. I did more walking in the week I was there than I have in a year here.

it really was a different experience

 

[Etoile]

I am having the same experience here. I almost never walk places at home, but here I do a ton of walking...and you can get places by walking or bicycling.

 

[Keroin]

This is a big part of the reason I live in a small, tree-hugger town. I could make more money in the city, as there are more opportunities/customers, but I, we, made a conscious choice to earn less and live more happily.

I LOVE being able to walk anywhere. I LOVE that I have an easily available option to buy locally produced, organic, sustainable products if I want to. I LOVE that the collective will of my community is against mass development and big corporate and that my voice can be heard. I LOVE that my fellow Nelsonites value time, quality and experience over material goods and money.

There's a flip side though. Our hospital is basic, for anything major you have to drive an hour to get anything major done. You lose the anonymity/privacy that a large urban area offers. The town shuts down at about 10pm. If you like McDonalds, forget about it, we have only one fast food restaurant in the entire town...and I reckon that's all we're ever going to have. Food is more expensive. Job opportunities are scarce - you have to be very flexible, very hard working and very entrepreneurial to survive.

Those may sound like minor things but to most people they really aren't. Which is why we remain a small town.

 

[Netzach]

I buy a lot of clothing used - more as social commentary than cheapness stance. I really hate that it's as hard as it is to buy something not made in China, but if I'm going to buy some target made in china shit, I'm going to put the money into my community instead in the form of charitable thrift store or resale store with local owner. I like the thought of keeping things in play and not in landfills. I buy vintage things because there's enough crap in the world, some of it very nice.

I live in a walk to necessity neighborhood in a car per person town, and I'm good about it when it's more than 20 degrees out and then I get a little over the outdoors.

I like having the options, and I won't get any more suburban than I already am, though it's tempting at times, the lure of ownership.

I could live anywhere. Other countries, who'd probably let me in as I would not be taking a job from their populace - middle of the woods as long as there's internet. It's pretty cool to have the options of the work I do.

But I'm also a good consumer. I dine out often, which again is going into my local economy but makes no sense - I invest in weird high ticket items for a strange business, I definitely have my share of made in PRC clothing - because I'm not made of money. It would be sweet to be in all organics and all independently made clothing all the time and to touch only well designed fairly made items, but it's not possible for me.

 

[the captians wench]

But I'm also a good consumer. I dine out often, which again is going into my local economy but makes no sense - I invest in weird high ticket items for a strange business, I definitely have my share of made in PRC clothing - because I'm not made of money. It would be sweet to be in all organics and all independently made clothing all the time and to touch only well designed fairly made items, but it's not possible for me.

I you ever decide to expand your "hand made" closet, I'd love to be your stylist.

 

[satindesire]

Food is more expensive.

Is food more expensive there because they have to import it from other cities?

I live in a farm town where you can go to the weekend farmer's market and get a huge box of tomatoes for next to nothing, and almost everyone that has their own yard has a garden.

I always wondered why food was so cheap here, I'm guessing because almost everything you can buy other than citrus and tropical fruits are grown locally??

I you ever decide to expand your "hand made" closet, I'd love to be your stylist.

I need to learn how to sew and make my own clothes, for sure. I can't ever find clothes that fit me properly these days. No one save for Apple Bottoms and House of Dereon makes jeans for normal sized women with really big asses. :/ I have a baby, I can't afford 100$ jeans anymore!

 

[Homburg]

I worked in a shop making Harley Davidson headwraps. I was paid $9.50 an hour for this job, so were 2 part time workers. There were 2 people there who had been there for years, so I imagine they got paid a great deal more. The wraps sold for $9 whole sale. But we averaged 20-25 wraps an hour.

Factory work is all basically the same. You push out as many as you can and you pay your labor as cheaply as you can. The factory probably has a quota of 10 shoes an hour per person or something like that.

I worked in a factory as a line supervisor, and my line made 5000+ units in a ten hour shift. Said units were toner cartridges for a then moderately high-end laser printer, and sold for about $120 each. My part of the line employed seven people directly, plus some support staff, and the rest of the line had another about ten people, again with support staff.

My line produced around $600,000 retail worth of ink cartridges EACH DAY.

I made about two dollars an hour over minimum wage.