some perspective

But think? That plastic bottle will still be good as new 1000 years from now at the bottom of a landfill. Them boots will be worn clean out in a year........

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Flaming Xtian
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi


Libertarindependent

There are some difference about flexing their economic mussel to be first and a war. Most any bisness will want to be the first. That is business at its best. If things were turned around would you like it to be that the US would only be fourth or fifth and not do anything to be number one?


Yes but the object of that war was territory. I guess we need to be aware that China could want to go to war and clam the Grand Canons but not now they have enough to worry about.

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God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

It wasn't that long ago people bought goods manufactured in foreign countries because it was a better quality than that made in the U.S. Look at foreign autos. The resale was much greater than U.S. autos.
Now many foreign manufctures are moving to the U.S. They do not need unions to control them.

Chinese COMMIES are indeed a foreign enemy.They ARENT dollar end all/be all.They would dump their worthless dollars in a heartbeat to Bury America. they also say they can launch and WIN a nuclear exchange as a matter of numbers and I believe they really dont give the slightest hoot what happens to their endless numbers of drones.

You think they are Allies....not in the least! Open your eyes,they are waging ECONOMIC war right NOW!While keeping their workers in conditions right up there with the Nazi extermination camps.

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Visit Life on the Homestead,a Friendly Forum

You might actually want to do a little reseach on that. Pay particular attention to the cyber attacks China does almost daily against the US.

We could fight back. Doubt anyone will join me. Don't shop at Walmart. The #1 buyer of chinese goods.

Actually dividends reward an investors risk in giving his hard earned money to the company for it's use, with the associated risk involved there that me no dividend nor chance profitable sale from the stock at a later date.

Dividends reward lending money with no interest nor repayment terms.

Actually he is mistaken. What he should have said is that 12 individually packaged pint bottles of tea costs the same as the cheap boots. A single gallon and a half jug would undoubtedly cost less than the 12 individual pint bottles.

As far as China goes, currency manipulation to keep prices low and all, it is only estimated to be about a 15-20% cost savings to produce the same good there than here. Eventually the price of oil will go up far enough to eliminate that savings via shipping distance. We certainly cannot count on our government to end their currency manipulation and other unfair trade practices.

Don't hold your breath. A couple of years ago there was a similiar thread. I volunteered to never go into a walmart again and asked who would join me.
Still waiting for anyone to step up. Had a lot of people who made excuses but no one who would join me.

WM is the middle man, the US consumer is the #1 buyer of Chinese goods and has made WM the #1 retailer. They are also the #1 US employer aside from the gov't. kind of puts what kind of a mess we're in back into perspective. We have met the enemy and we are them.

The problem with the logic here is it's attempting to apply $ and cents to the logic. That is the beginning of the American problem, we relate everything to $ and cents, soon to be our undoing.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Yup enough of us opted for buying the cheaper product that we put the producers of the more expensive American made product out of business or forced them too to move offshore to compete.

Nobody to blame but ourselves, and any fix will be long in coming and costly in the increased price of goods.

I starting to think.

When I buy something now I weigh how long I want it to last and how important it is to me. By calculating lifetime cost of what we buy sometimes it's many times cheaper to pay a lot more for something we want to use for years or decades than to pay less for cheap.

A good example of lifetime cost is a vehicle. Pay $30,000 for a gas guzzler that will empty your bank account for gas, tires, insurance or $40,000 for a gas sipper with less expensive tires and insurance premiums. Many times the latter is less than 50% of the lifetime cost of the gas guzzler. That's money saved that will keep you warm and fed in the future.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Actually the "fix" will come in greatly reduced wages, benefits and lifestyles. The cost of goods doesn't have to go up, wages will drop and healthcare and energy will bleed us dry.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

Time to learn to buy "used" and do our own repairs. Wages dropping, the value of the dollar is in the sewer. The only thing that we stand to gain on is our own ability and knowledge.

Like the O.P. said $1,800 would be a pretty good wage, even if it took a month.

Wages have been dropping for decades but they've been masked with raises that didn't keep up with the cost of living.

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"Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man?" Hobbs
"I'm not sure that man needs the help." Calvin

Maybe China can start running our hospitals seems like they know how to do things cheaper. We sure don't when we talk about heath care costs, we just talk about insurance. I don't need insurance, I need lower health care cost.
My parents didn't have insurance when they brought me home from the hospital, they just paid the bill can you imagine that today?

When we talk about the cost of education all we can talk about is grants and loans, I want affordable collage. $150 dollars for a book, is crazy, choose a different text book. Stop building stadiums that hold 1000's of fans, educate don't entertain.

Set a budget and keep to it, seems the real world has started to follow our country's lead. (tax and spend)

Drive a gas sipper 25k mi. a year wearing out tires,brakes and keeping it maintained, especially when it takes expensive parts or...Drive what you label a gas hog less then 10k a year but have the ability to haul what you need safely and drive safely and comfortably. In my case buy a used gas hog, go through it and make it as close to perfect as possible, then drive it very little.

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"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence"
Robert Frost

womans day mag had a good article on shopping sensibly this mo

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

I bought a used van that gets good gas mileage for $5000. Based on how my other vans of this brand did, I'll get at least 7 years out of that van, and I bought it with 100,000 miles on it. Paid cash for it. No payments, and the insurance is less b/c the lein holder doesn't dictate what kind of insurance we have to have. I've had this van about 2 years now. I haven't even had to have a single thing fixed on it yet. Even if I had a $500 repair bill on the thing every month for the next five years, I still would have paid $10,000 LESS for the car than you pay in your $40,000 example, and that's not likely to happen. A new car loses huge portions of it's value as soon as you drive it off of the lot. NEVER a good investment to by a new car. Let somebody else take the depreciation on it - buy a good used car.

JM2CFWIW,
Cindyc.

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"Relish your reading. Make note of the melody of the phrases, the architecture of the page. Let the joy of discovery soak right down to your bones!" Dr. George Grant (paraphrased)

I've just about given up on American made vehicles. Its not as much how well they hold up its about how poorly the companies stand behind their products. The last two I have gotten have had known problems which neither company (Ford and Chevy) will accept responsibility for. When you make something and you later find a part is faulty you should stand up and say "Sorry, we'll make that right." Not, "Oops, we'll replace that and all you'll have to do is pay for it."

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

Are you kidding? China doesn't need to do anything but keep loaning the federal government money. Ever wonder where all the money is coming from for them to build their infrastructure and military? Its coming out of your pocket then to DC then to China to pay the interest on the money they are loaning us. So don't blame the American consumer for supporting China, blame your congressmen.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett