Since its a holiday and its too early to start drinking rum, allow me to put on my tin foil hat and share some information on our movement may have some (not so) secret resistance and why tact is important. Our economy is based on not consumerism, but on debt and consumer sales gains. If youve watched Zeitgeist movies (and if you havent today is a great day to do so ) and other films you will hear some amazing things, put quite bluntly. I worked for 19 years in the consumer electronics industry and while working my way up the ladder was privy to some amazing facts and attitudes. We, looking towards a minimalist lifestyle, will typically spend less money on consumer products. We want less, require less and are DIY. Most of the products you buy contain very little margin and the stores rely on services to make up that margin. Here is a scenario. If you go to big box retailer and buy a laptop you are probably paying LESS than the store did for it. How do they then put it on sale? The manufacturer will reimburse them for the sale price plus incentive. (sell 10 get $20 backs sell 30 get $25 back and so forth). So with that in mind these companies need to maintain and increase volume. A 1.5% drop in sales is catastrophic for most retailers. Why? a)Payroll and scheduling is based on revenue. If 10%(common for big box) of their revenue is used for payroll (which can be controlled where as rent and utilities are pretty fixed) then to make up for the loss pay roll could be cut by 15%. A 10 % sales loss would leave absolutely no money for any payroll. What if a nation, or just 4% of it turned away from mass consumerism? Oh and remember breaking even in sales is bad too. There has to be a gain to combat inflation. We feel it when we shop, but we never think of it out right as my dollar doesnt buy as much this year as it did last year. So a break even company still loses to inflation. And here you stand, saying no thanks I dont need 3 tvs. Fractional reserve and debt. Our banking industry needs to create debt, so more money can be printed because they can lend out many times that amount and charge interest on it. If everyone paid of their debts tomorrow our banking system would collapse, but dont worry, that wont happen because there isnt enough money to pay it off. And here comes you, the minimalist stating you dont need a loan once again. Misery loves company. The person behind the counter at the zoning board is up to their neck in debt. They are trapped yet this is what they were taught. These are the values they were told were important and they hold on to even though its killing them. And here you are again, are they so excited to give you a pass off of this roller coaster? Finally in my rant...Media and or trained attitude. Damn Hippies!! Perhaps socialists!! Well maybe we embrace some attitudes like working together, helping each other out, learning to do things on our own, which worked pretty well for the last 6000 years of recorded human existence, but now portrayed as less desirable...even Oh you cant afford to have that done for you? Now why would the media oppose ? Dunno, maybe because advertisers pay their salaries. Ooh one more thing, how could I forget utilities, the companies we cannot live with yet have only been with us for a blip on the human clock. Imagine being the CEO of an oil company, knowing you are pretty close to useless and nearing the same fate as the buggy whip. And there stands you, once again....Ya, I really dont need you. The funny thing is if you talk to most people in their respected above categories, you probably know more about what you need and the technology than they do.They are trained to say ,you need this. but never trained why, well outside of propaganda. I was told by Duke energy employees that solar was so dangerous. The voltages...I mean if something went wrong...why it could, it could....blow a fuse? I interrupted. So reasoning may not work well either. This where treading lightly and tact comes in handy and there needs to be a safe language to push for what we want and need with out causing panic in the hearts of the uninformed and dependent.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:16:30 +0000
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