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Lack of quality goods hurting us?

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posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:16 PM
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So, basic post here in the form of a question - I'd like to hear from others, and learn from others that are business owners, managers, etc or just if you have an opinion.

Is one of the major flaws with our current system... Lack of quality goods?

Think about it. The McDonald's dollar menu justifies paying their workers as low as possible - wanting ten, fifteen an hour at such a low quality place, the dollar menu wouldn't exist.

My argument is we would be better off without dollar menus, Walmarts and the like. Places with higher quality goods, Costco for instance, pay their workers quite a bit better. A burger place who sells quality food pays their workers more as well.

We're stuck in this cycle where we don't buy from the dollar menu because it's actually our favorite. We do because it's what we feel we can afford..and because we continue to pay for these goods in mass quantities, it continues to be all we can afford. The market sells crappy one dollar burgers, and gives us a wage so we can afford crappy one dollar burgers.

The unfortunate thing is, this doesn't translate to say, the housing market. Building for 20 dollars a square foot is a major feat, but is all people can realistically afford at their mininum wage job.

So, I think low quality goods hurt a lot of people. If we were paid double, we'd likely be more okay paying for a 4 dollar burger... But going into the housing market, for instance... we could afford quite a bit more.


What do you think?

-deadlyhope



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:20 PM
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a reply to: deadlyhope

Endurance gets trumped by style more often than not. It's better for the economy.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:27 PM
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America runs on planned obsolescence.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:30 PM
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a reply to: deadlyhope


I am afraid you're doing nothing more than picking at a scab. There is no way to simplify the corruption that we all begged for at each election and try to pin it entirely on quality of goods. Planned Obsolescence isn't something new, and one reason why I have a hard time with the government trying to tell us we can save the planet by paying more taxes!

Not all resources are infinite and PO and consumerism would in my opinion be where to start to try and answer or understand the many tentacles that may come from that question? Supply and demand would IMO answer your question. So who do we scream at and point fingers? Those smart enough to supply us with the garbage we want, or those who feel that it is their right to own such a product and they don't care that buying it from China will create nothing more than a service related industry for jobs instead of the old manufacturing jobs which created the middle class? From that point I could go onto complain about those who want a $15 minimum wage! Kinda like telling a person addicted to drugs to just stop buying them and using them right?

Hard problem to solve when you are actually chasing 12 different rabbits.....



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:40 PM
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I've noticed in the last few years a lot of those dollar menu items have gone up past the dollar mark, as for minimum wage, it's a pretty poor motivator for wanting to do a good job both in products and service.The companies also have to retrain people when others quit to take something else paying a bit more. I've always said, when you screw your employees, your screwing yourself. Paying a decent wage and keeping the same people would probably result in a better, more motivated work place.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:59 PM
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The more a company buys at one time the cheaper the price. The bigger the factory, the more they can produce at once. The more jobs, the cheaper people will work for a wage.

Reducing costs to pennies on the dollar means they can charge a dollar and still make a ton of money. All the while striving to reduce cost and quality.

People should see Koyaanisquatsi, the whole movie… Life out of Balance



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:59 PM
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greed has so strong a grip of the world that it would take a cataclysmic event to change things.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 01:59 PM
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originally posted by: Atsbhct
America runs on planned obsolescence.


not just america



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 02:04 PM
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a reply to: deadlyhope

I agree, and I also read your OP as a synonym for modern politics.


edit on 6-3-2016 by Jonjonj because: wrong words, everywhere



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 02:13 PM
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The world will be a better place when all the Corporations are dead.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 02:42 PM
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a reply to: deadlyhope

I hate spending money and I use only cash so things hurt twice as much as if I used any sort of plastic. That being said, I will pay for a good value so while I don't like to spend money I don't always buy the cheapest option either.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 04:10 PM
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originally posted by: Esoterotica
The world will be a better place when all the Corporations are dead.


Please start calling them Multi Nationals? I know a guy who is legally a Corporation who merely did what every smart business owner does to separate their personal life from their business. He has one employee! Him! So please stop the rhetoric of Corporations are Evil?

Corporations are not the problem! It's the Multi National Corporations who are the life blood of the machine!



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 04:16 PM
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When every product in a spray bottle won't come out because they can't make one that works it's past time to go back to making quality goods that last longer (and actually work as advertised).
I am sick of sending back products and returning them because they're garbage.
When I was a kid if it said made in China we knew it was junk and didn't buy it.
Nothing has changed.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 04:26 PM
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The fundamental fact that everyone overlooks when this kind of complaining is being done is that civilization really just can't work over the long term. Especially if we're going to keep reproducing the way we've been doing and demanding that everything has to get better (or at least change) constantly.

But really, the vast majority of our problems ("our" meaning us as a species) have been created by us in the process of trying to beat nature. There are always ways to cheat but someone will pretty much always pay for it in the long run.

We want to be civilized in a world that doesn't have ethics and morals in it's fundamental nature. But most of all, we want to cheat and get away with it.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 04:39 PM
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originally posted by: BrianFlanders
The fundamental fact that everyone overlooks when this kind of complaining is being done is that civilization really just can't work over the long term. Especially if we're going to keep reproducing the way we've been doing and demanding that everything has to get better (or at least change) constantly.

But really, the vast majority of our problems ("our" meaning us as a species) have been created by us in the process of trying to beat nature. There are always ways to cheat but someone will pretty much always pay for it in the long run.

We want to be civilized in a world that doesn't have ethics and morals in it's fundamental nature. But most of all, we want to cheat and get away with it.


Give me the good ole days when an honest days work was busting your ass so you could enjoy the fruits of your labor and sit around the dinner table talking to your family about how a hard days work made that dinner and conversation with your family so worthwhile?

Being civilized is awesome isn't it?

I used to do roofing as a 43 year old man. That's old for a shingle jockey, but I am old school and appreciated the opportunity to work and I ended up making the whole crew quit because I made the boss realize how damn lazy they were! They bitched about how hard it was to lug up those bundles of shingles, I focused on getting them up on the damn roof!




edit on 6-3-2016 by seeker1963 because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 05:52 PM
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a reply to: Asktheanimals

Well the major thing that has changed is more and more stuff is made in China... And America made products are worse, too. They actually study how long their product should last, while still keeping the confidence of the consumer. I trust older vehicles more than I do new ones. 50k warranty? Old trucks go hundreds of thousands of miles. Same with some old cars, give or take a few transmission issues.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 05:54 PM
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a reply to: seeker1963

Ehhh you just have to keep up with the times.

When people say socialism, nearly none of them are actually talking about government ownership of land and business.

When people say corporation, they mean huge multi national billionaires who pay slave wages, price gouge, run out any competition etc.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 05:57 PM
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a reply to: Metallicus

I usually don't buy the cheapest option. I do buy local when I can, when I can't - I go with quality. I buy a hundred dollar vacuum that lasts a few years. Not the thirty dollar that breaks or functions badly in months or less sometimes..
But.. People want these options, so the get it. They just don't know how much the option is actually hurting everyone.

For the record, everyone, I'm not saying this is the only problem in America. Obviously there's problems like government and corrupt corporations and bad trade laws, this thread is just addressing this specific problem.



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 06:19 PM
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originally posted by: deadlyhope
a reply to: seeker1963

Ehhh you just have to keep up with the times.

When people say socialism, nearly none of them are actually talking about government ownership of land and business.

When people say corporation, they mean huge multi national billionaires who pay slave wages, price gouge, run out any competition etc.


Say that when you are in a courtroom speaking to a judge and dealing with lawyers who could give a damn about whether or not the admission or context of a word may mean your freedom or prison term?

Can't defeat your oppressors when you don't understand their language?



posted on Mar, 6 2016 @ 06:25 PM
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a reply to: seeker1963

Hmm I'm not taking this to court - I mean, for the sake of posting on ATS.

Corporation means corrupt billionaires.

Socialism means extra welfare legislation.

Shill means you disagree with someone.

Troll means you don't understand them.

Just gotta keep up XD



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