Where old urban hippies go to die.

Gee, what a surprise.

As I sit here on my IKEA chair at my IKEA desk with a gentle breeze wafting through my IKEA curtains, I feel compelled to chime in. IKEA sucks. Nah, just kidding. IKEA rules...remember people...taste is subjective. I don't give two shits about some old heavy furniture that your grandmother drooled on. Quality my ass. I'll take mine new, light and Swedish please. Seriously, to me it's not even about cost...I really prefer IKEA furnishings on an aesthetic level...the affordability and compactness are just a bonus. And I loooove assembling it...it's kinda the best part. So don't assume that people only shop there out of necessity, kay?

Unless I have been misinformed by friends who work there, Costco is much like Sam's or Wal-Mart, as it is different from them, in a few critical areas:

Their CEO takes only $350k salary, the lowest paid CEO of a major Corporation in America. It also pays its employees much better than Sam's or Wal-Mart, or Target, or Borders, or Whole Foods and most other retailers and supplies them with better benefits.

Shell writes on a subject near to my heart, however, President Obama, like his predecessor, has ignored my articles sent him by my broker and the information I placed on his website, in which I suggested placing a huge tax on Publicly traded Corporations which outsource labor, place a Cap on Executive Compensation Packages of $2.5 Million. Anything more is stealing from the investors of that company.

I have sat on boards of Directors and the participants have jointly and in unison in a One-Hand Washes The Other, conspiratorial plan which has, and nothing other has, raised CEO Compensation packages from 25 times the salary of average employees to 550-1100 times the salary of average employees. In my association with CEO’s who served on boards with me, I found their IQ to be not nearly as high as those of Academics, or entrepreneurs, or artists, architects or lawyers. In fact I found them to be rather not so bright but very lacking in innovation and their only concern is slashing quality to make a greater Corporate kitty for their own avarice.

President Obama is a great disappointment to my colleagues and me. It would seem that just as there was only one Jesus, one Babe Ruth, there was only one FDR and we shall perhaps never see another.

Many cities and towns across the country are reporting that big-box retailers are generating large numbers of police calls—far more than local businesses do.

One reason for this is that Wal-Mart and other big chains, as a matter of company-wide policy, involve the police in every incident, no matter how small. While someone caught shoplifting a $3 item from a local store might simply be told by the owner never to come back, that same $3 shoplifting incident at Wal-Mart will cost the city hours of police time in responding to the call, filling out paperwork, and a possible court appearance. Another factor is that big-box stores seem to attract criminals passing through, particularly those outlets located near a highway interchange and open 24 hours.

Perhaps they prefer the anonymity of a supercenter's aisles to the intimate environment of Bob's Hardware on Main Street, where Bob himself greets you from behind the counter....

(Philadelphia Inquirer 2004)

A few other revelations about Wal-Mart. One, they had an informal policy of locking night stockers in the store. This was allegedly to keep them safe. It also, of course, prevented them from pilfering items they are stocking.

In one case, someone slipped and required immediate medical attention. The worker in charge had been told not to pull the fire alarm unless there was an actual fire since false alarms resulted in fines. But the manager with a key did not live in the immediate vicinity.

In another case, a Pennsylvania town discovered hidden costs. Shop-lifting went way up. Customers who would never steal from a merchant they knew had no compunction about taking from a corporation. When they were caught, Wal-Mart's policy is to prosecute. But it taxed the county's legal system and forced them into extended sessions, a bill local taxpayers had to foot.

For the same reason shoe manufacturers name their individual shoe designs. In retail storage rooms, items are stacked sky-high in look-alike boxes. It's very hard to locate the proper item if the box only has a number on the side of it. If it has a recognizable name, or word, humans find it easier to locate. At IKEA, you the customer are expected to pull the item you wish to purchase off the shelf. You'd have a helluva time doing that if "BILLY-BEECH" or "LACK-BLUE" wasn't emblazoned on the side of the box. There's nothing nefarious about it. Everything in the world is not a marketing conspiracy.

I have happily furnished most of my houses through the years with items purchased at second hand stores or (my favorite source) estate auctions. I believe in recycling and refinishing furniture isn't hard. But sometimes old isn't better or practical. I've now remodeled two different kitchens using IKEA cabinets and I've been thrilled with the results. Sure, I'd rather have custom-built solid hardwood, but I can't afford that. Right at this minute I'm typing at a huge and efficient computer desk I designed and built myself to meet my specific needs. I used stock IKEA countertop with a silver finish and other parts purchased at IKEA and Staples. It's what I could afford.

but don't you dare touch Capitalism.

The problem, at it's roots, is systemic. It goes all the way back to the early Siren calls of the 70's and 80's, when the "Liberal Wackos" were sounding the alarm.

Our entire world economic system is standing on a foundation of Consumerism. It cannot survive if the majority of people do not purchase new products at retail prices at the designated planned obsolesence cycles.

"Third world" countries have always been pushed around by the multi-nationals, and if it isn't wages, or labor rights, or environemntal regulations, they will find another reason to hold them by the balls until the givey in. The same practices are held on a micro-scale in the United States - most corporations pay little to no state taxes, because if they are forced to, they will go somewhere else.

We have ceded power to the corporation, and the corporation holds no alliegance to human rights, to community, to their employees, to anything, but money.

But is Al Gore going to make a movie about corporations? No. We all should just pay more carbon taxes, bike to work, stop turning on our air conditioners, so his class can live life as they always have, and the current system can continue unchanged.

People, you have to wake up and open your eyes. It's all connected. And unless systemic change is enacted, nothing will change except the quality of your life. Not the quality of Al Gore's life - only yours.

The system is fucked up, but there are too many people, making too much money, who have too little soul left in them, to change it. You will change. Your life will change, and your kids lives will change, to adapt to the system. And you will be squeezed, and taxed, and worked, and taken advantage of, and lied to, and decieved, and fucked over, until there will come a breaking point.

This is nothing new. It has happened again and again and again. The names will be different, the faces will be different, the -isms will be different, but the dynamic and the pattern will be the same.