Are you aware that MOST mattresses are made in North America, due to shipping costs but are priced four times higher than the wholesale cost? I bet you did not know this. I heard it from a former manager of one of the largest furniture chains in North America one hour ago..I suggest that quality is NOT predicated always on selling price at all but what the market will bear. I did not buy such a mattress but one that is wonderfully CRAFTED and beautifully thought out by a small Canadian company called Natura...It is Euro in conception with slats and so forth and fuly adjustable. It also costs a LOT of money. I saved a long time to buy it. Cheap is often cheap but not necessarily a good bargain. My bed will last a long time. it is made with multilaminated beech and I do not imagine that many people nowadays have slept on latex foam which this mattress uses as well as wool..No urethane anywhere near this bed. The fact of the matter is however, much of my house has out of necessity IKEA shelves and so forth. A family could not afford Natura beds. They can afford IKEA.

I did not get kitchen cupboards from them..I should have as they are better than the affordable LOCAL products. IKEA, at least tests, their products. Mine are coming undone. I have but one complaint..their instruction are the most opaque and vague. It could not cost that much to actually write how to put the bloody things together...it is their game to do what they do. To compare WALMART TO IKEA IS BIZARRE IN THE EXTREME. ASK THE WORKERS AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. I HAVE....IKEA treats theirs like respected human beings.. Walmart shut down a store in Quebec rather than being unionised. I will not shop there no matter what. If I had my druthers they would be shut down, their stock and assets sold and the people that slaved for them across the world would be given something for their labours. Naturally, Walmart is the biggest of all retailers...what else is new? But do not compare the two. This is nonsense.

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.

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.

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.