IKEA and Walmart are only a sign of what's wrong in America.

The purchasing power of the middle class has been steadily disminishing. First it was women entering the workplace while men not leaving it to be at home. Result: now there are working two times the people they worked before. There is double money but by the law of supply and demand, everything cost two times as much and it is needed two salaries to raise a family, when yesteryear only one salary sufficed. (Of course, I am simplifying: the factors are not 2 and one half).

After that, it was illegal immigration (I am a Hispanic so please don't tell me racist). Immigrants managed to reduce salaries even more. The purchasing power of the middle class and low class decreased even more.

So people needed a place to buy the things they couldn't afford any longer. IKEA, Wal-mart and "made in China" were the solution. Instead of buying a good product (which now it is too expensive for the impoverished middle class), you can buy cheap crap and then discard it. The "throw away" culture.

Way back the first season of Big Brother in America, they had product placement by IKEA: the whole house was furnished with it, and for the first couple of weeks, if you watched the broadcast, you'd hear the cast members marvel about how attractive and nice it was.

If you watched the feed, after the first week or two, you started seeing the furniture break, and heard IKEA become a joke synonym for "crap" in the house. Of course, they didn't put that on the broadcasts.

Sometime in my 40s I got tired of disposable furniture, sofas and tables that looked nice for a few years, then not so much. Like others in this letter column, I've started buying things I expect to keep. Like others in this letter column, I'm buying most of them from craigslist, used furniture stores, and the like: furniture that's almost as old as my 100-year-old house and will last another hundred years no problem. I'm sure they also made crappy furniture a hundred years ago, but it hasn't lasted.

Cheaper than IKEA, usually, too, and with a lot more character!

If you have to move, you sell it again on craigslist and buy new old furniture when you reach the new place.

About five years ago the LA Times had a week-long front page series on the Wal-Mart phenomenon, noting that as late as 1995 most products were "Made in the USA."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-walmart-sg,1,1534896.storygallery

I never shop in Wal-Mart. Every sales associate seems to have been on the job only two minutes and often has communication problems.

"Stop buying made in China crap..."

LOL

How? Where?

Names! Seriously! Tell me where you buy things more technologically advanced than a laundry basket that is made in America! Give me the name of ONE consumer good that takes batteries or plugs into the wall that is made in America and available just about anywhere.

K, your home is chocked full of stuff made in China and we all know this. We just don't admit it to some. If you choose to pay more for it that is your choice as illogical as it is. It's not logical for me to pay $140 for the same razor I can get at Wal-mart for $100. I can't afford to be a member of the elite, better-than-everyone-else class and I won't sit here pretending I can. :/

Mr. Hutman, I have a lot of knick knacks.

I lost my reading glasses, and bought some new ones at the dollar store. One dollar for reading glasses! They're from China of course.

What? You're saying you're too low in pay grade out of (or still in) the Navy to pay for things at thrift stores or estate sales or that you're to God damned lazy to do an iota of research into what's made in America?

Heard of Saver's? Do you think the shitty home theater garbage you bought at Wal Mart is better than the Canadian Paradigm speakers and Japanese equipment I own and paid less for, used?

Am I saying that I own NOTHING made in China (or any number of east Asian or other low wage countries where child labor is acceptable)? No. Of course not. Half the components of both my Japanese and American made cars were probably made in China or some other company not located in the U.S.

But coupled with Wal Mart's anti-competitive bully tactics, the fact that they promote "Buy American" and do the opposite I have all the incentive I need NOT to shop there. And I don't have a receipt from a Wal Mart store in the last 10 years at least.

Did I mention that I've lived in Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas? Try to drive 10 miles in any of those states without seeing 19 Wal Marts.

An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument to the man", "argument against the man") consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim.

The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject.

Also known as "Attacking the messenger."

Epic fail.

I have an armoire and china cabinet set from Ikea. They cost about $1500, and they are beautifully crafted. I have some other pieces, also - all lovely and solid and well-built and designed. As for not having a guarantee of the woods source, when do I ever? There are so many companies that promise the moon and end up providing fake credentials that I don't know where to shop. My only options are locally made furniture, which I can't afford. Seriously, it costs a fortune. At least Ikea bothers to have inspectors.

I like Ikea's standards for hiring. They put a store in East Palo Alto, a very disreputable neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they hired local people. They pay decent wages. They are good for the community. They have cheap stuff for people who want cheap, and they have nicer items if you're willing to pay a bit more and put in some elbow grease putting it together yourself. I'd prefer to have local artisan pieces, but they are far out of my reach financially.