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No to be critical of America. I love Hawaii. Not that its really American. But the declining Standards are kind of alarming. Starting to remind me of South Amer
by dukeofdoom 5y ago
No to be critical of America. I love Hawaii. Not that its really American. But the declining Standards are kind of alarming. Starting to remind me of South America, which is at least mostly heading in the improve direction.
Its kind of ironic that the decline of middle America has so much to do with California deciding its cheaper to trade and do business with China than with Chicago and Detroit and rest of the rust belt. And even then, California cheaps out on the ports.
- iammisc 5y agoWhy are you being downvoted?
- kwertyoowiyop 5y ago“California” didn’t decide that. Bentonville, Arkansas did. This isn’t about Republican vs. Democrat, it’s about billionaires vs. everyone else.
- standardUser 5y agoI was thinking Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, birthplace of the Washington Consensus.
- themaninthedark 5y agoI am no fan of Walmart but you can't pin this on just them by the time they were pushing suppliers the damage had already been done. It wasn't always this way. Walmart used to proudly display banners with 'Made in America' on them. But as companies left the county, the poor and then the middle class downsized as well. Companies left looking to lower costs, the public was wooed with lower prices and the idea that you could get more now and the politicians made promises that the affected sectors would be retrained, first we would have a service economy then it became knowledge workers. It turns out that the service economy is fickle and doesn't pay well for the most part. Not everyone can be a knowledge worker and that is not outsource proof either. Now we are in a trap where companies can not return because they would have to raise their prices and reduce profits and the people who used to work for them can't afford to buy their products now.
- systemvoltage 5y agoNotice how Apple boasts “Designed in California” but never “Designed in the USA”. Their midyear keynote had an intro about how amazing California is. This is the result of illberalism.
- lowkey_ 5y agoPart of the beauty of the USA is all its distinct regions and cultures. Interestingly, studies have found that goods sell for more when they say, for example, "Made in Detroit," as opposed to "Made in the USA." That keynote is perfectly in line with American principles. It's frightening how homogenous our states have become, and how much power has been taken away from them.
- systemvoltage 5y agoI like what you said and it is colliding with my pessimism that Californians and California (I live here) want to secede from the rest of the US. At least in principle they’re more pro-China than pro-US. Tells you a lot.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> I like what you said and it is colliding with my pessimism that Californians and California (I live here) want to secede from the rest of the US No California and Californians generally don't. They didn't even at the height of their opposition to the Trump Administration. Perhaps unsurprisingly, since advocacy for California separatism was backed by the same foreign interests who intervened in US politics in favor of Trump. > At least in principle they’re more pro-China than pro-US This is likewise false. > Tells you a lot That you would say it tells me a lot, sure.
- lowkey_ 5y ago>> At least in principle they’re more pro-China than pro-US > This is likewise false. Not the above commenter, but there are many, many people in SF that I've personally met who prefer China to the US. They have a disgust towards half of their own country who votes unlike the way they vote, towards anyone religious, towards anyone from a lower-class non-urban background. I've met plenty of these people in LA and Santa Barbara as well, but in SF it easily feels like a majority.
- Factorium 5y agoI live in Ukraine and Bulgaria and throughout the entire pandemic, everything has been... available, and cheap. Including imported goods. In many cases, electronics are cheaper here than in the USA, despite 20% VAT. There seems to be something going wrong in the Anglo countries to be facing such ongoing shortages.