American Economics Thread

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ansy1968

Brigadier
Registered Member
manqiangrexue said:
Luxury goods stores, on the other hand, are a parasite on society. They do not make our lives better by technology and if they all disappeared, so would the desire for them and life would be more down-to-earth and better. Luxury brands are built on 2 concepts: 1. When Italian/French hands make the same thing, it is worth 100X more than when it is made by Chinese or other industrially-competitive hands. 2. They rob the men while staring us in the eyes, letting us know that they are going to take $8K for a bag which will go into the furnace at year end if no one buys it, and we must pay it because they've brainwashed the women. Even my wife, who is incredibly thrifty at everything, saving me tens of thousands of dollars a year, professes a deep and dark adoration for Chanel, to which I responded, "No, F- France. We can spend $10K on Chinese goods but not $5K on Chanel." Therefore, on those 2 principles, I truly feel a massive vengeful Schadenfreude inside whenever I see rioters and looters wreck a downtown luxury store.
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Bro you said that!!!!! my idol...lol I had to whisper to object :mad: the justification for the purchase always come down to investment, now who can win an argument base on that premise especially when she include it as future dowry to my children wedding.:(
 
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paiemon

Junior Member
Registered Member
manqiangrexue said:
Besides, looting a store is looting a store. Why would anyone with a brain loot a supermarket for $40 worth of groceries max with which they can carry and still run when they can loot a Hermes store and come out with $60K in clothes and small items in their arms which they can sell for $10K and use that to buy food for months?
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Well for people who need to feed themselves and/or their families and lack the means, they are just going to shoplift or "scan" the wrong item at the self checkout. I don't condone stealing, but for some people these are desperate times and you do what you have to do to survive. Plus looting a grocery store is a logistical nightmare since most of their merchandise is high volume, low margin because they lockup most of their high margin items (e.g., baby formula, consumer electronics). If you want to loot a store you have much better odds of hijacking or stealing the tractor trailers doing the deliveries and diverting them to the black market or amazon.
 
manqiangrexue

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
ansy1968 said:
Bro you said that!!!!! my idol...lol I had to whisper to object :mad: the justification for the purchase always come down to investment, now who can win an argument base on that premise especially when she include it as future dowry to my children wedding.:(
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It wasn't really any contention or argument. She's a mature responsible lady who wouldn't buy a Chanel purse for $5-10K even if I told her to treat herself. Actually, when we got married, my mother took her to the local luxury mall and told her that as her new mom, she wanted to buy her a gift, anything she wanted, $10K at least. She held my mother's arm, strolled through the mall chatting about girl things and ultimately brought her back to the parking lot without making any purchase. She knows its wrong to spend money like that no matter how much you have and she knows that spending massively on foreign luxuries is wrong when that investment can go to China.

If, however, she finds a $10K Chanel purse in perfect condition being resold for $1.5K and knows the used market value is $3K, though, she might buy it, use it for a year and sell it to make some money while satisfying her new purse lust in the mean time.
paiemon said:
Well for people who need to feed themselves and/or their families and lack the means, they are just going to shoplift or "scan" the wrong item at the self checkout. I don't condone stealing, but for some people these are desperate times and you do what you have to do to survive. Plus looting a grocery store is a logistical nightmare since most of their merchandise is high volume, low margin because they lockup most of their high margin items (e.g., baby formula, consumer electronics). If you want to loot a store you have much better odds of hijacking or stealing the tractor trailers doing the deliveries and diverting them to the black market or amazon.
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Yeah, the conversation was about looting, not about subtle checkout theft. Of course I agree it's much easier to scam a self-checkout machine and this has actually happened so much that Walmart is investing in advanced cameras that identify the item by picture and match it with the sticker during checkout to prevent sticker swap but it wasn't the type of theft being discussed. Sympathy was also a top theme and I have no sympathy for luxury stores no matter what happens to them.
 
vincent

vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
paiemon said:
Well for people who need to feed themselves and/or their families and lack the means, they are just going to shoplift or "scan" the wrong item at the self checkout. I don't condone stealing, but for some people these are desperate times and you do what you have to do to survive. Plus looting a grocery store is a logistical nightmare since most of their merchandise is high volume, low margin because they lockup most of their high margin items (e.g., baby formula, consumer electronics). If you want to loot a store you have much better odds of hijacking or stealing the tractor trailers doing the deliveries and diverting them to the black market or amazon.
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Speaks like an expert ;)
 
L

luminary

Senior Member
Registered Member
I just realized weddings are
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in the U.S. and
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. The combined annual American marriage and divorce industries are almost on par economically with
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. That is a ton of money.

Private interests are
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to encourage failed marriages and remarrying. Another example of late stage capitalism accelerating societal decay.
 
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