Megacorporations are, essentially...

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In other words, get out of the economy and live out of trash bins. That's a solution?

Don't knock it. Any means of becoming self-suficient is well worth considering.

Trading on eBay, for instance, or shopping in thrift stores or pawn shops is an excellent way to get a foothold in living on the cheap and gaining some measure of financial independence. Moving out of the city, out of a half-acre property and a 5-bedroom with all its mortgage payments and high taxes and into a three-bedroom double-wide on an acre just outside the city limits has made all the difference for us. And the wife just made her last car payment. We barely gross $25,000 (combined) as a family of 4, and we're considering that sending our children to the nice private school in the area may actually be a viable option. Never once did we apply for unemployment, and it's been nearly a year since our last WIC pickup.

We keep a savings account with a local bank for the sole purpose of cashing paychecks and an emergency supply of money for the lean months. We pay everything in cash. When we run out of money, we don't spend anything. The funny thing is it seems that our quality of life has actually IMPROVED.

And do you think a viable US economy can be sustained if a major part of the working public followed your example? That's the way the wealthy elite want the US public to be - living on an annual income comparable to that of south east Asia. In other words, the USA will become a third world economy.

The wealthy "elite" democrats would have everyone living off welfare rather than supporting themselves.

Easy to say, hard to do.

To not work or buy from a megacorp takes very hard work. First, for modern semi-necessities such as telephones, computers, internet access, running water, and motorized transport, you are looking at buying from a megacorp in some way or the other.

For clothes, it's a bit easier to do, but you will have to put a lot of effort into spining your own thread and yarn, weaving, measuring your own clothes and sew. It's a skillset that's been long forgotten by everybody except for a few anachronistic minded people and 3rd world immigrants. I only personally know how to sew because my 3rd world tailor grandfather taught me how to sew at an early age, and it's saved me from having to go to wally world and buying a brand new pair of jeans and snowpants every time I rip my clothes (BTW, if you watch the original Disney "Swiss Family Robinson" movie, he's on the credits as the costume designer. )

Shelter's also comparative easy, but you will have to buy handmade tools mined from metal made from megamines.

They took over, and because us westerners babied ourselves for too long, we can't cut the tether anymore. We're stuck to these guys. Best thing to do is live on the fringes of the grid because there is no living off the grid anymore in this country. If corps fail, we fail.

You forget: I live in the Mississippi Delta. We ARE in a third-world country!! !

I'm not suggesting many people are willing to live that way. But the US economy has never really been a paradise. I think if we HAD to live in a 3rd world economy, just for a little while, we'd learn a lot more about fiscal responsibility and conduct our affairs with an improved sense of morality.

*sigh*

A boy can dream, right?

You forget: I live in the Mississippi Delta. We ARE in a third-world country!! !

I'm not suggesting many people are willing to live that way. But the US economy has never really been a paradise. I think if we HAD to live in a 3rd world economy, just for a little while, we'd learn a lot more about fiscal responsibility and conduct our affairs with an improved sense of morality.

*sigh*

A boy can dream, right?

Hard, but possible.

ruveyn

Tell you what. You worry about your American economy right? The other day I bought some electronics and noted that it was made in China. Later I went to costco and when I grabbed a big bag of rice, it said it was a product of California.

You'd think this is backwards and the electronics should be from Silicon Valley, and the rice from the Yangtze, but it is ok. It means that you guys still know how to feed yourselves. You'll do ok I think.

AngelRho is correct. A downturn would give your society a chance to learn some fiscal sense.

Last edited by Fuzzy on 31 Jan 2011, 10:43 am, edited 2 times in total.

XD yes I suppose we still have plenty of room to feed ourselves

We have better farmland, a better variety of crops and better food choices in North American than they do in China. China needs all the food it grows to feed its population.

North America can feed the world, China cannot.

ruveyn

Or feudalism. The traditional corporation is built on a hierarchy from the CEO down to his or her chief officers, down to division vice-presidents, down to department directors, down to middle management, and eventually down to the regular employees, especially the least prestigious ones like janitors. This replication of feudal/ecclesiastical hierarchy in the private sector is an attempt to replace democracy with a new aristocracy: Some in the business class really do see themselves as a new aristocracy or those "best fit" to rule, and the Republican Party is dedicated to making that dream a reality. They really don't especially value a democratic society: They see themselves as those who worked hard and have the native intelligence and acumen to be "successful," so they translate this into knowing what's best for the country, seeing things like social welfare as only a poor return on investment (they see the government through the lens of business too).

Democrats see the government as a form of business also, they just don't use such notions when harvesting the sympathy of voters with false promises.

And the Republicans don't?

Republicans speak business, Democrats go on the nobility of their crusades against freedom of speech, against the lives of the unborn, and against the evils of businesses which don't finance their campaigns ...

This is just plain silly.