State of the Union

Ok, so I was out doing a little shopping for a birthday present and also a little bargain hunting.

1. In the fall I saw a cute top actually made in the Vietnam in a store I like to shop, (JJ are the initials). It was $149 at that time. Cute but too much AND the person who made it probably got less than $1 to produce it. Yesterday I could have purchased that shirt for $35, 1/2 off the mark down price of $70. But I didn't because I was insulted that the store thought $149 was a fair price in November but could really afford to sell it for $35. I would have paid $50-80 for the shirt in the fall, a fair price in my opinion, but a GREEDy start price prevented me from doing so.

2. I was also in a store that shall be known as PB. I would venture a guess that over 90% of their items come from China or other Asian countries. There was a nice display of items that were on the birthday list that I wanted to take a look at. These items STARTED AT $200 and went up in price. One style came with pre-warped wood. I guess that saves the buyer time wondering if the purchase was worth the money. Again, I would spend a reasonable amount of money on a nice quality item made in Asia but I have been insulted by a store that is GREEDy enough to think that I am going to open my wallet for a poorly made small item that they paid the worker pennies to make.

I guess what I'm rambling on about is this. This country is in the current predicament because of GREED. Consumers paid way too much for "stuff" and the retail/mortgage companies were more than happy to oblige us by selling us overpriced CRAP (it is what it is) and houses we couldn't afford or "need", so that now even the people who lived within their means will be bailing out the mostly stupid for years to come. All because of greed.




Disclaimer: I am not a tree hugger, I own a gas guzzling SUV along with the little Toyota's. I eat meat and have a PETA sticker that says "People Eating Tasty Animals".