Harry A friend of mine is a single mother on welfare. She comes around on Sunday to collect the discount coupons from our LA Times. Why? because she often manages to save a decent amount of money.
arthur Noblesse oblige. Hope you give her some of your old clothes and food you would otherwise throw out. -----Original Message----- From: Harry Pollard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 11:30 PM To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Whining ("Stop it! And say: 'Thank you'! .... ) Arthur, I'm not sure he would have gone to get the $25 computer case for nothing had he known he would have had to wait for an hour to get in, but once there he joined the line and from all accounts had an enjoyable time. That's a post-tax $25 - or perhaps $35-40 in pre-tax earnings. Not bad for a couple of hours of chatting with others and enjoying the fun people have when they grab a bargain. I must say, the Pollards talk to everyone quite happily and so enjoy ourselves in any situation. There was the PhD in Marxism 12,000 up on Mount Whitney. Then, at the Logging Museum in Oregon we spent several hours with a man who had been 23 years in the business and had a wealth of information he was putting into a book of poetry. On the other hand, I don't think any of us have ever joined the big sales crowds that wait outside the stores for the doors to open. But people do it and apparently get a lot of fun out of it. From all accounts they do pick up genuine bargains. You should shop a sale. You don't care if the store raises its prices or not on other things. You buy the marked down item you want and triumphantly march off. Or perhaps you wouldn't do it. Fine! Whatever works for you. Smell the flowers and let people do what they want. They aren't harming anyone. But I can't understand your remark about people spending all their time looking up airline discounts. I've already pointed out that when we had the fixed price air fares you appear to love, flying was mostly the province of the wealthy, corporate salesmen, bureaucrats, and perhaps academics. With deregulation, air travel opened up for the great unwashed who filled the airports with their sweaty bodies. The elite are often not very happy about this - I've heard them grumbling - but to heck with them. Spending 'their free time pouring over "deals" ' for most of us means checking the Internet - something that takes maybe 15 minutes. This may save you (say) $500. When I go to England next year, I'll carefully check what is available at what price before buying a ticket. If I were rich - Stop! I was going to say that if I were rich I wouldn't bother, but I've known many very rich people and I've noticed they don't spend unnecessary money. At dinner with two such people - perhaps $30 million between them, they discussed the cheap reading glasses they got in Woolworths. I said nothing about the reading glasses I'd paid $60 dollars for at an opticians. But, Arthur, how elitist is your reference to the gerbils running around trying to get a "best deal". This is the view from the ivory tower. A friend of mine is a single mother on welfare. She comes around on Sunday to collect the discount coupons from our LA Times. Why? because she often manages to save a decent amount of money. What a gerbil! Harry ------------------------------------------------------------------ Arthur wrote: >Harry, > >How does your son value his time? Or maybe he likes crowds and sees >shopping as entertainment. Remember the movie "they shoot horses don't >they." The life of the marathon dancers during the depression. That is >what all those shoppers remind me of during the break down the doors wait >all night to get the best bargains videos we see on TV. > >It is shopping as play, as entertainment, as parody. > >Its OK and it is about competition. It more about jerking the consumer >around and marking down prices from 100 percent to 10 percent on certain >items and holding others constant or raising them. > >With deregulation and competition (airlines, energy, etc.) >citizen/consumers will spend all their free time pouring over "deals" and >waiting for their discount airline or energy company to go >bankrupt. Consumers as gerbils running and running and and running >thinking they have got the best deal or just lost the best deal. A >wonderful life???? > >arthur ****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
