- All the promotion for a worldwide economy as the answer,
misses the mark, when Americans shop for their basic needs. Recently a
corporate institution, United Parcel Service of America, issued a press
release an announced an account that offers an insight in things to come.
The UPS report, called Operating in Unison, provides a detailed look at
the company's impact on communities worldwide, both progress made and areas
where the company remains constructively dissatisfied. To place this in
perspective UPS would be considered a major employer. "As a company
with 360,000 employees, 88,000 vehicles and 2,850 facilities worldwide,
we realize that UPS has a significant impact on society, the global economy
and on the environment," said Mike Eskew, their chief executive officer.
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- Compare the size of their organization with Wal-Mart.
The Wal-Mart department store chain, employs 1.3 million people at 4,700
stores worldwide, and in 2002 became the largest corporation in the world.
Reported in an EIR article: Wal-Mart Is Not a Business, It's an Economic
Disease, the following sums up the secret to their success: "In 1987,
a turning point came for Wal-Mart, when it opened its first superstore,
called Hypermarket*USA, modeled on the hypermarkets of Europe. At that
time, the average clothing or grocery store in America had 15-22,000 square
feet of space. By contrast, the hypermarkets, now called supercenters,
had 150-200,000 feet. The supercenter was based on the idea of one-stop
shopping: In the same store, one could buy groceries, merchandise and appliances,
fast food, and photo development; one could also do one's banking. Wal-Mart
took advantage of an advanced inventory system; its bulk purchases of goods,
which led to price discounts; and a ferocious anti-labor policy keeping
wages very low."
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- As UPS and Wal-Mart fare, so goes the country. For a
reliable gauge of the condition of the domestic economy, just watch the
trends of these two companies. Inferring that these businesses are the
modern day equivalent of General Motors in a more uncomplicated era of
industrial manufacturing, avoids the impact of the globalism mentality.
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- In it's most basic terms, consumers require the ability
to buy what they need to sustain their existence. There are two fundamental
methods to purchase goods.
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- 1) Acquire your goods from a store and cart them back
to your home. Whether buying at retail or wholesale, if you pick up at
the distribution center, a visit is required.
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- 2) Have your purchases transported directly to your residence.
If you buy online, make mail and telephone orders or contract for a physical
deliverance, you depend upon a delivery service.
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- The price you pay seldom conforms to the cost you believe
a product is really worth. The idea that competition is alive and well
in a free marketplace seems to escape the bottom line of the bill of sale.
As organizations grow in size and reach do they really reduce their prices
to their customers? If efficiency is the goal of a corporation, and profit
the reward, where does the customer fit into this equation? The answer
clearly points to the function that the consumer is the cash cow that feeds
this continuous treadmill cycle.
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- If you avoid UPS, you can use FedEx, DHL or Airborne.
And if you get desperate, there is always the US Postal Service. But what
price will you pay? Review the charges at your local post office for registered
and certified mail, return receipt and every other service they offer.
Now compare those prices with the official government stats for inflation.
Does this compute or are you in the middle of a ride on a time machine
that is in need of repair?
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- Now look at the interest rates your local bank pays on
your saving account and compare that to the annual effective rate they
charge on monthly payments for carrying a balance on your credit cards.
HELLO !!! Are we really supposed to believe that inflation is non existent?
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- Henry Ford built his first car in a garage, had high
pay scale workers assemble the model T; but today a F150 truck can only
meet the government safety standards if it sells for the equity in your
house. So there is no inflation in the economy . . . what world do you
live in?
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- Even the most devoted Free Trader knows that the bargain
basement prices at Wal-Mart are based upon cheap foreign imports. The rural
areas that bring Wal-Mart into their community watch their shopkeepers
transform into door greeters. How long will the superstore sell at discount
prices, when K Mart closes, Sears tanks and Target become the focus of
the cross hairs?
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- What has dramatically changed is that the options in
kind have diminished, while the variety has increased. Greater selection
in consumer items may well have flourished, but the basic system for completing
the business transaction has fallen to dangerous levels of competition.
At the core of the shopper syndrome is a deception that deals exist and
costs are reasonable. Examine the options to fulfill your needs and you
will see that no customer service representative will be able to lift you
out of poverty with another sales offer.
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- How many houses do you need to refinance to afford the
postage to send in your monthly bank payments? This point should not be
dismissed as hyperbolic excess. The real exorbitant costs come when there
are no other stores to shop or services to deliver. When the charge of
carrying debt so outweighs the return earned on capital, the prudent person
pays off all their obligations. Just how may people have that practical
option? Add in the under reported inflation factor and you get a recoil
to your wallet that empties the cash and leaves the plastic.
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- Is this the kind of UNISON that benefits our countrymen?
How about the DISEASE that features foreign brand, is this the medicine
for a healthy economy? If society is a reflection of a mart that runs on
ups and walls out domestic models of commerce, what can we expect for the
future. Up up and away . . . the price of goods and services will reach
the costs of government monopolies like the post office!
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- http://batr.org/gulag/011504.html
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