"N2EY" wrote:

As Kim points out, look elsewhere. The 'net gives
us a powerful tool to find other sources. The problem
is that you may have to wait for the item, and pay
more for it (delivery vs. sales tax).


But I shouldn't have to do that, Jim. I don't think a quality fan should
be an esoteric item requiring a nation-wide search. Yet that is exactly the
case. And this was only one example - I run into similar situations just
about every day of the week. By the way, the fans are purchased locally
because that's in the contract.


Because whether such ideas work or not is largely
dependent on those details.


I wasn't aware we were here to make a particular idea work. This is a
general discussion in a newsgroup. Anything more than that would require
considerable time (which I place a high value on) and a research &
development budget (which I haven't seen anyone offer).


Because it's their responsibility. Part of a free market
economy is being a *customer*, not a *consumer*.


Again, shoppers are going to the store to ponder the global economic
implications of the purchases they make. It is absurd to even expect them to
do so (see my next paragraph below).


Then they should not complain when the hardware store
and the American power tool plants shut down, quality
degrades, unemployment rises, etc.


Jim, short of setting up a dictatorship, you're never going to get even a
significant portion of the 280 million people in this country to shop the
way you want. Consumers in general have neither the business awareness or
economic awareness to make those types of decisions on their own. And they
also certainly don't have the time or money to fully research an industry
each time they want to go shopping for something. Business darn well knows
all that, which is exactly why they point to consumer spending as the main
cause of a poor economy. Doing so absolves business of any responsibility
for that economic situation and instead places the entire nation's economic
burden, and sole blame for a bad economy (and blame for the things you list
above), on consumers alone. Business has some responsibility in all this.
Your argument gives them a free ride when it comes to that responsibility.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/