"N2EY" wrote:

Then the contract should be changed because
it's not cost-effective in the long run.


It often costs more to change a contract than it does to simply live with
a minor inefficiency. Nobody is losing that much money. It's just an
irratation to constantly buy new fans.


I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect them
to do so! It's part of life in a modern industrialized
society with global trade.


I've been going in circles with Kim over this very subject. People
(consumers) purchase hundreds of items each year. Products constantly
change, meaning ongoing research for each item would be required. Because of
that, consumers simply don't have the time or the informational resources to
even superficially research each of the items they purchase. I certainly
don't do it and I seriously doubt you do either (however, Kim says she
does).


They don't have to. The govt. requires all sorts of
labels on all sorts of items, which means all one
needs to know is how to interpret those labels.
Outfits like Consumer's Union do product testing
so we don't have to. And the 'net gives us access
to enormous amounts of information.


Do remember we're talking about the economy. Labels are not going to tell
us which companies are moving factories overseas, or which are paying their
employees decent wages, or which are using illegal immigrants, or which are
using materials made overseas, which are using sweatshop labor, or so on.
And the internet does give us access to enormous amounts of information -
most of it biased, agenda-filled, garbage. Getting accurate and reliable
information is the hard part. Government at least tries to offer info about
larger corporations, but who offers that info when it comes to the stores,
businesses, and factories, in my hometown (or in hometowns around the
country)?


And it doesn't take a degree in economics to know
that if enough people stop going to Ma's Diner and
instead patronize Taco Heaven, that Ma's is going
to go out of business.


Consumers don't act as a single body, Jim. When was the last time you
pondered what other consumers are doing when you went to a restaurant?
Without doing so, there is no way to know other people have stopped going to
Ma's Diner. Instead, you go to Taco Heaven assuming everything is just fine
over at Ma's Diner. Other consumers do the same. Most only discover there's
a problem at Ma's Diner when they see the going out of business sign. The
same pattern plays out in other markets (Wal-Mart versus local stores and so
on).


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

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