re: #270 Killgore Trout

I’ve been thinking about this lately too. Like so many other issues, I think most of us are missing the point. I don’t like Walmart either and I don’t shop there. The problem isn’t really Walmart itself, but the culture that keeps it in business. As long as poor people are eager to waste their money on cheap crap they don’t need then Walmart is going to make lots of money, there’s nothing you can do about it. Same with the economic crisis. Bankers are easy villains but the core problem is people willing to use their homes as bottomless ATM machines but buy stuff they don’t need. Here we are bitching about globalization on computers made under horrific conditions in Asia. At this moment we’re all probably using twice as much electricity as needed. We are the problem, populist solutions are just excuses to continue the behavior while blaming others.

Corps spend billions every year making sure the average person feels like shit because they don’t have the latest doodad. In a species where memories can be inserted into the mind with a little work, it is ridiculously easy to trigger a feeling of loss.

Companies like Walmart are manipulating people into buying what they don’t need.