Walmart says NO to fair treatment of employees.

[Voronwë]

An increase in product consumption does not necessarily equate to "things getting better for the average american."

Its a fairly large hunk of it. But yeah, it isn't everything. In fact that was one of the points in one of the articles that I linked. That it is not as much anymore about delivering more in quantity terms, but that increasingly offering more quality and greater choice are occurring. Things that are difficult to track with the CPI, but no less real in their impact on overall economic well being.

one thing that has changed tremendously since the 70s is lower interest rates, and the massive proliferation of the credit card industry.

In the 70s, Chase Manhattan and other banks couldnt make money lending to consumers for the most part, until states like South Dakota and Delaware changed their anti-usery laws to allow for higher interest rates, which incidentally can be exported to other states. In other words if I operate in SD, i can lend money to somebody in Albany, NY at 24% even if NY state prohibits lending over 15%.

At any rate the competitive landscape of credit card companies changed drastically, and now most people have access to lower rates than that. But I think a tremendous amount of purchasing increase from now compared to the 70s has to be attributed to the ease of getting credit for the average consumer.

Lenders will give credit to anybody now, which was not the case in the 70s, and just about every store offers its own credit card service.

So i think that is a tremendous flaw in trying to compare those decades based on purchasing.

Everybody has more expensive shit in their houses nowadays, but part of the reason is that most of us have borrowed money (sometimes at crappy rates) to buy those toys. I've heard the average HH income in the US is around $45-50K. I've also heard the average HH has around $8K in credit card debt. I can't tell you how reliable those numbers are though.

That being said, i know that my wife and I are doing much better than our parents were at this stage in their life, but part of that has to do with the fact they have transferred some of their wealth to us.

So i'm not going to try to argue my demographic is in worse shape. I am positive my demographic is in better shape.

[Mplor]

Item #1 hands-down factor in quality of life: Do you go to bed hungry?

Our generation has cheaper access to calories and protein than any in the history of the world. This is primarily due to increases in productivity resulting from the industrialization and globalization of farming, butchering, transport and distribution. Productivity, people.

Industrialization and economies of scale cut both ways, and Walmart is emblematic of both the good and the bad. On the whole, however, I consider it well worth the price.

[nobody]

Forgive me Father for I have sinned! I went out to buy Gran Turismo 4 and it was sold out everywhere. Everywhere but WalMart that is.