Gentrification of thrift stores

I have been a fan and customer of thrift stores for a long long time.  Probably this is due to my  interest in things that have been discarded or abandoned.  When I was a boy the collection of garbage was common only in metropolitan areas.  Rural communities had no such program.  The outcome was the appearance of dumps on remote  fields or wood lots.    My brother and I learned that these dumps held treasure for our use in games and play.  It was as much fun to look through the jumble of things no longer regarded as useful  as it was to sort through the boxes and crowded shelves of the first generation of thrift stores.
I don't recall where or when I entered my first thrift store but I saw quickly that it was a good place to buy books.  They were cheaper than second-hand bookstores and contained a variety of titles to compete with them.  Without a doubt, I have purchased more than one thousand books from thrifts over the years. 
As time passed I saw thrift stores begin to improve their appearance and expand their inventory of things for sale.  Kitchenware, electronics, vinyl records, clothing, tools, etc, etc.  And I began to purchase these items as well.  Not only because I saved money.  I like things that have been well-made and well-used and to give them a second life is to fully appreciate the purposes of design and craft.
The first big change occurred in the seventies (if my memory is working) when the craze for collectibles began.  There was a sudden interest in nostalgia and many things once considered cheaply bought and personally useless became valuable things to own and to resell.
Charities began to rent store fronts and to plead for donations for resale.  The monthly take in some stores exceeded six months sales in the original part-time thrift shops.
Regular customers began to notice that upscale automobiles were appearing in the parking lot.  People who owned Cadillacs and Lincolns and Mercedes were shopping in thrift stores.  To meet the needs of this new customer, thrifts gave a section of the store over to something called a Boutique.  Here there were chairs to sit in.  There was more room between the displays and racks.  The clothing had been culled and the best articles were sold in the Boutique.  At higher prices, of course.
Hardcover books that once sold for 50 cents began to follow the new trend and were one dollar each.  Today they are either two dollars or three dollars  And they aren't old anymore.
Now  twelve thrift stores, in three neighboring towns in two of the richest counties in America, have created an association.  They are uniting to find new ways to 'improve' their stores and increase their profits.  One way now being used is the issuance of coupons offering 15% or 10% off purchases.  Just like real stores!
The Association is sponsoring an event. A trolley will spend an 8 hour day tour of these local thrifts.  There are 30 seats available at a cost of $30 per person.  The price includes a box lunch.
For me, this development marks the end of the thrift shop as a source for low income people.  It is an example, admittedly small, of how the piece of the economic pie that belonged to the poor continues to shrink.  Wealth continues to move away from the poor toward the well-off.
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Remembering Ol' One-Shot

The brouhaha over that awful expression 'gun control', the ranting, the raving, the mad-dog personalities pro and con send me away to find a quieter place and time.  Thus I found this passage from Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird."  The passage occurs just after Atticus Finch has killed a dangerous mad dog with one shot, leaving his children surprised by this unknown talent in their father.

"Forgot to tell you the other day that besides playing the Jew's Harp,  Atticus Finch was the deadest shot in Maycomb County in his time."
"Dead shot..." echoed Jem.
"That's what I said, Jem Finch.  Guess you'll change your tune now.  The very idea, didn't you know his nickname was Ol' One-Shot when he was a boy?  Why, down at the Landing when he was coming up, if he shot fifteen times and hit fourteen doves he'd complain about wasting ammunition."
"He never said anything about that," Jem muttered.
"Never said anything about it, did he?"
"No, ma'am."
"Wonder why he never goes huntin' now," I said.
"Maybe I can tell you," said Miss Maudie.  "If your father's anything, he's civilized in his heart.  Marksmanship's a gift of God, a talent - oh, you have to practice to make it perfect, but shootin's different from playing the piano or the like.  I think maybe he put his gun down when he realized that God had given him an unfair advantage over most living things.  I guess he decided he wouldn't shoot till he had to, and he had to today."
"Looks like he'd be proud of it," I said.
"People in their right minds never take pride in their talents," said Miss Maudie.
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Truth Be Told

Many politicians (mostly Republican) call Social Security an "entitlement."  Whether they use this term from ignorance or from a malicious desire to make the system seem undeserved I don't know.  It's not accurate but the term has stuck and is repeated in debate after debate.  No wonder nothing gets done in Washington.  They are trying to fix  something that doesn't need repair.
Social Security is an investment.  Money is taken from payrolls to fund it.  Money is taken from payrolls for other investments, i.e., pension plans, health insurance, 401k's.  The difference is that investing in Social Security is required.  However the money taken from one's salary is returned later in life, and, according to the critics, more is returned than was invested.  Which sounds like a wise investment.
Social Security is often tied to the debate about national debt as if it were a major cause of that problem.  It isn't.  In fact, the Social Security Trust Fund has been used by various Presidents (beginning, I believe, with LBJ) to hide budgetary failures and weaknesses.  In 1983 President Reagan and Congress reworked the System in order to assure the Trust would be funded for the Baby Boom generation.  They did this by raising taxes on the middle class and the working class.  Successive Presidents used these taxes like income taxes and funded the General Budget with them to conceal the real size of the deficit.
 There is enough money in the Fund today to keep Social Security going till 2038,  another 25 years, if nothing more were done.  There could be much more if the IOU's were to be prepaid.

In 2010 and 2011, there were no increases in Social Security checks.  One would think that there would be a visible reduction in government debt after two years of no change in payments  IF Social Security was a factor in the problem of debt.

Now there is talk about re-working the formula for cost of living increases for Social Security investors in order 'to save the System.' .  President Obama has suggested this also.  Currently the rate used for this year's increase is 1.7 percent.  This is too high?  After two years of no increase at all?  Give me a break.

This year my increase is $18 per month.  My monthly premium for Part B Medicare is up $5 to $104.90.  The part B deductible has been raised $7 to $147.  The Part A deductible (hospitalization) has increased by $28.  Let's do the math.  My Monthly premium increase ($5 x 12 = $60) plus the two deductibles ($7 + $28= $35) = $95 which is the first five months of my Social Security increase before I leave the house to check the REAL inflation rate at the gas station and supermarket.
In 2012 my wife and I spent $1918 our of our pockets for copayments to Medicare.  $18 x 12 = $216.

Don't mis-understand.  I am not complaining selfishly.  We're not poor.  We will make it.   There are many more people far worse off than we are.  Many of them will make it too.  I only wish we could make it without being attended by the lying, the stupidity, and the mendacity of  our political leaders.
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Happy New Year!

When our Collective Imagination fails, we get reductionism in Science, fundamentalism in Religion, fascism in Politics.

Are we there yet?
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Scott Pelley shills for the Corporations

On the CBS Evening News of November 19, 2012, anchor Scott Pelley interviewed Lloyd Blankenfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs.  The interview was described as "rare."   The subject was economic recovery and the 'fiscal cliff.'
Mr. Blankenfein stated that there is a need for more revenue so the wealthy should pay more in taxes.  There is a need for less spending and the place to do that is 'entitlements', i.e., Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid.
A nice tidy package that, if swallowed, would solve our fiscal problems, or so he would have us believe..  Mr. Pelley swallowed it.  I did not.
The USA is not only lacking investigative reporting at the federal level;  it suffers from a dearth of competent reporting.
Mr. Pelley was subdued by the supposed honor of the invitation to speak to Mr. Blankenfein, one of the most influential men in the world in charge of one of the biggest banks in the world.
Mr. Pelley did not ask one tough question.  He did not provide a differing POV.  I don't believe he ever intended to.  This interview was a set-up, the first shot fired by the corporatacracy and the government to 'educate the American people about the sacrifices they need to make.'
The media in America are owned by the corporations and do their bidding. 
 The worst omission of the interview was the  failure to mention  the billions spent on the Pentagon, the CIA, and the  Superstate of Security behemoth that exceeds the cost and dangers of the military-industrial complex.
Of course, Mr. Blankenfein wouldn't reduce spending there.  He needs those organizations to protect his financial interests around the world. 
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God Give Us Men

I posted this poem in February 2010.  Thought I'd bring it to the front of the room again.

God give us men!  A time like this demands
strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
  Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
  Men who have honor - men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue,
  And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog,
  In public duty and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions, and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo!  Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land, and waiting Justice sleeps.

by Josiah Gilbert Holland
American writer  (1819-1881)

This poem is from a popular American literature textbook for high school students, published in 1935 and used through the 1940's. 

It isn't read today, I'm sure.  After all, it is the work of that dreaded historical figure, the Dead White Male. 
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Matt Ridley: Optimist or Fool?

I have been spending some time in doctor's offices lately which means I am reading a variety of magazines I don't usually see.  One such magazine was the Readers Digest (April 2012) which contained an article by Matt Ridley, a visitor from an alternate universe.
In this article Mr. Ridley posited a number of statements that prove his assertion that life on this planet has never been so good and it's only going to get better.
 One particular paragraph caught my attention and I record it here:

"By 9a.m., I have shaved with an American razor,  eaten bread made with French wheat and spread with New Zealand butter and Spanish marmalade,  brewed tea from Sri Lanka,  dressed in clothes made from Indian cotton and Australian wool,  put on shoes of Chinese leather and Maylasian rubber, and read a newspaper printed on Finnish paper with Chinese ink.  I have consumed miniscule fractions of the productive labor of hundreds of people.  This is the magic of trade and specialization.  Self-sufficiency is poverty."
 

"Self-sufficiency is poverty."   Autonomy, I suppose, is a psychosis.

Mr. Ridley is the ultimate consumer;  a globalist as well.  So thoroughly self-absorbed  in his well-being that his writings fly over troubling anomalies such as persistent famine and war.
He is unaware that the 'productive labor' of people around the world includes the killing in the diamond mines of Africa,  the slave labor in parts of Asia,  the suicide nets installed on the exterior walls  of Foxconn's factories to catch those who throw themselves out the window preferring death to a life of 'productive labor.'
Productive for whom, Mr. Ridley?  Productive for what?
Mr. Ridley lives a life of material comfort and ease.  He also lives a life of complete dependency.
Why he is a favorite of many conservatives escapes me.
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