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Showing Original Post only (View all)Kunstler--Scale Implosion: After Ruining America, the Era of Giant Chain Stores Is Over [View all]
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/20-1The older generations responsible for all that may be done for, but the momentum has now turned in the opposite direction. Though the public hasn't groked it yet, WalMart and its kindred malignant organisms have entered their own yeast-overgrowth death spiral. In a now permanently contracting economy the big box model fails spectacularly. Every element of economic reality is now poised to squash them.
In a now permanently contracting economy the big box model fails spectacularly.
Diesel fuel prices are heading well north of $4 again. If they push toward $5 this year you can say goodbye to the "warehouse on wheels" distribution method. (The truckers, who are mostly independent contractors, can say hello to the re-po men come to take possession of their mortgaged rigs.)
Global currency wars (competitive devaluations) are about to destroy trade relationships. Say goodbye to the 12,000 mile supply chain from Guangzhou to Hackensack. Say goodbye to the growth financing model in which it becomes necessary to open dozens of new stores every year to keep the credit revolving.
Then there is the matter of the American customers themselves. The WalMart shoppers are exactly the demographic that is getting squashed in the contraction of this phony-baloney corporate buccaneer parasite revolving credit crony capital economy. Unlike the Federal Reserve, WalMart shoppers can't print their own money, and they can't bundle their MasterCard and Visa debts into CDOs to be fobbed off on Scandinavian pension funds for quick profits
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Kunstler--Scale Implosion: After Ruining America, the Era of Giant Chain Stores Is Over [View all]
eridani
Feb 2013
OP
except that the top 20% drives 60% of it. the bottom 60% = about 40% of consumer spending.
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#29
Sorry, you're misinformed. and it follows logically from the distribution of income.
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#37
The bottom 50% of earners take home 12% of income. You can't spend more than you get.
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#39
totally "accurate"? what? Is the IRS pushing a myth too, when they tell us the bottom 50% of
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#48
You obviously do. Its not taxes itself that drive the economy. Its consumers.
Katashi_itto
Feb 2013
#49
OH? "Its not taxes itself that drive the economy. Its consumers". Yes, and the bottom 50% of
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#56
i don't know whether you *can't* understand or *won't* understand, but either way, not worth
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#58
Christ, you dont have a clue. Income doesnt automatically equate to spending. You simply prove
Katashi_itto
Feb 2013
#61
Moodys and WSJ? Oh their credible....Sorry you buy into propaganda. (Snicker)
Katashi_itto
Feb 2013
#42
The bottom 50% of workers make 12% of total income. If you think they're a big consumer
HiPointDem
Feb 2013
#47
We are not talking about shale gas, or coal, we are talking about oil.
Spider Jerusalem
Feb 2013
#46
He has no formal training as an economist, as an engineer, as a psychologist.
Ikonoklast
Feb 2013
#18
He stated opinions about an industry in which I am fairly knowledgeable. He isn't.
Ikonoklast
Feb 2013
#24
More power to Mayor Bloomberg for keeping Walmart out of Manhattan now for 11 years
graham4anything
Feb 2013
#3
Here in suburbia we've been feral tribes scrounging for edible tubers ever since Kunstler first
Ikonoklast
Feb 2013
#11
And add to that how the executive class and stockholders (owners) of these large businesses
gtar100
Feb 2013
#15
I have read that Walmart is actually thinking of changing to the Dollar Store
snagglepuss
Feb 2013
#27