Economists Please

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gadjo_dilo

I do the same but now I'm falling in the other extreme: buying a lot of products which I don't neccesarily need at the moment only because a certain shop sells very cheap. They say that abroad the hypermarkets ( like Carrefour, Cora, Kaufland, Metro, Lidl, Auchann, etc. ) are placed outside big cities. But here there are many of them, some of them even in the centre of the city. When I go to a regular supermarket near my home I'm very careful with the products I choose but when I'm in a hypermarket I always pick products thinking " I can't find it at this price anywhere else and it's good to have it in the house". When I have to pay I'm bemused. I look in the basket and see a lot of rubbish things but I have to pay 1/5 of my salary. It's not only me who act this way. If you'll see the baskets in a romanian hypermarket you'd think the end of the world will come next day.

---

Thanks for this example!
It's just what I see around myself no matter the country or continent I am in. People buying things they will never use, and food they will never eat.
I still hope that one day this will change, however for this to happen big changes in education and mass media regulation are needed.
There was a movie (I think it's called 'Free Rainer') a few years ago about how retailer chains are studying the behavior of consumers, and in this movie it was about a certain town in Germany, Hassloch if I remember right, that was chosen as some kind of standard testing grounds and where people leaving there were basically used as some kind of marketing lab rats.
I suggest you watch it if you can find it.
A couple more good movies/documentaries to see are 'We feed the world' and 'Let's make money'. Have fun.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ioan

Thanks for this example!
It's just what I see around myself no matter the country or continent I am in. People buying things they will never use, and food they will never eat.
I still hope that one day this will change, however for this to happen big changes in education and mass media regulation are needed.
There was a movie (I think it's called 'Free Rainer') a few years ago about how retailer chains are studying the behavior of consumers, and in this movie it was about a certain town in Germany, Hassloch if I remember right, that was chosen as some kind of standard testing grounds and where people leaving there were basically used as some kind of marketing lab rats.
I suggest you watch it if you can find it.
A couple more good movies/documentaries to see are 'We feed the world' and 'Let's make money'. Have fun.

---

But some friends who spent last Christmas in Bruxelles were surprised to see that people in hypermarkets had just a few items in their baskets. while on good romanian tradition they filled theirs to the top.

I think that in my case it's also the syndrome of the empty fridge. I remember the times when the wind was blowing into my fridge and I was going to sleep asking myself what shall I eat tomorrow at work. It's like I fear the fridge will be again empty.

I also remember that when I was a kid and food wasn't a problem people would buy 100g of something, a half or quarter of a bread, a small package of..., half of kilo of fruits or vegetables, etc. Now you can't be considered serious without buying kilos of everything. That's why we become fat and lazy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

Vegetarianism is one thing

but

To compare animals as having the same rights as Human is disgusting, immoral and worse that even the most racist of thought.

---

What hyperbolic nonsense.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

During some recent car shopping I avoided all GM and Chrysler products and For some construction on one of my homes I refused to use a license contractor.

---

I was thinking about foodstuffs and household items.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ioan

From a biological POV we are all animals.
Sure we like to think that we are smarter and have more rights, however all we are achieving with our 'superior' intelligence is to destroy the nature that feeds us, something all the other animals are able to understand much better than we do. Funny isn't it?
Most of our actions are useless and only performed for fun and pleasure, without thinking on the impact we have on our environment.

---

Now I read this and put it together with your POV regarding the sense of life ( The God-thread ) and I'm becoming really dizzy.....

And I'm still at work.....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ioan

Care to elaborate?

---

Civilization itself was built on the back of the the individual's self-interest.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BDunnell

I was thinking about foodstuffs and household items.

---

I try to avoid Ethanol products as well as products produced by Cargill and ADM.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ioan

Back to the point of eating meat.
Animals do hunt and kill to it and they do not kill more than what they need.

---

Another of those warm and fuzzy myths Treehuggers like to spew when in fact Nature is full of occasions when "animals" kill for other reasons besides food. Including just for fun.

Dogs, Cats, Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bears, Killer whales and even your beloved Dolphins all have been observed killing for other reasons besides food.

Bottlenose Dolphins Killing Harbor Porpoises in California - YouTube

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BDunnell

What hyperbolic nonsense.

---

In your opinion.

But then again we all know that I established and maintained the Moral High Ground here a long time ago.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by anthonyvop

In your opinion.

But then again we all know that I established and maintained the Moral High Ground here a long time ago.

---

Oh yes, of course. How stupid of me to have forgotten. It must be your Unnecessary Use of Capital Letters that conveys it.