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Archive for the Consumerism Category

“Legs Network” Is Big Brother (October 27, 2014)

Posted in Amazon, Consumerism, Elections, Facebook, Google, Internet, Journalism, Markets, Press/Media, Technology, Television on October 27, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1 “While watching late last night, it dawned on me. Big Brother is now privatized and outsourced. The ‘Legs Network’ is Big Brother.”

2 “I like it. The name, that is. The Network provides ideological programming punctuated by ideological advertising. Spin reality and repeat it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and . . . .”

1 “A vile message grounded in fear and repeated and repeated and repeated to advance the interests of the corporate sponsors.”

2 “Over and over and over and over.”

. . .

1 “Female applicants are required to submit photographs of their legs. They know what they are foisting.”

2 “Shoes? Restorative varicose vein surgery? And all of the propagandists are graduates of the Edward L. Bernays School of Disinformation.”

1 “One was a Joe Goebbels Fellow.”

2 “Josephina Goebbels Fellow?”

. . .

1 “A higher percentage of the indoctrinees of the ‘Legs Network’ are living on government assistance than the viewers of public television.”

2 “The governments – federal, state and local – are also even bigger Big Brothers than in the past.”

1 “Every new social media spawns its own monopoly and gestates another Big Brother. Amazon, Google, Facebook, you name it, are all Big Brothers. We need a protective and independent ‘Big Brother’ to protect or at least to inform us. Instead we get a bevy of Orwellian ‘Big Brothers’ that monitor and manipulate us.”

2 “Everyone is in our corner and no one is in our corner.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Big Brothers abound

“Legs Network” is Big Brother

Facebook is Big Brother

Google is Big Brother

Twitter is Big Brother

Amazon is Big Brother

ebay is Big Brother

Zillow is Big Brother

_____ is Big Brother

Are Big Sisters more benign?

[A Pawel Kuczynski sketch of a video camera on a wall focused (and fixated) on a second video camera on the same wall also focused (and fixated) on the first camera.]

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Boycott Futball? (February 3, 2014)

Posted in Boycott Series, Consumerism, Football, Hypocrisy, Pogo Plight, Sports on February 3, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

F1 “Are you crazy? Apple pie and motherhood are as American as futball.”

F2 “Soccer Moms wielding mini vans hold the keys. Will they make a motherly pitch to the kids and drive them to the pitch or accede to pressure and deposit them on the gridiron.”

. . .

F1 “Watching it for the ads seems akin to buying a girlie magazine for the articles.”

F2 “Spectacles are always spectacular. A brand is a story. This year the brands really tried to tell stories over a number of ads throughout the extravaganza.”

F1 “Seemed to be fewer ads for ED medication and the usual number for EtOH self-medication.”

F2 “Capture the audience and then captivate the audience.”

. . .

F1 “The NFL is the big winner. They scored non-profit tax-exempt status long ago. The public pays for the millionaires to play for the billionaires.”

F2 “And the public finances most of the coliseums. The teams are tantamount to unregulated public utilities.”

F1 “Perhaps citizens should pay a monthly bill for water and sewer, telephone, gas, and for futball.”

. . .

F2 “Football is counterproductive because it destroys so many gladiators along the way. Society is left weaker.”

. . .

F1 “Sports has always provided every society with a forum to train warriors and titillate the populace.”

F2 “ROTC with colorful, multi-color uniforms, cheerleaders and beer.”

F1 “Tiddlywinks simply does not train warriors or titillate the public. Few aspire to a career in the NTA – National Tiddlywinks Association. Our need for blood sports is hard-wired into our dna. Coursing is coarse, but the desire courses through our blood.”

F2 “Auto racing appeals to our love of speed and lust for a crash. The most skilled drivers are at the wheel to maximize the speed and minimize but deliver the inevitable and cherished crash.”

F1 “Satisfying our need for immediate gratification led them to accelerate the process and fashion the ‘demolition derby’ that provides what the fans really desire – a string of premeditated crashes – without the wait.”

F2 “Rather than going in circles, they go right at each other. Perhaps football could be reduced to fifteen minutes of uncontrolled mayhem with the gladiators going right at each other.”

. . .

F1 “The ideal winter sport is the biathlon . . . shoot and ski in the winter and then run or bicycle or pogo-stick in the summer to stay in shape. The ideal summer sports are soccer and women’s rules lacrosse. Men’s rules lacrosse is for insecure sissies.”

F2 “Men’s rules lacrosse is the outdoor version of ice hockey. Is there women’s rules ice hockey?”

F1 “What about co-ed inner tube water polo played indoors in the winter and cricket played in the summer?”

F2 “Moms may need to select among competing pitches. Cricket Moms would emerge as another target demographic for advertisers.”

. . .

F1 “What would happen to Monday morning quarterbacking?”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Is Dylan a Cadillac shill or a Chrysler shill? . . . . . . . or a Ford shill?” “I think he was a Victoria’s Secret model.”

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The American Menu: Three Food Groups (January 6, 2014)

Posted in Consumerism, Food, Health Care, Market Solutions, Plastic, Pogo Plight on January 6, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

The Gyre of Death:

Breakfast: Sugar, Fat, Salt

Lunch: Fat, Salt, Sugar

Dinner: Salt, Sugar, Fat

Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.

. . .

A “New Year’s resolutions are one of the earliest examples of recycling. The list of resolutions could be stored with the holiday decorations and reused each year.”

B “We need to reduce. Hope springs eternal, particularly in the winter. Better to have propounded New Year’s resolutions and lost than never to have propounded them at all.”

A “We need to resolve to shed calories responsibly all year.”

B “Better to have lost pounds.”

. . .

A “Disregard the class and cultural arrogance and condescension that underlies the discussion and the problem still weighs on us. We as a people are too chunky.”

B “Too many Americans drive around all day poisoning themselves at the food shacks that litter the highways and byways and then drive to a bar and poison themselves with liquid intoxicants before taking that last drive of the day late at night back home. We need to change our life style.”

A “Obesity imposes a staggering additional tax on health care costs. If the government chimes in and proposes something, someone whines about the ‘nanny state’ interfering in our lives.”

B “Granny may have been right about these things. Moderation always in all things.”

. . .

A “Beer companies seek to decant 11 rather than 12 ounces into a bottle and grocers now package five rather than six avocados in the bag. How do you create the market conditions so that a sugar water company reduces the ounces in the bottle and the purveyor of French fries puts fewer spuds in the bag?”

B “And change our life style so that no uses plastic bottles.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled Back Door Inflation (July 16, 2007).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

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Veteran’s Day (November 11, 2013)

Posted in Consumerism, Military on November 11, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1 “The best way to celebrate Veteran’s Day is to work to produce fewer veterans.”

2 “And to produce fewer deceased and wounded veterans. When discussing the name of the holiday and resulting spending opportunity, ‘Anti-War Day’ was rejected in the third round of deliberations.”

1 “Packaging and branding. There are no unwounded soldiers, so each soldier is a casualty.”

2 “‘All gave some , some gave all’ captures the prison they inhabit.”

1 “Hoist the flag and fight for peace.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled All Gave Some ; Some Gave All (April 1, 2013).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Peace is patriotic

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Columbus And The Redskins (October 14, 2013)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Consumerism, Economics Nobel, Football, Race, Sports on October 14, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1 “Columbus Day lands at a fortuitous time between Labor Day and Veteran’s Day and keeps the steady cycle of holidays and spending sprees rolling along.”

2 “The summer, 2014 lines of consumer goods and bads have already been rolled out at a few malls.”

1 “We are mauled at the malls. And the day arrives just in time for the great debate over the team’s name.”

2 “The name is not used disparagingly. The name is part of the tradition and history and culture of the team. Leave it. Address real problems.”

1 “Western man invaded the continent and used a great Zamboni moving from east to west to scrape the Natives off their land and deposit them on patches of unproductive dirt. And then we use a term to refer to the dispossessed that is not endearing.”

2 “And introduced germs and genocide. And grew the gross domestic product of the newly formed United States of America by stealing land from the Red man and liberty from the Black man. All true and all troubling. Yet the name is positive in context and has positive connotations in practice.”

1 “The individuals who dislike the use of the name are organized and zealous. Those who like or tolerate the name are not organized and may not be as passionate. The vocal group will compel a change in the next few years.”

2 “Seems to me that we need to pause, catch our breath and reflect on what really matters.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled Skip the Nobel in Economics? (Oct. 6, 2009) for its continuing relevance to today’s announcement.]

[See the “e-ssays” titled The First Look At The “Second Political Party” (January 3, 2011) and Immanentize The Eschaton: Move To Sunny Somalia (December 20, 2010) for some perspective on the current global political climate change.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Go Redskins

Go Skins

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Digital Deception (August 5, 2013)

Posted in Consumerism, Digital, Economics, Perjury/Dishonesty, Pogo Plight, Privacy on August 5, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1 “I mentioned to a close friend privately that digital is holding its own against analog. However, digital has some downsides.”

2 “I call it digital deception. Digital allows for so much more deception because nothing is permanent.”

. . .

1 “I clicked ‘add to cart’ to add a product on the ‘Styx’ e-commerce website, jotted down the price and noted the free shipping on a sheet of paper.”

2 “Which gets us back to the need to make a written record that is permanent.”

1 “I minimized the site on the screen, called a local store for comparison and then maximized the site on the screen. The price was the same, but the free shipping was changed to a much more substantial cost.”

2 “Bait and switch transcends technology. You may find that the shipping is free, but the shipping date is in a month or longer. That may prove to be an unprofitable stratagem because it goes against the all-consuming desire for immediate gratification.”

. . .

1 “Now it is offering free shipping and delivery in a week. It is almost as if the system detects that I will purchase the product if the shipping is free.”

2 “If you leave the site for a period of time and then return, the algorithm may reset to bait you with free shipping. Switch from the site for a while and see what happens.”

. . .

1 “The ‘Fly By Night’ travel web sites provide the best price for a flight and then in a subsequent visit to the site a few minutes later increase the price or offer less appealing routes. Once they have gotten you, they have got you.”

2 “Unless you don’t let them get you.”

. . .

1 “The ‘Pillow’ real estate website regularly changes and updates information including what it represented to be historical data. The predicted price for my house in 2007 is now materially different.”

2 “I can predict the closing price of the Dow last week.”

1 “Taking a screen shot requires a clever workaround. I filed a printed screen shot of my property and then compared it a year later. The figures and historical graph were different. I printed the subsequent results to keep a record in a printed format and then check later.”

. . .

1 “I checked on the availability of a website address and was shocked at this late stage of web address homesteading that it was still available. I then checked the availability of another more general website and discovered that it was already staked. When I returned to purchase the first website, it was not available.”

2 “If I find that a website address is available, I immediately purchase it.”

. . .

2 “You could use another computer and search for a product or flight without revealing your identity or propensity until you sign in to make a purchase. However, the dubious real estate data appears on every computer screen.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Clio needs to clutch the parchment scrolls tenaciously

Let the buyer be aware and be wary and be weary

Mano-a-mano with a machine

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Summer Reruns (June 17, 2013)

Posted in Consumerism, Sports, Television on June 17, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Something in your living room wants all your money

Would you let someone into your den channeled through your television that you would not allow to cross your front threshold?

TV transmitters require passive receivers

Sugeoen Generel’s Warnig: Telivision Promots Iliteracy

Kill your television

Imprison your television

Run from reruns; run from runs

A TV is not a monitor, it is a mirror.

Do you watch the beer and erectile dysfunction ads or the guys running around hitting each other?

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Over The Cliff Or At The Foot? (December 31, 2012)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Congress, Consumerism, FISA, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, Pogo Plight, Spending, Taxation on December 31, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

E1 “Everyone describes our current federal budgetary mess as a ‘cliff,’ yet we as a society are at the foot of a great summit.”

E2 “Everything is a matter of perspective. The mix of taxes and spending cuts proposed as part of the ‘sequestration’ are painful and may even lead to a slow-down in the economy in the short term, yet they are a critical first start. The cuts looked desirable when the Republicans and Democrats agreed to them in 2011.”

E1 “We will not make the right decision unless we realize that we must step up rather than step off. The ‘can’ they refer to looks more like a 55 gallon steel drum that is not likely to respond to further kicking. We need to take the first step rather than continue our kicking and screaming.”

E2 “And then Congress must address the budget ceiling in the next two months. Congress has already spent the money and is allowed, after the fact, to ratify or reject what they already spent. Some wingnuts are saying they should not raise the debt ceiling. What Congress needs to do is focus on future spending so that they do not need to ratify their excessive spending in the future.”

E1 “After receiving a bill for goods already provided and services already performed, no citizen gets to decide whether to ‘pay the freight’ or not.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled A Taxing Explanation (August 22, 2011) and On Uncertainty, Certainment (July 30, 2012).]

[Congress continues to transgression on our civil liberties with another Christmas gift. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/28/168220266/congress-extends-fisa-wiretapping-act-to-2017-awaits-obamas-signature. Last year, Congress gave us the NDAA of 2012.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Can I pay my MasterCard bill with my Visa?

Can I not pay my MasterCard and my Visa bill?

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December 24 (December 24, 2012)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Consumerism, Federal Reserve, Pogo Plight, Spending, Taxation on December 24, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

TV “You need a new car, you really smell bad and need to do something about it, you really, really need to sport an expensive watch and you really, really, really need to acquire expensive jewelry for the woman in your life or you are a total loser.”

. . .

LTR

Dear Billy,

I would like a regular 9 to 5 gig, a change of threads, a new straight razor and a short vacation.

Your friend,

Santa

P.S. – I’ve been nice.

P.P.S. – I don’t need a new ride, any cologne or a chronometer. Ms. C. does not need any jewelry. She says ‘hello.’

. . .

[See the FBI documents that reveal secret nationwide monitoring of the Occupy Wall Street effort at http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html.]

[See the research paper by the Congressional Research Service titled “Taxes and the Economy: An Economic Analysis of the Top Tax Rates Since 1945” at http://graphics8.nytimes.com/news/business/0915taxesandeconomy.pdf.]

[See the “e-ssays” titled “Consume, Don’t Invest? (Nov. 9, 2009)” and Boxing Day (December 26, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Can I pay my Visa bill with my MasterCard?

Today is the 99 year anniversary of the creation of the Federal Reserve – a semi-quasi-proto-government-like being – not understood by 99.999999999 % of Americans. To his (and our) credit, Bernanke is sharing the assumptions and strategy more transparently and considering the unemployment level because Congress directed the Federal Reserve to consider the unemployment level in its decision making. To his (and our) detriment, he is subsidizing Wall Street with vast amounts of free money and saddling ‘Main Street’ with debt and creating unhealthy conditions for the economy in the intermediate term.

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Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Consumerism, Facebook, Google, Internet, Military Commissions Act, Move To Amend, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, Occupy Movement, Pogo Plight, Privacy, Society, Solstice, USA PATRIOT Act on March 19, 2012 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1 “All I really needed to know I learned in junior high school. Three junior high school standbys provide the road maps delineating our current collision course. Brave New World chronicles a craven world sated and sotted with diversions and divertissements.”

C2 “Some say the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ captures the contemporary zeitgeist. But bread will soon cost a lot more bread. And a day at the circus may cost a month’s wages at the job lost by the breadwinner last May.”

C1 “And 1984 is the ‘how to’ manual for the emerging police state in America. The USA PATRIOT ACT and the NDAA of 2012 provide the ‘legal’ cover.”

C2 “Some are concerned. For over a century, the thinking set has struggled with the emerging notion of privacy. An academic treatment in 1890, a judicial pronouncement in 1965 and a trenchant comment or two today raise real and troubling concerns. However, without a real debate, discussion, plebiscite or referendum, we surrendered our privacy a few years ago. It appears to be over.”

C1 “So now we good citizens can watch our favorite gladiators invade another town and vanquish fellow citizens on plasma tv while the government videos us on closed circuit video tv and Google and Facebook monitor us on our home monitors. We should heed the warning in Animal Farm and the advice in the Old Farmer’s Almanac and make the sojourn back to the farm and the garden.”

C2 “The Occupy Movement and Move To Amend are the Black Swan taking slow flight and moving us off the couch and into the streets. Six months ago, a few kids looked around and concluded that something is wrong and something must be done.”

. . .

[See the Fresh Air radio program on drones and the threats to privacy at http://www.npr.org/2012/03/12/148293470/drones-over-america-what-can-they-see]

[See the “e-ssay” titled “USA PATRIOT ACT (April 4, 2005)”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

T For Truth; J For Justice

Panem et Circenses

Il faut cultiver notre jardin. We must cultivate our garden. Candide, Voltaire

Do something different on the Equinox

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