Ranger Rick: The economic times they are a-changing

Spring is just around the corner, so in the spirit of life beginning in a new growing season, I am disheartened to say good-bye to old friends, the likes we will probably never see again in the form you know them.

I’m speaking of Sears, J.C. Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch, MC Sporting Goods, Gander Mountain, and others locally and nationwide that are part of large malls or stand-alone stores. These long time businesses have been a part of our lives for years, some for generations. They have declared bankruptcy or are closing stores to avoid doing so in the future. On-line shopping has driven a stake into the heart of these businesses – a new generation of shoppers relying on Amazon and other like providers of consumer products, are taking the place of these “dinosaurs.”

This is not a complaint against Amazon or others in that type of business. I use them along with with brick and mortar stores. But if you need something in a timely manner, like right now or within hours, where are you going to go if the brick and mortar stores vanish? I knew a person who worked for Sears his entire working life and it provided a good, solid living for him and his family. Those jobs have or will vanish with every store closure. These corporations employ thousands. Now where will those folks go to find similar employment? Do you understand the future implications?

Drug stores will become outdated – prescriptions, Band-Aids, aspirin, everything you get now at Walgreen’s or corner drug store will be ordered by computer in the future. Many of us now get our prescriptions by mail. You need it now, too bad! Call your family or neighbors (if you know them) to see if they can help in the interim. The big box stores (Home Depot, Menard’s, etc.) will be next. Everything can be ordered by computer and delivered without a store being involved. Is that what the future holds for America? Abandoned malls and stores and delivery trucks running through streets delivering product ordered by computer?

I’m old enough to remember when Wayland had three grocery stores (A&P, IGA, Harding’s), a meat market (Lutostanski’s), a bakery, and other shops and stores to fulfill all your basic needs. Everything was local and store owners and customers depended on each other for their sustenance and material needs. We even had a local newspaper, library and theater. Cash flow was local and vibrant.

We were what some would call self-contained or self-sufficient as a town. You knew the business owners, went to school with their children, they contributed to school projects and programs. They were our neighbors and friends, we knew them and they knew us. They paid taxes and employed people and teenagers (providing entry level jobs to learn how to work, get along with others, and earn some money for college and personal expenses).

We have lost much throughout the years and fail to see what it does to us as a town, society, and people. Downtown is virtually a ghost town from what it once was. If we can get what we want through a computer, we do it without thinking where the product comes from and what local business may have provided the product. Change is good at times. A purchasing evolution in the making before our eyes. Is this the next major shift?

The government and politicians have made labor a commodity, not the lifeblood of business as in years past. The “Giant Sucking Sound” of jobs leaving America for Mexico and elsewhere wherever low cost labor resides was predicted by Ross Perot and he was correct. He knew what NAFTA had in store for American labor and how it would cripple the country. President Clinton signed it and it had a great deal of Democrat support and the author of Townbroadcast wants you to believe it was all the fault of Republicans and capitalism creating the declining middle-class. I charge the Democrats as enemies of the state, those who worry about their own skin and forget the people who support them, and Remocrats that go along to get along.

I remember the 1980s and the time of President Reagan, the most prolific period of economic expansion the country ever had. I doubled my income at the end of eight years. I know many others doing the same at the time. Jobs were everywhere. People left the company we worked for and had another the next day making more. Yup, the author of Townbroadcast was right, it was a terrible time to be alive! I don’t know what planet he was living on at the time, but it wasn’t earth.

Look at the color of the election map from last November. The Democrats have the Northeast and West coast and a few strong-holds of blue in the interior (Minnesota, Illinois (Chicago), Virginia (Washington D.C.)), the vast overall majority of the map is red. It is surprising whomever labeled the “red” and “blue” designations for the parties – the red should be Democrats since they are the socialists/communists/Lenin lovers instead of the Republicans.

The Democrat party is old, redundant in thinking, and slowly evolved into the shameful party it is now. It has abandoned the working class and wrapped its collective soul around Hollywood, media, socialists, collectivists, and race-baiters. They celebrate “Sanctuary Cities” and revel in unlawful acts. Black Lives Matter, not all lives matter to them. What is right is wrong, and what is wrong is right. President Obama has destroyed the party and made a larger void in race-relations than the 1960s. And they never saw a dollar (both real and imaginary) they couldn’t spend and grow the debt burden ($20+ Trillion).

To those in labor and teacher unions, and other places of Democrat strongholds – your party has abandoned you! You don’t count any more! Just shut up and be sheeple and vote Democrat.

A family member of mine would vote for the devil himself if he had a “D” by his name, but even voted for Snyder as governor, seeing what was happening in the state and no longer believed the Democrats had their best interests at heart.

Look at the states with Republican leadership in governorships and state House and Senates – most are doing well and growing. They have balanced budgets and rainy day funds/surpluses. Look at the worst performing states (and usually deeply in debt) – run by Democrats. That speaks volumes. Moreover, look at those states deeply in debt and see how they are spending state revenue. You will find more give-away programs, graft, corruption, redundant “green programs”, high-speed railroads on the drawing boards – spending money they don’t have, putting the burden on taxpayers.

I worked for a UAW company early in my career. In almost five years, I received a 7 cent raise in base pay and they helped drunk, drugged and chronically absent fired employees return to their jobs. The only thing they did for me is take money for union dues – I was never fired and rarely missed work, being on the job on time day after day. I didn’t need the union, but it sure needed my $40 a month ($40 was a huge portion of my earnings in those days).

Capitalism is the only economic system that has a chance to raise the oppressed from the muck and mire of despair (but only with individual grit and determination – nothing comes easy!). Socialism only makes everyone equal in all ways – equally miserable. Picture folks you know or see that are sucking off government assistance and of working age, nothing wrong with them except they don’t want to work. That is socialism at its best. Don’t lie, you know who they are, they’re wandering the streets during the middle of the day, usually drunk or drugged (or nursing a hangover) with that far-away look. No wonder they are depressed. The precious Snowflakes need a dose of reality – like a kick in the rear!

I invite anyone not loving the country, I invite you to leave and try to live and prosper elsewhere. Good luck, I wish you all the best!