Vintage revival underway ?

the_librarian wrote:

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, please move it around. But personally, I feel folks will have to get back to lifestyles similar to the thirties and forties only because we've been riding the material wave since WW2 and I think it's an artificial event. There has got to been some sort of equilibrium...

Capitalism is always going to undulate. The equilibrium that we would like can never be achieved under the present system. Even in supposed boom times there has to be those who suffer and remain impoverished. I'm no economist but capitalism is capitalism.

I include this succinct snippet from a much longer article on the IWCA website:

Quote :

Will the crisis of finance capital cross over to the real economy and
result in recession, large scale unemployment and a drop in living
standards for the mass of the population? Are we going to see some
repeat of the depression that followed the great crash of 1929, the
last time Anglo-Saxon capitalism suffered a comparable financial shock?
It should be pointed out that even during the so-called ‘boom’ of
recent years, the benefits were largely confined to the upper income
brackets. The real story of the last 30 years of neo-liberalism is not
rising prosperity for all, but rather the utter destruction of the
wealth and savings of the bottom half of the population. Outside of
property, 50 per cent of the population now own just 1 per cent of the
wealth whereas in 1976 it was 12 per cent. Back in July, Ernst and
Young reported that average household disposable income after tax and
bills had fallen by 15% since 2003 (link);
a report by the Campaign to End Child Poverty in late August declared
that “Poverty is now one of the greatest dangers faced by our children.
If poverty were an infection then we would be in the midst of a
full-scale epidemic with all the attendant public health measures,
including vaccination” (link);
meanwhile, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee has written several times
since June that in the five years between 2001/2 and 2006/7 those on
median incomes of around £23,700 had seen their incomes grow by less
than 1% a year, while between 2004/5 and 2006/7 those in the bottom
third of the income distribution saw their incomes fall (link).
For much of the population the downturn has long since begun (or never
ended), but this has apparently not been considered as newsworthy as
the travails suffered by the masters of the universe currently sucking
on the taxpayers teat on Wall Street, Canary Wharf and the Square Mile

I see your point LS. In our area, so many people I know have not seen any raise in 10 years or more. Businesses may make money, but the trickle-down you feel is the warm rain of those above urinating on you.

Sorry about the image that may be in your mind now. Unless you're into that, in which case - you're welcome.

I don't judge.

Dread Scott wrote:

I see your point LS. In our area, so many people I know have not seen any raise in 10 years or more. Businesses may make money, but the trickle-down you feel is the warm rain of those above urinating on you.

Sorry about the image that may be in your mind now. Unless you're into that, in which case - you're welcome.

I don't judge.

In other words, I know when someone's peeing on my boots and trying to tell me it's rain.

Folks really are cutting back in a more retro way, at least the people I know.

I have set off a way of thrifting at my office. Even my bosses (CEO and CFO...it's a medium size company) are now buying secondhand. The CEO still has trouble with the idea of buying used clothes, though. It makes me laugh!

The third officer has gone too, and our receptionist, as well as some more folks who work here.

As for our office party--I'm in charge of that--I decided no country club, band, or spouses this year, and the President is backing me up.

We're going to a (nice, old) local restaurant for dinner, on a Friday after work. More fancy appetizers and nicer gifts to make up for the lack of other things.

Ali wrote:

In other words, I know when someone's peeing on my boots and trying to tell me it's rain.

There ya go.