Maybe towns should start posting signs like this...

[MattSh]

Last edited Thu Mar 14, 2013, 10:56 AM - Edit history (1)

More of his signs here....

http://onthissitestood.blogspot.com/

NY Times article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/30artsct.html

[niyad]

1. k and r +a gazillion

[RC]

2. +10 Many here are like what you said.

I wonder how much it costs to have medal signs made that say this? Also signs to put in the windows of empty strip mall store.

[LisaLynne]

4. I wonder!

Because I could think of SEVERAL places to put one, just in my old neighborhood.

[GeoWilliam750]

3. kick and rec

[DhhD]

5. Sad that this is reality. Due to the pooring of America, it seems like more and more are having to

go to a big box to make ends meet. Then the money Americans spend at the big boxes goes to the extremely wealthy and then in to China and then in to hoarding.

It is like a coin sorter; all the big money ends up away from the economy of the ones putting most of it in to play. Americans deserve better. We need a new tax code and trade policies.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

33. ++1 you speak truth. n/t

[sorefeet]

6. And the big box stores are slowly

butsurely getting more expensive. It's the frog in the frying pan, you won't feel a thing.

[lonestarnot]

7. Hell yeah! A new business! American made no?

[ReRe]

8. Out of curiossity...

.... Did you take this photo? At the bottom it says "Education Department 2007". Can't make out what it says at the top. Haven't heard about any more Walmart protest campaigns lately, but this is truly a great "idea" to explore. It appears to be concrete. Thanks for sharing this!

[MattSh]

9. No, not my photo.

Found it on the internet. Looking a bit further, it seems it's by an artist Norm Magnusson.

http://goo.gl/AYovr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Magnusson

Norm Magnusson (born March 20, 1960) is a New York-based artist and political activist and founder, in 1991, of the art movement funism, he began his career creating allegorical animal paintings with pointed social commentaries. Eventually became more and more interested in political art and its potential for persuasion.

This led him away from the canvas and into the public realm where he created short videos that ran on U.S. national television prior to 2004's U.S. general election, viral emails and roadside historical markers with contemporary social content. The markers are part of the artist's proposed "New York State Thruway Project". Scheduled for 2012, it will place one marker in each of the 27 rest areas up and down the length of the NYS Thruway.

[pintobean]

10. More info here

http://www.funism.com/art/I75project.html

The I-75 Project
by Norm Magnusson.

For the past few years, I've been creating what I call "art of social conscience:" tv spots, viral emails, paintings and posters, but none of it has engaged viewers as much as this series of "historical" markers, each one a small story containing a discrete point of view.

The types of people who stop to read them are collectively defined more by their curiosity about the world around them than they are by any shared ideological leanings, which makes them a perfect audience for a carefully crafted message. And unlike most artworks on social or political themes, these markers don’t merely speak to the small group of viewers that seek out such work in galleries and museums; instead, they gently insert themselves into the public realm.

"Are they real?" is a question viewers frequently ask, meaning "are they state-sponsored?" I love this confusion and hope to slip a message in while people are mulling it over.

These markers are just the kind of public art I really enjoy: gently assertive and non-confrontational, firmly thought-provoking and pretty to look at and just a little bit subversive.

[JDPriestly]

11. Who cares? These big box stores have destroyed small-town America.

The imports they rely on need to be taxed to pay for infrastructure and social programs in the America they have left behind.

These kinds of stores are parasites feeding not only on our small towns and cities but on the countries in which they use near-slave labor to make the products they sell. They are dirtying the third world and destroying the economies of the first world.

Let's put taxes on imports and require these stores -- all of them, not just one group of them -- to pay livable wages. Raise the minimum wage and tax imports that destroy industrial competition in the US.

If we can't make a product in the US for the same price that it is made in another country, then the price being charged on that imported product is too low. That constitutes unfair labor competition in my view. Unfair competition of that sort caused by unfair labor costs should be discouraged in our tax scheme.

Bring the jobs home. Build clean factories here. Cut the pollution. Improve our living standard. If we do that, we can afford decent universal education and healthcare for all. If we don't change our trade policy and end the unfair competition from other countries, we will decline into a country with horrible education and a low life expectancy. It is already happening.

[LooseWilly]

24. Yes. Everything you predict is true. What you advocate, however, is protectionism & socialism.

Not that I disagree. I'm not sure the protectionism is required if the clean factories and jobs therein and cutting of pollution and improving of living standard are implemented... but I'm open to compromise.

I don't think even many of the "progressives" in the party would accept de facto socialism, however... let alone the "moderates".

There it is then. When we all collectively (not just you as an individual, that's straw man territory) rouse ourselves to do something about it... then maybe something will change. In the meantime... there's nothing to do but make do... and "do more with less".

[AdHocSolver]

32. Current trade agreements are protectionism for the profits of the corporations.

Regulating trade to "protect" the public from vulture capitalists is neither protectionism nor socialism. Regulating commerce to protect the public interest is good policy.

If it weren't for (corporate) protectionist trade agreements such as NAFTA and the WTO, the U.S. wouldn't have lost so many jobs, and the trade deficits and the government deficits would not be an issue.

There is no "free trade" and no "free markets". They are corporate buzz words to stop people from thinking rationally.

Similarly, the IMF and the Federal Reserve work for the benefit of Wall Street and the big banks. The stock market is a Ponzi scheme in which the affluent middle class is separated from their savings by the one percent.

To paraphrase what a great intellect said in another context, "Ignore what they say, just look at what they do!"

[JDPriestly]

39. For many years we had laws that prohibited unfair competition, and we enforced them.

Those days are gone. Our children will pay a huge price for their loss.

[Bay Boy]

27. Why do so many of us here at DU

vote with our dollars by buying made in China crap?

We know it's in our best interest to buy made in USA but we rarely do it.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

34. I do think many of us here, at least, try to do that *as much as possible*...

It's not easy, though. Hard to find U.S. made goods!

It is a sad thing.

[AdHocSolver]

36. There are at least two answers to your question of why people buy imported crap.

First, nowadays, it is increasingly difficult to find goods that are made in the USA.

Many of the local merchants who might source goods manufactured in the U.S. have been driven out of business by the big box stores.

Secondly, most Americans have little understanding of value. They judge the quality of goods on the basis of price.

Some people think that a higher price automatically indicates better quality. Others believe that more features indicates better value.

Many people are willing to pay significantly greater amounts of money for marginally useful added features that cost the manufacturer pennies to add to a product.

Not too long ago, products were designed to be repaired economically. These days products don't last very long and it is often less expensive to throw the thing away and buy a new one, if in fact the unit is even repairable.

One example is shoes. Not too long ago, one could buy a good looking, comfortable pair of shoes made of quality leather. The shoes had leather soles and usually rubber heals. When the heals wore down, you took them to a shoe repair shop that replaced them for a few dollars. When the soles wore down, you took them back to the shoe repair shop for replacement. If you liked the shoes, you could wear them for years.

Today, shoes are made mostly of plastic, most are uncomfortable, they fall apart in less than a year, and they are unrepairable.

The manufacturers have created overpriced, unrepairable products while at the same time, "dumbing down" their customers to accept any kind of excessive cost and poor quality.

[JDPriestly]

38. I just don't buy much at all. But I am older.

It is hard for young people. All that is available is mostly not made in the USA. There isn't much choice for people with little money.

[TeeYiYi]

12. They're all good...

http://www.funism.com/art/I75project.html

TYY

[Brigid]

13. Love it!

Most town and cities could probably put dozens or even hundreds of these.

[Mosby]

14. Blame the consumer, that's the ticket

It's all our fault because we are price sensitive.

[progressoid]

17. Also monopolistic, made-cheaper-in-China, anti-union.

All are to blame.

[Historic NY]

15. Got me when I first saw one...

they are like the ones I have made for my community...except w/o the US maps symbol and add NY state they are very close. I use my own moniker on the bottom.

Anyone can have a sign made it does require permission to place them on publicland.

http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/services/marker/srvmarkers.html

http://www.catskillcastings.com/markers.htm

[Cleita]

16. I like it. Is it real or photoshopped though?

I can't imagine a chain store that replaced the local one on that property taking kindly to that kind of sign in front of their business. Maybe this is a job for taggers. A can of spray paint is cheaper too.

[Curmudgeoness]

20. The sign doesn't say that the big box store

stands on that site. It only says that it is the site of the local market that is no longer there.

[Cleita]

25. I stand corrected... but I was aware of that.

I threw in the chain store conversation, no mention of big box, as an extra thing to talk about as many of our mom and pop stores have been replaced by nationwide chains on the same lot.

[Curmudgeoness]

26. Tell me about it.

Most of our chain/big box stores are in the same locations as the local businesses that they replaced here too. And they don't look as nice either....McStores with no character, strip malls, cheaply thrown together buildings. It sucks.

[alp227]

18. Direct link to blog

http://onthissitestood.blogspot.com/2011/04/every-day-were-exposed-to-hundreds-or.html

[Bigredhunk]

19. It's A Vicious Cycle

People shop there because they "have to save money." Some of those people (Group A) don't, like the wealthy old retirees around here (Eastern Iowa). They worked good (mostly union) factory jobs and have good pensions, benefits. They're just tightwads who want everything cheap. The fact that they made money off making stuff in America and Americans buying their stuff (a lot of John Deere workers around here) means nothing.

Then there's the others (Group B). They're low wage workers (because all the good jobs are gone). Husband and wife each making $8-$12 an hour. They maybe do have to go to the big box store to make their dollars stretch. This is the vicious cycle -- people either believing they have to buy everything cheap, or those who actually do have to buy everything cheap........before you know it, everything is cheaply made foreign crap. More jobs are lost because everybody buys the cheap crap at the big box stores, so more people end up working and shopping at the big box stores. Rinse and repeat.

Of course this says nothing of the fact that the # on the price tag isn't the real price of shopping there, as it doesn't include the $$ amount you have to pay in increased taxes to subsidize the big box and big box workers, as the big box owners are running off with the billions and shirking their responsibilities.

[NickB79]

21. The sad fact is that most of that stuff isn't cheaper

It's not cheaper to buy an inferior product and replace it yearly vs. buying a well-made one that will last years and years.

Unfortunately, many people only look at the sticker and don't think in the long-term.

[Curmudgeoness]

22. My personal observations

of most of the people shopping at big box stores is that they are buying a lot more crap than poor people just getting by would be buying. When I had no spare money, I shopped at second hand stores and garage sales for the necessary things. I didn't buy a cart full of new products. I believe that few people shopping there are doing so because they must....they just want lots of "stuff", but can't afford it.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

23. Great points. Sadly, very few people have any idea about the way we subsidize these stores. Those

companies make sure the public is angry about the citizens on welfare, not the corporations who are making out way better than any citizen welfare recipient ever did.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. yes, it's like the billboards I've seen THREATENING us all, with the voice of authority,

That we'd BETTER not try to defraud the Insurance Industry!!!!!!!@$#&!!; 1!@!!!!!!!!!!!angry monsters!!!^#$!

Because that would be STEALING!!!!!^^^$/636&^^!!!^!!!!!!, 8@1!SCARY JAIL!!! You're in TROUBLE!!! We'll hunt you down and put your ASSINASLING!!!!!!!!!!@&$!!!!!HHSGAARRGHHH#^#&@&@!!!! 8*22

[allan01]

28. re:Maybe towns should start posting signs like this...

[leveymg]

29. Try telling that to some American politicians. They may not shop at Walmart, but they're

living better because of its generous contributions to the American political system.

[Left Coast2020]

30. Yeah. Bain Capital was here.

[blkmusclmachine]

31. Aw, they're just "savvy businessmen,"

AKA The Too Big To Jail.

[snot]

37. This is why conservatives want to get rid of education.