Reply #32: There are no mom and pop businesses left

[Leopolds Ghost]

Compare to any time in the past, the number has decreased asymptotically.

Go out on the freeway, review what you see there. Are you used to seeing "mom & pops" that have branches every 1.5 miles across the US? Often in the exact same configuration at every exit, as if Stalin had set them up?

Have you noticed the percentage of small-town goods sold that are in tightly controlled mega-malls, wherein "retail concepts" from around the country are tested initially, leaving aside big box stores? You may think these places are just too small and economically depressed to support Main Street -- have you been to the local mall there?

Thousands of people are wandering around, Or drive from store to store if it is an outdoor strip mall. They don't feel safe outside on foot.

Review state, local and federal real estate policies enforced by sales/marketing agents, mom & pop are dead. You're not even allowed to have a locally owned store in most "name brand retail" developments.

Unless it is a specific category (hair salons are an example).

The next Great Depression will complete the picture, coupled with loss of civil liberties, putting us into a Late Soviet era economy and society -- a kleptocracy run by cartels -- which is where the neocons want us.

The two ends of the political spectrum meet, remember?