Reply #51: Yet retailing occurs everywhere around the world. And always will in some form or another.

[John Q. Citizen]

It was done as barter during our hunter-gatherer and horticultural human organizational stages. And it just got more specialized on through post industrial societies.

Didn't millions die during the potato famine? That was one of those change periods that you are talking about?


I made my post in response to what I perceived as a moralistic tirade against consumerism. and while I myself share some of those same values, I also of course am aware of and concerned about people jobs. and I'm not opposed to mercantile economy per se.

but the consumer oriented, manipulated and driven economic imperative is a suspect model I think. It wastes an awful lot of resources and it pollutes our homes. The third world is repeating our rust belts' experience and we are of course buying it all on credit. (or we were)

The question isn't does a displaced worker find different employment ever, the question is do enough displaced workers all at once come and loot your house to eat. Because that has happened a lot. It doesn't always happen, but some entrepreneurial starving person gets it in their head and the shit hits the fan. We saw a lot of that and the reaction during the last depression.

and without another model to replace consumerism, won't we just limp on and back to consumerism? We can cut down a bunch more forests and rebuild all those old dilapidated retail outlets and build a bunch of new ones, when we have our boom on again in 2017?

After we've inflated ourselves out of debt.