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So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

tonyb

tonyb

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LizzieMaine said:
The Boys will find a way to insert their greasy little manipulations into every product you buy. Not satisfied with having fully perpetuated the fiction of expiration dates on packaged foods, they're now turning their attention to the other end of the process.

Yesterday I needed to pick up a roll of toilet paper. All my life I've used Scottissue -- it's cheap, it's wrapped without a lot of extraneous layers, it has no cutesy mascots, and I like the texture. But this last roll I've bought -- and I only ever buy one roll at a time -- bears something new on the wrapper: the prominent legend ONE ROLL LASTS ONE WEEK.

I laughed out loud when I see this. One roll, a standard 1000-sheet roll, lasts me close to a month, even with my several-visits-to-the-facility-a-day habit and my generous per-visit allotment of the product. Now, next to the legend in very tiny type, is an obligatory disclaimer: "Based on average family size and usage." But the type is very tiny indeed, and in fact I didn't notice it at all when I first bought the roll. How many shoppers, who don't think about such things, are going to see the ONE ROLL LASTS ONE WEEK statement and figure, "Well, gee, I'm going to be a Smart Shoppa, and I'm going to buy several rolls! Wouldn't want to run short!" The Boys, in their infinite deviousness, are counting on this, just as I'm counting on the day, someday, that Golden Day, when the Boys get all that is coming to them.
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I shall always remember being behind a quite elderly fellow (90 or more, I’d guess) in a supermarket checkout line who had a jumbo pack of toilet paper in his cart, one of those bundles so large it barely fit in the basket.

When my turn at the cashier came up she and I voiced the same sentiment, something along the lines of: “Now there’s an optimist for ya.”
 
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Trenchfriend

Trenchfriend

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Trying the blue sort "fresh" (with mint oil) of storebrand toothpaste was a mistake. Too agressive to your lips up to bloody. :confused: I wasted the crap. My favorite green sort "herbal" is still better. :)
 
dh66

dh66

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13,632
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down south
Trenchfriend said:
Trying the blue sort "fresh" (with mint oil) of storebrand toothpaste was a mistake. Too agressive to your lips up to bloody. :confused: I wasted the crap. My favorite green sort "herbal" is still better. :)
Click to expand...
Here in the States the mint kind is the norm. I remember when I lived in Ukraine, the "herbal" toothpaste was all I could find. I thought it tasted like Jägermeister and always felt like I needed to brush my teeth after I brushed my teeth.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk
 
GHT

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,341
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New Forest
LizzieMaine said:
The Boys will find a way to insert their greasy little manipulations into every product you buy. Not satisfied with having fully perpetuated the fiction of expiration dates on packaged foods, they're now turning their attention to the other end of the process.
Click to expand...
Your post resonated with me today. It made me realise just how much we are bombarded with buy now, pay later. Buy one, get one free. Eat as much as you like for only ten shekels. My old MG needed a visit to to the garage today, my Missus asked me, whilst I was out, to buy a few provisions from the supermarket. The MG fits into the allocated space in the parking lot with a third to spare, modern cars, on the other hand, just about squeeze in. My car was built when the population was still experiencing WW2 rationing. People were slimmer back then, they weren't exposed to the continual buy, buy, buy profligacy that we endure today, and they were, and still are, healthier for it. It's easy to blame the boys, and I do empathise, after all, we all know that we can resist anything, except temptation.
 
LizzieMaine

LizzieMaine

Bartender
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It's not even just the Boys, really. They're simply the minions of a system that considers the worth of any human being to be the sum total of what it consumes. From the cradle to the grave, we are bred to consume, consume, consume -- lest the entire economic structure collapse. Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense when you think about it -- which is why the Boys use every possible venue and outlet to distract you from thinking about it.
 
tonyb

tonyb

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My mother's basement
LizzieMaine said:
It's not even just the Boys, really. They're simply the minions of a system that considers the worth of any human being to be the sum total of what it consumes. From the cradle to the grave, we are bred to consume, consume, consume -- lest the entire economic structure collapse. Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense when you think about it -- which is why the Boys use every possible venue and outlet to distract you from thinking about it.
Click to expand...

“We are what we own.” That’s what we are to believe, by the smell of it.
 
3fingers

3fingers

One Too Many
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Illinois
tonyb said:
“We are what we own.” That’s what we are to believe, by the smell of it.
Click to expand...
Like most people, I am not completely immune from the occasional bit of retail foolishness, but the attraction to acquiring more new stuff doesn't really appeal to me anymore, though I do not care at all what others choose to do with their money. I have observed that there are a few people who take offense at the idea of not being caught up in possessing the latest gadget, newest automobile, current style or whatever. That, to me is the greatest victory of marketing. Convincing people that excess is desirable and necessary for a fulfilling life.
 
tonyb

tonyb

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I got way more stuff than I would ever suggest I actually need. And I like it that way. Which is to say I understand the impulse to material acquisition.

But I understand many other human impulses as well, and I understand the need to keep those impulses in check, for one’s own good and the good of others.
 
GHT

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,341
Location
New Forest
tonyb said:
I got way more stuff than I would ever suggest I actually need. And I like it that way. Which is to say I understand the impulse to material acquisition.

But I understand many other human impulses as well, and I understand the need to keep those impulses in check, for one’s own good and the good of others.
Click to expand...
Quite so, but from an eary adult age, we are deliberately targetted to keep up with the Jones' because that way we will always be chasing a dream that can't be caught. Furthermore, it perpetuates a life of continual debt. Most consumer goods are regularly updated or upgraded, so that perfectly good items are consigned to landfill because they are not full of the latest gizmos/programs/must haves. And woa betide anyone who dares to step out of line, they are immediately labelled, old, stupid or senile. Anyone want to sit and dribble with me?
 
tonyb

tonyb

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10,602
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My mother's basement
GHT said:
Quite so, but from an eary adult age, we are deliberately targetted to keep up with the Jones' because that way we will always be chasing a dream that can't be caught. Furthermore, it perpetuates a life of continual debt. Most consumer goods are regularly updated or upgraded, so that perfectly good items are consigned to landfill because they are not full of the latest gizmos/programs/must haves. And woa betide anyone who dares to step out of line, they are immediately labelled, old, stupid or senile. Anyone want to sit and dribble with me?
Click to expand...

Now that I’m in the preliminary stages of my dotage I’m considerably less enamored with stuff than I once was. I’m now well beyond the age when a person still has time to recover from poor financial decisions.

It’s fortunate that I already have well more than I need and most of what I want. Contentment isn’t all good (hunger can be a powerful motivator), but I’m pretty well content with what we have.
 
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tonyb

tonyb

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10,602
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My mother's basement
LizzieMaine said:
Or to put it other terms, we're the batteries that power the inhuman construct that enslaves us all, while lulling us into thinking we're free. I think somebody made a movie about that -- and then released a ton of ancillary merch. BUY BUY BUY.
Click to expand...

“Freedom” is perhaps the one most mindlessly uttered word in English as it is spoken here in the Land of the, um, Free.

Freedom to, freedom from. You’d think the latter never entered the consciousness of those who so casually toss about the former. And, to a lesser but still notable degree, vice-versa.
 
H

Harp

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,508
Location
Chicago, IL US
GHT said:
Quite so, but from an eary adult age, we are deliberately targetted to keep up with the Jones' because that way we will always be chasing a dream that can't be caught. Furthermore, it perpetuates a life of continual debt.
Click to expand...

I just called to complain about staff meetings-on a cruise Friday no less.
 
OldStrummer

OldStrummer

Practically Family
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550
Location
Ashburn, Virginia USA
There is a growing preponderance of vehicles in my area sporting bumper stickers that announce the driver is "new," a "student" or somehow otherwise incapable of driving in accordance with the law and the social contract. What gets me is these are permanent stickers!!! I mean, really?

61sWGXdQXfL._SL1200_.jpg
 
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