I suppose a little cynicism is healthy but it is alarming how much negativity there is too.
As far as being duped, hoodwinked, cajoled into buying new things to pay someones salary, well.....that pretty much sums up Western Capitalism doesn't it, love it or hate it. Employment is a method of keeping people busy, fed and clothed. Most of us like to think that the more you put in the more you get out and civilised societies also incorporate methods to help those that deviate form the preferred path either due to ill health or bad luck, some societies are more civilised than others. In the UK there is big debate about why, as a nation, we are not making and selling more things to the rest of the world. Answer is that we are too expensive for high volume low tech things so they get made in the developing world where base costs are cheap. What is hurting now is that the world has developed and can now make the high end tech stuff as well and the only thing that keeps us afloat is the intellectual property rights, when they go we are stuffed! To an extent that applies to the US but it a much bigger place with many more people, even so the Chinese have invaded without a shot being fired
uhh yeah again , if first you don't ... oh never mind.
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