Wednesday, March 13, 2019

2008 redux


2008 REDUX
It is hard to keep my paws off of the impending economic crapshow that seems to be moving forward relentlessly.  How can your pulse stay at TV Watching In The Recliner levels when automobile  delinquencies are at three times the 2008 level, college debt is gaining on auto’s for non-payment, retailers are closing store in the hundreds rather than dozens?  It isn’t like any one of these is anything new.  Cars are way too expensive, moving back to luxury status.  Cars are frugal investments compared to college education.  And retail closures STILL see overproduction left to be dwelt with.
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The above doesn’t mean that a Super Recession ( “Depression” is only used linguistically to denote an excuse for more pharmaceuticals, anymore.  The “D” word is now racist and anti-Semitic, apparently ) starts next week.  Or, it could.  One should never try to call a collapse, let alone the far easier recession.  What it means is that regardless of what bullcrap numbers the government comes out with, this is just proof of an economy that is ten times worse than reported.  It is verification rather than goat entrails portending immediacy.  We all knew this day would come, long ago.
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Remember the old joke that folks went to college to get a barista degree?  So many graduates were unable to find jobs in their field ( although one wonders why Women’s Studies aren’t more translatable to a career ) that they were all working at Starbucks.  Hell, the bartender at the casino where I worked had a marine biology degree, and that was early ‘00’s when the economy was still good.  Well, there you go.  Starbucks is closing stores, so OF COURSE collage loan delinquencies are on the rise J  I couldn’t help myself on that one, sorry.
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Pepsi is spending hundreds of millions to cash out employee positions, citing a need to automate more.  I can see McDonalds automating, as that silly $15 an hour minimum wage nonsense sweeps all the Blue States, where all the cities full of paying customers are.  I’m not saying $8 an hour is all that great, but workers should be thankful for any minimum wage at all ( if corporate fan boys lining up to give Rush Limbaugh a rimjob had their way, there would be no minimum wage and the percentage of illegals in the workforce earning $1 an hour would be 100% ).
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When you stop thanking Dog for small favors and instead turn hateful and demanding, you get replaced by a robot.  Yes, I understand you cannot live even in squalor in places like San Francisco on $8 an hour.  Why do you live there?  There are no Greyhound buses there?  You can’t hitchhike to another city?  You are working minimum wage.  Go somewhere, anywhere else where the cost of living is low.  My location is low wage high cost of living, but ONLY in the city limits.  All the working poor live in the county.
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I know that Republicans love to blame the Free Crap Army on all our economic ills.  Those are the folks who, should I utter the forbidden words Peak Oil, will boo and holler about energy independence.  Gott damn fracking fags!  Anyway, there is a little invention Republicans may not have heard about, called the computer microchip.  Yeah, look it up.  It has been eliminating jobs since the 1970’s.  Should that fail to increase corporate profits, Republicans also really enjoy Latino immigration of all kinds.  All those Unions paying a decent wage were all communists anyway.  The bad kind of communists, who tax and regulate.
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Good communists are the Chinese kind, who have replaced even more jobs.  So, even though $15 minimum wage is stupid and counterproductive, and even though Democrats want illegal immigration on top of the Republicans legal immigration ( even if only legal retroactively J ), at least free crap gives the poor something.  Republicans accuse Dem’s of being Magical Thinkers, denying reality, yet they themselves deny any possibility of the poor actually being poor through no fault of their own, at least in the big picture socioeconomic way.  Without jobs, it is a little hard to NOT be poor.
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Why, humbug, Elliot Elite grumbles.  Why, if those lazy kaffirs had any pride or ambition they would just create their own jobs!  Okay, so who are the customers of this entrepreneur if none of them have any jobs?  Rush is so busy congratulating himself on being self-employed that he doesn’t bother explaining to you that all his radio sponsors are big corporations benefiting from lower wage pressure from immigration and lower prices from China.  When nobody left in America is paid well enough to buy corporate overpriced junk, Rush won’t find himself gainfully employed anymore. 
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Hell, I KNOW you all love my writing.  You put up with my poor attitude, my exceptionally poor editing, my run on sentences and my rubbing your face in unpleasant facts daily ( no need to add to that list, thank you! ).  I know you love me because the very few of you that exist are exceptionally generous with your Amazon purchases and donations ( yes, I wish I could drop Amazon for their ongoing censorship.  No, that isn’t very realistic since it is half or more of my income ).  But I know your generosity is contingent on your income.
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I could be a combination of Hemmingway and Stephen King, and if I was trying to sell my works in South Sudan I would be, literally, a starving artist.  It simply cannot be simpler than your customers must have disposable income.  A silly fact every swinging cheese dingus CEO out there is having a hard time grasping.  Pepsi has been fighting negative trends, from declining broadcast TV audiences, rising smelting costs, corn syrup diverted to ethanol and rising diesel costs and a commercial driver shortage.  So, their cost increases.  And their customers, losing disposable income, cannot pay the new prices let alone the old.
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And all of the restaurants Pepsi owns and which push their sugar water are themselves seeing decreasing patronage.  Why?  Less disposable income.  A lot of folks might act like eating out is now a necessity rather than a luxury, just as some of you think FLIR scopes are a requirement, but eating out is one of the first things you cut when you get in economic trouble ( the second is cut your cable TV, and the subscriber numbers plummeting steadily tell you not that Netflix is great but that it is one sixth the price ).
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Is it any surprise that Payless Shoes is closing all of its two thousand stores?  I squealed like a stuck pig when Payless turned on me like a rabid dog.  What used to be five year shoes for $20 ( when you got them on BOGO ) turned into five WEEK shoes for $28.  Literally, falling apart within just weeks of daily wear.  Few of you were sympathetic,  you unfeeling pukes, but to me that represented a loss of a lifetime stockpile of footwear.  Nowadays a year-long wear on an expensive boot is considered a win.
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Please don’t recommend your pick for a pair of $175 boots that will last three to five years.  I now trust NOBODY, as almost every single once great brand name has been cheapening their quality, following the trend.  Anyone you recommend I will just assume is going to start with crap quality the moment I make my purchase, and I’m unwilling to gamble that amount of money ( it’s almost the same now with firearm and ammunition companies. If one sells enough volume and I know it will be immediately reported on YouTube if the quality slips, like, say, Palmetto Armory, I’d gamble ).
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One would think, oh, Payless, cheap shoes.  Low cost equals stability in a falling economy. Well, Payless are low cost, but they are also cheap.  In quality, they are near worthless.  They are, literally, a one time use shoe you get to go out on a date on the weekend, then donate to the thrift store.  Their primary customer is women, and women are more and more the only ones with jobs, and they are still going out of business.  Because even women don’t have the disposable income to waste money on shoes that are too poor of quality.
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All this is just proof in the pudding that money is getting tight, economy wide.  I know it is hard to see because as preppers, we actually have motivation to budget for stockpiling.  Normal people, their only motivation is to maintain a standard middle class lifestyle ( even if it is illusionary ).  We can’t see how someone can actually go without living below their income.  They only see their income shrinking.  All the things they are doing which effects corporate bottom lines out of necessity, we already did voluntarily.
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Continued tomorrow.
( .Y. )
( today's related Amazon link click here )
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28 comments:

  1. Right Jim, just like smelling rain before it comes, it does not take collegiate indoctrination to know what is in front of one's face. I feel there is an incremental pull back occurring by a lot of different entities. (A tactical economic action) This is done by businesses and some government or ngo type organizations to triage any "perceived" impending distant or future downturns. Just as half or more of Mericans have been told they are deplorably not wanted. They are (concious or subliminal methods) reactionarily pulling back and flat checking out of the system, no longer a supporting "caste member". I have been burned by these (my common sense has measured as all jacked up) dynamics and will carry a bitterness to the grave over it all in totality. There must be something amiss when Facebook A.I. bots or a cubicle commander bans Zerohedge due to its reporting streamflow signalling all of these realities and it is not aligning with the societal unicorn petting zoo norms. Keep at it Jim, it may seem like a lone voice in the wilderness at times, but Minionites are also out there, listening, taking notes.

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    1. The only reason I'm a little smart is I never went to college. If I had, post 1965 or so, I'd have been taught how to be a huge dumb ass. Anyone can walk their way to better health. Anyone can live below their low income, and anyone can get an education going to the library.

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    2. Well I did go to college late seventies early eighties yet have lived simply and frugal even so. Reading all that I could get my hands on since too. Don't consider my time wasted at University either.
      I think that many of your minions don't fit the profile of average Joe. I'd say that most of us don't fit any of molded profiles.

      I buy all my Amazon through your link , it don't send alot your way... but I guess the pennies do add up even so.

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    3. I appreciate the support. Seriously. The pennies add up big time. If everyone did it, I'd have to start filing and paying taxes. Damn White People problems :)

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    4. The Pennies do add up. My little corner of the world has a deposit scheme for drink bottles. $0.10 each. Without being a bag man hobo about it, it'll put 100 rounds of 30 cal centre fire ammo a year into stockpile. All for no real effort.

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    5. You don't even see the bums pick up cans here. Not at a penny each, AND you have to go ten miles down the road to the recycle center. Of course, it is just scrap price and aluminum is rather low now. That will change soon, then the countryside will get cleaned up.

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  2. More of the "Money is a Tool" concept.
    We'll start off with a little joke.

    A husband and wife were having financial problems so they discussed it and decided she needs to start renting that thang for some coin. At 9pm she hits the stroll and comes home at 12pm and says, "Look honey, I made 325 dollars and 25 cents!" He says, "That's great! Wait a minute, Who paid you 25 cents?" She said, with a big smile on her face, "Everybody!"

    Most people are employees and all employees have been programmed to believe being paid by the hour is the only way to make money. Even if they manage to break free from the chains and work for themselves (and keep ALL the money) they still cling to that hourly concept. I've worked in huge architectural firms where the work of all employees was billed to the client on an hourly basis. I'm here to tell you whole hourly pay business is a bunch of nonsense.

    When you are standing at the cashier at walmart paying for your weekly groceries do you pay by the hour? When you bought that brand new ride with all the bells did you pay for it by the hour? If you don't PAY for stuff by the hour then why in the name of all that is unholy would you WORK by the hour?

    I tried to hire a tree dood one time to cut down 18 trees and he told me he charges $65 per hour and left it at that. I guess he figured he'd throw that open end contract out there and I'd skarf it right up. No. I asked him how many hours it would take and he said he didn't know. I told him surely he has some idea, some ballpark figure about how long it would take. He got irritated and blurted out it could take an hour or it could take 3 hours, he didn't know. Then I said OK 65 on the low end and 200 on the high end, right? And he agreed. Now why didn't he tell me that in the beginning rather than make me work it out of him? Because he was programmed to suicide himself. I told him to get the fuk out of here I'll do it myself, and I did.

    Here's the thing, ANY money is better than NO money. Walmart wants about $28 for that bucket of berries and there's no way around it. If you know someone that has a 15 minute job that needs done and you feed them a line of shit about hourly stuff they will kick your stupid ass to the curb, and then someone like me will happen by and tell them I'll charge $10 and 20 mins later my ass pocket will be fatter. And the other guy will go without supper again. I know, nuke bread is some of the nastiest stuff out there even after it's been slathered in dog knows what, but it will keep your belly from marrying your backbone, so they say.

    Rethink everything. Always. You've spent a lifetime being programmed and the wrong way is still wrong.

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    1. The way cars are being priced, soon you'll have to rent them out by the hour. One wonders when we'll start sleeping in shifts as we can't afford rent anymore. Medical is easy-you just die whenever you need to go to the hospital.

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    2. Just the other day I read that cars are now so expensive that no one ever "owns" one any more. Even with ZERO DOWN and CASH BACK the loans are out to 7-10 years so even if you do manage to pay it off there is no equity in it cause the used cars are priced so high nobody can afford them. So what's going on is many people are leasing and getting used to the idea that they will have a monthly payment for the rest of their life, like the electric bill, but they get to drive a reasonably new ride for it even though they will never own it. That's really the only way to look at new cars now cause they are WAY too difficult and expensive for any one to work on except repair shops with million dollar hardware. Was in the small city yesterday and saw a large dealer got rid of their extensive truck line, all of it. Nothing but cars left. Retarded. Around here trucks are the predominant vehicle. I won't be surprised to see that lot entirely vacant later this year.

      Know what? I might end up with a brand new ride anyway, for free!, if I remain patient! LOL

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    3. Damn, dude. You are bad luck. ANOTHER long reply ate by the computer gods. Just yours. Nobody else. I was making fun of the price of used trucks here. And saying, perhaps, just guessing, the dealer might be betting on the passenger cars being 30% cheaper than trucks, perhaps he is betting on folks forced to buy cheaper rather than their impulse.

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  3. “yet they themselves deny any possibility of the poor actually being poor through no fault of their own, at least in the big picture socioeconomic way.”


    I guess I’m going to be “that guy”, but my own anecdotal experience has been that all of the poor working class that I have known (Myself at one one point, as well as my boomer parents) was no one’s fault but their own (My parents made a decent income combined, but nothing like the affirmative action gals that I knew that were handed $75 to $100k a year jobs). I was just making an ordinary wage (circa 1980’s) and had I been wiser with my finances, and stayed at that one particular job, I would have been able to have been retired at around age 35.

    Now here’s the part that no dude wants to hear. You must remain single and child free in order to do so. Don’t worry, you’ll still get laid plenty (Probably more so than the typical married dude, in fact). Also, what’s the point? She’s already had 35-50 penises inside her long before you came along and decided to “wife her up” and put a $7k diamond ring on her finger, and buy her a Mcmansion. You were just the poor schlub that decided to pay the ultimate price for what all the other dude’s got for free :D Besides, in order to get married, you have to have a really good job. First, you’ll have to pay for those kids (who will undoubtedly grow up supporting feminism and fag marriage, and your daughters will probably engage in lesbian experimentation once they get to marxist university, and will be having sex with every color demographic under the rainbow as well). And second, after the wife ass rapes you via the feminist family courts (About a 70% probability there, Mr Gambling man) you will really need that good job to continue paying for all that stuff that you no longer have.

    Gotta say though, the “evil rich”, “socialism is not a problem”, and “evil capitalism” shtick, does get kind of annoying at times, and I doubt that very many of your readers actually agree with this in general (Though what do I know, perhaps they do).

    No anger, to be clear. Still a fan, and still gather more useful information from this site than not. I am starting to hate Amazon though, and just might do away with them. In that scenario, I would find a different way to support you. As far as leftwing, SJW, Pepsi is concerned, F _ _k em, I hope they go bankrupt. I never understood the fascination with colas, and always thought that they tasted like shit.

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    1. Okay, we are in agreement with fems and marriage for the most part. Here is what I base my "poor dudes" bias on. Look at factory towns. Look at mining areas. Look at the Rust Belt. The area and people were exploited, and the companies moved on. The people left can, obviously, move away to another job. If they don't you can technically call them lazy. However, just like most minions say they cannot move out of harms way, a lot of those unemployed people may not judge a move beneficial. They might already have the house almost paid off, or all their family lives nearby. Moving might cost them far more than a U-Haul fee. The houses might cost 10x the local ones but the job pays the same. Or, they might have to move to a OtherColor region. See what I mean? And now, ten years on this wonderful recovery, are there even jobs available? Sure, if you live in your car, twenty hours a week at McDonald's is a lot of money. But the average rent nationally equals 30 hours a week minimum wage. Are you SURE these folks are lazy or stupid? They could be clearly seeing that is asked of them, sacrifice wise. And yes, I KNOW I piss off a lot of readers with the Evil Capitalism thing. I don't love socialism, but you cannot call our system capitalism. Not with corporate welfare. Not with corporate bought elections. I'm trying to reduce the blind cheerleading, not necessarily saying we can do any better with less capitalist systems. The socialists say, all evil from the capitalists. The capitalist say all evil from socialism. I'm just trying to say, evil from both. I appreciate you sticking with me through that however. Most people who can't think for themselves immediate bail on WrongThink. You just ignore my less optimal views and concentrate on what you enjoy. Understood completely on Amazon. It bothers me I must compromise ( although, an article coming up on that ).

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    2. No worries Jim. I was at best only mildly annoyed. You could have replied with a fraction of the answer that you did, and I would have been satisfied (Though I do appreciate the comprehensive reply :D ). Also, I do get where you’re coming from. What we have today goes well and beyond mere capitalism, it’s crony capitalism on steroids, and long term it is not sustainable. Also, I wasn’t trying to necessarily insinuate that poor people were stupid. But I will flat out admit that I was stupid, as well as my parents, and it showed in my spending habits, and I, as well as them, were solely to blame for our financial problems.


      “But the average rent nationally equals 30 hours a week minimum wage. Are you SURE these folks are lazy or stupid?”


      They could always become a follower of this blog, take your advice, and purchase junk land; problem solved :D

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    3. Hey, I appreciate a civil, rational discussion. Glad to try to add to the discourse. I know smart people who act really stupid. My parents pull in $70k+, and are financially humped. I was stupid on $25k a year, and smart at twice that. I think we all go through different phases. And some people's only sin is being too optimistic and myopic. I guess the only thing we can say for sure is that one size doesn't fit all, and that there is hardly ever black or white but more grey.

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    4. "...30 hours a week minimum wage..."

      There is nothing but stupidity to support the idea of anyone living on their own while making minimum wage. period

      I made minimum wage when I was a teen and so did everyone else. Then we moved on, always earning more with each move. Why? Because we learned all there was to learn at the job and moved to the next level to learn even more and move up again.

      I started working at McDonalds when I was 15 in 1970 and several moves later, when I was 19 I was working in concrete construction making 3 times as much money. Prior to 1980 you never seen grown adults working at minimum wage jobs, just teens.

      In summation, it was not possible to live on your own on minimum wage and almost 50 years later it's still true. Minimum wage is for entry level work for teenagers.

      Perhaps in the blameless society we now live in the old way is not commensurate with the new way.

      10 years ago an associate of my wife was writing a book about the behind the scenes look at what it's like to work at Walmart. He offered me $7k cash up front to get a job at walmart and work there for 90 days then quit. I had to write weekly reports on the happenings. Well, the reports quickly became carbon copies of previous ones. My overall impression was that almost every single position in the average walmart store could be performed by 10 year olds. After the 2nd day on the job and all the rest of the time I was bored to tears. After working for myself the previous 25 years I was shell shocked by the way employees work, er, put in their time. A week after working there I told my wife 98% of the employees should be fired immediately and the remaining 2% should be paid $50 an hour. Oh yeah, this was over the Halloween thru New Years season, the busiest time of year, and I was working the toy dept! And I was bored! Remember what it felt like to yank a Florida sand spur out of your bare foot? That's the way my whole body and mind felt when I left walmart. Truly, no job there is worth even $2 an hour and that "living wage" nonsense is pure retardation on a steek.

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    5. We get wiser (smarter) as we age.
      Some just sooner than others.

      2:48

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    6. GS-I know you don't get out a lot :) There are a LOT of managerial positions out there barely above minimum wage. I include them. I really didn't literally mean the exact same amount that is the federally mandated minimum wage, and absolutely nothing above that. My bad, I wasn't clear enough. What is the minimum that Wally pays, I could be working less than that as a manager at another company. What one state pays in minimum, other states that is a shift managers pay. Because there is such a range among states and companies, minimum would probably range from $7-$12. Sorry, I'm not trying to shift the bar to win an argument. Even in Nevada, there are two different wages. $7.25 if your job offers medical insurance, $8 if not. It isn't as cut and dried as it used to be. If a company "starts at", and it isn't a skilled trade, I'd consider than a minimum wage. There are different cost of living areas, I think far more different than ever ( starting with the real estate bubble ).
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      2:48-do we get wiser with age, or do we get wiser with pain/experience?

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  4. Here is a link to Wal-Mart's OZARK LOW HIKERS from a blog that recommended them. You may try and find and see if they please you. The later update is also posted as well, dated December 20 on same blog.

    http://eatonrapidsjoe.blogspot.com/2018/09/ozark-trail-mens-low-hikers.html

    Hope this helps.

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    1. Appreciated. But, ultimately, worthless shoes if they don't last three months on dirt. Looks about the same as the Payless boots, five weeks to begin to be worthless. Just slightly cheaper as you get screwed.

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    2. I'm told that the local Infantry guys get 8 months out of their 5.11 boots. I don't do that much hard slog so that may work out to be 8 years for moi

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    3. I don't think eight months is a good recommendation on $100 boots.

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    4. I'm halfway into my 3rd year of almost continuous daily use of these hikers with no problems except I replaced the laces early on, and I believe I'll get at least another 2 years out of them, maybe longer. $48.80 for my size 10.5. I need to go order 2 more pair before they stop making them. Yeah, I know, sage green, but mine turned dark brown after the first year, don't know why.

      https://www.amazon.com/Hi-Tec-Mens-Logan-Waterproof-Hiking/dp/B00H5H0SJ4/ref=pd_sbs_309_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00H4YBXTM&pd_rd_r=746ad200-4601-11e9-9de2-693c92ff5548&pd_rd_w=Mgjvo&pd_rd_wg=itxt8&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=C3CFEHC48YYB872YXWE9&refRID=C3CFEHC48YYB872YXWE9&th=1&psc=1

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    5. One more thing about footwear. Read recently that all shoe manufacturers have cut way back on the insoles, providing only the bare minimum. I can vouch for that. Other than the Hi-Tecs I've been wearing all my other boots have had numerous insole experiments. From $3 foam cut outs to $30 customs, I haven't had much luck. Factor that in when you are buying a new set of skids - the cost and hassle of buying insoles. My wife has found this out with womens hikers too, and some low walker types - shitty insoles.

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    6. Hell, I thought it was just old age, why I needed to start adding insoles. I'm just going to wear my generic Crocs as much as possible. ALL insole, really.

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  5. I had a pair of Merrill hikers, the Moab. Lasted for five years. Then three years. The last pair the sole was separating from the rest of the shoe at six months.

    I blame the minimum wage. Or wheat, since the shoes were kinda wheat colored.

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    1. That rascally wheat. We could also probably blame the Agricultural Revolution on wheat. Empires. Overpopulation. Soil salinity. With that kind of evil, what CAN'T wheat do? :)

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    2. That wheat was converted to sugar and it took up residency in your ass adding to the overall package weight which was then transferred to your 2 primary pivot points on this earth which were buffered somewhat by the Moabs which gradually went on strike due to the "more work for less pay" presumption.

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  6. Merrill sandals == they fit, so I acquired four identical pair in 2004. Re-soled and re-glued, going strong.

    Timberland Pro 6" hikers == they fit, so I acquired four identical pair. The sole uses tiny raised cleats for security on snow / ice. New in 2005, going strong... no signs of use!

    At last Saturday's 20% off sale at Coastal Farm&Ranch, I examined every sole of several dozen display boots. Vibram, flat and slippery and prone to retain mud. I kept my 20% in my pocket.

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