George wrote:

On 1/26/2011 5:08 PM, Pete C. wrote:

SMS wrote:

On 1/26/2011 2:57 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

Ice cream has survived as a half gallon for decades, at least 6 that I'm
aware of. It is more costly to pack the smaller cartons. A hundred
gallon batch of ice cream used to take 200 containers. Now it takes 266
containers for that batch. Given that the physical size and material is
changed little, the smaller containers won't be that much cheaper. As a
consumer, I'm being made to pay for that waste of resources.

When I was in Florida, I was in Publix supermarket, and they make a big
deal of the fact that their store brand ice cream cartons are still 1/2
gallon. It was also pretty good ice cream, especially now that Breyer's
has decontented their product and is adding the same additives that the
cheaper brands have been using for a long time.

http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/clothing-clothing-accessories-stores-stores/279631-1.html

Unfortunately, we have no supermarkets that are the caliber of Publix in
California, and they probably aren't going to expand out here,
especially since the cashiers in the big supermarket chains here are
unionized and make a living wage (last time I heard it was around $17 an
hour).

You can live on $17/hr in CA???

Don't get out much do you? One of the issues we have in this country is
the fact that we have become a largely service economy. Fewer and fewer
belong to what used to be known as the middle class. The millions of
manufacturing jobs that allowed folks to raise a family, buy a house
whatever are gone. $17/hour is actually something to aspire to for a lot
of folks. There is a good reason who outfits like walmart can claim with
a big smirk "see, we aren't so bad, we opened the Smithville store and
8,000 applied for work." Where else are they going to go?

That doesn't answer my question. Can you live on $17/hr in CA?

As for the stratified economy, that varies greatly by state, with CA
being one of the very stratified states with low end jobs, high end
jobs, and little in between.

This stratification is indeed a huge issue, and one that the left wing
simply doesn't understand. Obummer's SOTU address showed that he didn't
understand this fundamental problem either. The left wing thinks that
somehow pressuring everyone into college will somehow magically allow
them to get one of those high end jobs, and if they can't make it then
all they are good for is some low end janitorial job. This is of course
a recipe for disaster and is very much part of the growing gap between
rich and poor, a gap that ultimately leads to societal collapse if it
isn't rectified.

No country can put all it's eggs in the "knowledge economy" basket,
think that it can just export all it's "foundational" jobs to third
world countries and think that those third world countries won't catch
up and compete in the "knowledge economy". Every country needs to
maintain a diverse economy with solid midrange jobs and manufacturing
capability. Imported goods need to be strictly novelty or luxury items
as they were in the past, not critical staple items.