I've come to the point where if I can't get used for 60% of the brand new price, I won't bother. I've decided not to buy any ammo I don't get in bulk 500-1000 rounds that doesn't come in three or four bucks under retail after shipping, all the ammo will be reloadable, even though I already have a ton of brass and plan on collecting more everytime I go. I will start reloading in the next month or so and work to make my casings worthy of shooting two or three times before retirement.
I'm sitting on a little over eight hundred bucks from my last trip to the casino and was thinking of buying a gun or two....now unless I go to the local pawn shop and get a great deal or find a used at the gun show in a private sale, I'm done till fortunes reverse with the cost of everything.
<Climbs on the soap box> A professor of mine always talks about the capitalist system and I applaud him for it generally but the one time I spoke to him over lunch about the capitalist system and how we the American people (excepting big business, politicians, and oil companies, because they don't really fit the mold of Americans as I see it) need to organize and start working to maximise our purchasing power while working to avoid paying prices we don't have to pay. He basically said to me that the system would fall apart "people still need to by cars," and I replied to him "sure they do and there are plenty of cars that people who are not skilled laborers or those types of employees who work less then 40 hours a week can maintain the vehicles well past their market assigned lifespans (I have 99' Durango that still runs great and will likely continue to do so for at least another four years if I stay vigilant)" he wasn't very happy with that response.
I don't know if there are any laws against organized boycotts or such but we and if there then I won't promote it but if there isn't then we the American people need to start looking after our own interests. Yeah only purchasing goods at acceptable low prices (only allowing for a fifty percent markup when there's usually a four-hundred percent markup) might make companies have to tighten their belts but the money is there to keep the company running in the 250 million dollar a year paychecks (it happens more than you can believe) to CEOs who are by my standard useless, we just have to stay vigilant to prevent government bailouts, if it means we must feel some pain at first with stores going out of business, it will give a chance to small chains and goods stores to compete who are prepared to sell at the accpetable prices.
Now some could say this is socialism or Communism, if it was government initiated and maintained idea then yes but this is an idea created by the people in a non-government regualted capacity, basically a consumer's union as I coin it. A consumers union of people prepared to buy in bulk at lower prices and distribute amongst its contributing members till stores at retail are forced to lower their prices. Now it would take a significant percentage of the populace to realize this buying power and take back their rights but still it is not an impossible idea if enough people are willing and as things become more desperate for people its feasibility only grows.
We the American consumer drive this economy not the big business, not the oil companies, they don't sell enough outside this market(America) to be able to afford ignoring us. If they fire people en masse then we stop buying from them, if they pay their useless CEO's exhorbitant wages we then go to someone who doesn't, if they hire illegals we take our business to those who don't and if that isn't possible...oh my God we might have to start a business that doesn't using our crop of consumer union members purchasing directly from suppliers because the possibility of doing it might jsut exist. It's still capitalism, it's just organized capitalism instead of lettign chaos run to be only be reined by the rich and privileged. I'm a fundamental capitalist and that means the power of capitalism belongs to us the people.