11-08-2019, 09:21 PM
I don't know... could nostalgia brands make a comeback? Could people miss Howard Johnson's, Steak and Ale, Perkins', and Big Boy enough tor the marquees and names could reappear? Steak and Ale, maybe, and I sort of wish that Bill Knapp's, a middle-range Michigan restaurant chain, had not gone under. Maybe the demise of the American middle class ensures that dining out either involves the grand or the simply utilitarian (as in Chez Mac). I have seen rumors that Applebee's is in trouble... do not accept this as a stock tip.
Retailers? If you mocked Montgomery-Ward as "Monkey-Ward", you are part of the problem that Montgomery Ward had. I admit to missing the old book stores (Brentano's, Waldenbooks -- B. Dalton was merged into Barnes and Noble, itself limping along) and the former defaults for recorded music, Tower Records and The Wherehouse. But we quit buying in such places.
There is an on-line retailer that bought the brand name and style of Montgomery Ward. You can get a tote-bag for $39.99 with the old red logo "Tower Records" on a yellow surface if you get nostalgic enough... well, it wouldn't get the same dirty looks that an Enron logo would get. No links; I do not do free advertising.
We all face the same problem -- that we can no longer get more happiness just by buying more stuff. In some cases we are paying far more in real terms (property rents, cable television, highway tolls) than we used to. Taxes? If taxes justify themselves in high-quality services, then we may not have much of a complaint. If you have a government job or get welfare or disability benefits, then you don't have much of a complaint about high taxes. Government jobs may be the 21st-century expression of Keynesian economics, perhaps in a social-market economy.
Many of us know many things that we will never miss. Poverty as a looming threat is one of them. It may be better than beatings by an employer, but we no longer need poverty as a threat. The workweek was much shorter in the 1950's than in the 1920's, and we are no worse off for that. Donald Trump is showing us that mass ignorance is a pure loss.
Overpriced housing in the Landlord's Paradise and renter's nightmare? We will probably build more affordable housing, especiall if a war of any kind destroys much of the existing housing stock. Most vulnerable will be the McMansions that will be out of style in a short time. Classical norms of form and proportion exist for good reason; shoddy workmanship is not good for survival of buildings. McMansions are not sturdy enough to be cut up into apartments for low-income dwellers.
I expect a culling of entertainment. There is only so much entertainment that we can absorb. How many of those 200 channels of cable TV do you really watch? I am now on minimal cable due to poverty, and where I live one needs cable to get adequate reception. I live seventy miles away from the nearest transmitter of broadcast TV, so it would take a large mast to get broadcast TV from the four main networks and PBS.
What did I watch that I do not watch now?
ESPN
FoX Sports Detroit (but the Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons are awful, so I am missing nothing)
Turner Classic Movies (I have a nice video collection, much of which I got after watching TCM)
FS1
FoX Movie Channel
MSNBC (I miss it)
CNN (I miss it for breaking news)
FoX Propaganda Channel no, I didn't. I don't like to get angry while watching news, for one thing
American Movie Classics (before they went commercial)
Discovery Channel
Animal Planet
History Channel (before they went fad)
A&E (before it dropped the "arts" part)
Travel Channel (occasionally interesting -- see what I am missing in a hick town in the Midwest)
CSPAN is on this basic cable, distributed for free.
I can understand people watching specialized channels that fit their lifestyles such as HGTV, Food Network, Do it Yourself, Outdoors, etc.
I thought that there would be specialized networks for limited audiences such as an LGBT channel or channels directed at a specific religious group... no, there is no "Methodist Channel" or "Lutheran Channel"... or a Jewish or Islamic channel... and channels dedicated to professions such as "the Dental Channel" or "AICPA Channel" (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants".
Retailers? If you mocked Montgomery-Ward as "Monkey-Ward", you are part of the problem that Montgomery Ward had. I admit to missing the old book stores (Brentano's, Waldenbooks -- B. Dalton was merged into Barnes and Noble, itself limping along) and the former defaults for recorded music, Tower Records and The Wherehouse. But we quit buying in such places.
There is an on-line retailer that bought the brand name and style of Montgomery Ward. You can get a tote-bag for $39.99 with the old red logo "Tower Records" on a yellow surface if you get nostalgic enough... well, it wouldn't get the same dirty looks that an Enron logo would get. No links; I do not do free advertising.
We all face the same problem -- that we can no longer get more happiness just by buying more stuff. In some cases we are paying far more in real terms (property rents, cable television, highway tolls) than we used to. Taxes? If taxes justify themselves in high-quality services, then we may not have much of a complaint. If you have a government job or get welfare or disability benefits, then you don't have much of a complaint about high taxes. Government jobs may be the 21st-century expression of Keynesian economics, perhaps in a social-market economy.
Many of us know many things that we will never miss. Poverty as a looming threat is one of them. It may be better than beatings by an employer, but we no longer need poverty as a threat. The workweek was much shorter in the 1950's than in the 1920's, and we are no worse off for that. Donald Trump is showing us that mass ignorance is a pure loss.
Overpriced housing in the Landlord's Paradise and renter's nightmare? We will probably build more affordable housing, especiall if a war of any kind destroys much of the existing housing stock. Most vulnerable will be the McMansions that will be out of style in a short time. Classical norms of form and proportion exist for good reason; shoddy workmanship is not good for survival of buildings. McMansions are not sturdy enough to be cut up into apartments for low-income dwellers.
I expect a culling of entertainment. There is only so much entertainment that we can absorb. How many of those 200 channels of cable TV do you really watch? I am now on minimal cable due to poverty, and where I live one needs cable to get adequate reception. I live seventy miles away from the nearest transmitter of broadcast TV, so it would take a large mast to get broadcast TV from the four main networks and PBS.
What did I watch that I do not watch now?
ESPN
FoX Sports Detroit (but the Tigers, Red Wings, and Pistons are awful, so I am missing nothing)
Turner Classic Movies (I have a nice video collection, much of which I got after watching TCM)
FS1
FoX Movie Channel
MSNBC (I miss it)
CNN (I miss it for breaking news)
American Movie Classics (before they went commercial)
Discovery Channel
Animal Planet
History Channel (before they went fad)
A&E (before it dropped the "arts" part)
Travel Channel (occasionally interesting -- see what I am missing in a hick town in the Midwest)
CSPAN is on this basic cable, distributed for free.
I can understand people watching specialized channels that fit their lifestyles such as HGTV, Food Network, Do it Yourself, Outdoors, etc.
I thought that there would be specialized networks for limited audiences such as an LGBT channel or channels directed at a specific religious group... no, there is no "Methodist Channel" or "Lutheran Channel"... or a Jewish or Islamic channel... and channels dedicated to professions such as "the Dental Channel" or "AICPA Channel" (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants".
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.