Is there anyplace on earth with no advertising?

[VaSteve]

We took the boy to see Santa at the local mall. The entire set up is a maze in which you are intimately entwined in an advertisement for "Narnia". Even the snow globe Santa gives out has an ad for the damn movie. There is no place and nothing you can do anymore that doesn't have some sort of tie-in advertising. I can't shop at the local Safeway without ads in the parking lot. Jeez.


On an unrelated note.... we stopped by the toy store to buy a wagon for the boy. The classic metal radio flyer (Since 1917!) is made in China. The plastic ones (at double the price) were made in the US. We can't produce a metal wagon in our country? Sad.

[Dantilla]

Antarctica?

[scottmandue]

Uh... no...

So Disney owns Santa now?

My dish network music channels doesn't have commercials or DJ's, it's my one island of peace and non-commercialism. It's just a matter of time until they F*** that up

[cowtown]

The smallest amount I've ever seen was probably Morocco. But I wouldn't live there just to get away from the advertising.

EDIT - on the wagon thing - I'm getting to the point now that I won't buy anthing related to USA tradition (ie things like souvenirs in National Park gift shops and Radio Flyer) that's made in China. I'm also paying more for the American-made goods, within reason, if there's a choice. Unfortunately, I haven't found ANY American-made clothing.

[red-beard]

Originally posted by Dantilla
Antarctica?

Darn it, ya beat me too it!

[Flatbutt1]

Originally posted by VaSteve
We can't produce a metal wagon in our country? Sad.

We could if the workers could live on $7/hour. Hell even in my field which requires alot of education(Pharma) we're losing jobs overseas to cheaper labor pools.

[on-ramp]

America is one big Shopping Mall. Welcome!

by the way, did you catch George Carlin's latest HBO special, "Life is Worth Losing". Great stuff.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by Flatbutt1
We could if the workers could live on $7/hour.

Probably more like $2/hr

http://www.sweatshops-retail.org/NRF%20Website/wage%20rates.htm

[tdatk]

Originally posted by Flatbutt1
We could if the workers could live on $7/hour. Hell even in my field which requires alot of education(Pharma) we're losing jobs overseas to cheaper labor pools.

Ya ,
Real great Idea, then who will buy the wagons? This country fell flat on it's face the day our "visionaries" stopped supporting technical and trade schools and shoveled the college route as the only way to go. Bu11shift! We can't all be CEO's of nothing. The "higher education" won't hold water either, I'm know too many really smart technical people who never set foot in college and too many pompus axxes with degrees to give that merit. I believe that corporate/retail/sales greed has ruined our manufacturing empire.
Oh,
Please leave the comments about the greedy labor unions out of this, I don't support the direction their going, which is out of work.
rant over

[id10t]

Between playing with my hosts file and dns, firefox/mozilla's userContent.css tricks, and popup blocking with Mozilla/firefox, I see *very* few ads when I surf the web.

Otherwise the sheer commercialization of the world just makes me mad, especially the commercialization of Christmas, even though I'm not a follwer of any of the Christ based faiths.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by id10t
Between playing with my hosts file and dns, firefox/mozilla's userContent.css tricks, and popup blocking with Mozilla/firefox, I see *very* few ads when I surf the web.

Here's a cool new Mozilla/firefox plugin I found - it lets you selectively block javascript by site:

http://www.noscript.net/getit

[jfw834]

Originally posted by on-ramp
America is one big Shopping Mall. Welcome!

by the way, did you catch George Carlin's latest HBO special, "Life is Worth Losing". Great stuff.

yesss....i don't have HBO but since you mentioned it I am grabbing it off bittorrent thanks

[HardDrive]

Just checked my ass in the mirror. Absolutely no advertising.

[id10t]

HardDrive - throw an ad up on fleabay, golden palace may be interested....

[Tervuren]

Originally posted by widebody911
Probably more like $2/hr

http://www.sweatshops-retail.org/NRF%20Website/wage%20rates.htm

What you have to realize though, is not jsut the rate of pay, but also the rate of production. An American Employee who spends half his time lazing doing nothing or complaining of things while being paid, is COSTING his company money they get no return on. This in turn makes it even more expensive to do things in the US. I'm 19, the job I started doing, a "decent" employee could get it done in 30 minutes. A bad one an hour, or if in his own words "45 minutes, and that was realy pushing it".

Me? I've done it in just over 7 minutes a few times, and average a nice 10-15 depending on unforseen complexities.

You could pay the bad employe $7 an hour, and you get one unit per hours. I would work at 4-5 units an hour, so if you paid me $20 an hour, you would be ahead. If your forieng worker due to conditions was not able to match my production rate. Lets say if he had good conditions, he'd be 20 minutes per cycle, but due to tiredness and conditons that are not as easy to work in, he's 40 minutes. In two hour's , he has done 3 units, and cost $4. In two hours, I'll have done 12 units, and cost $40. I'm $3.33 per unit, he is $1.33. However, to keep the same production rate per day, you have to hire more of him. In one hour, 4 of him cost $8, only $12 off of me, and you have to pay for 3 more work areas.

I think a lot of why American's can't make it cheaper, is not just the cheaper labor costs, but how darn lazy we are. Outside of family owned and operated bussiness's, the effeciency is mind bogglingly slow in a lot of cases, except for automated proccesses perhaps.

[Kirk911SC]

North Korea

[H.G.P.]

One of a number of reasons I quit listening/watching sports progams anymore, and almost all of "television."

[Bob Goding]

There is a place, but I cant remember the name.--- I saw it advertised somewhere!

[widebody911]

Originally posted by Tervuren
An American Employee who spends half his time lazing doing nothing or complaining of things while being paid, is COSTING his company money they get no return on.
Like you're doing right now?
Me? I've done it in just over 7 minutes a few times, and average a nice 10-15 depending on unforseen complexities.
What, posting on Pelican?
I think a lot of why American's can't make it cheaper, is not just the cheaper labor costs, but how darn lazy we are. Outside of family owned and operated bussiness's, the effeciency is mind bogglingly slow in a lot of cases, except for automated proccesses perhaps. [/B]
I love it! Make a bold, sweeping statement, and then neuter it with 'perhaps'.

Go to google and look up US worker productivity.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

New Zealand is a real gem.