[extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

[David Lubkin]

M.B. Baumeister wrote:

>Now, with fuel prices rising in the USA, mom and pop have more appeal.
>Where's the savings if you have to spend $5 or $10 to get to and from
>WalMart? I, for one, am doing more shopping locally and on-line, unless
>I'm aleady near a WalMart. I don't make any special trips to shop there -
>although I know folks who do. Many of them make a hobby of shopping! ;)

Fuel prices are clearly a tangential matter in this discussion, but

(a) High fuel costs do lead to shopping nearer to home, but also to 
larger, less frequent expeditions, for which the fuel cost and travel 
time are compensated for by a reduced total cost and total time.

(b) Small stores will often be sited in the vicinity of a large store 
that attracts customers. They will also, occasionally, combine 
forces. Amid our miles-long shopping mecca is a strip of three stores 
side-by-side -- one sells audio equipment, one sells music, and one 
sells musical instruments.

Both are interesting replications of patterns we see in cross-species 
symbioses in the wild.

(c) Fuel prices are not rising in the USA. Gas prices nearby have 
been dropping daily. They'd hit $3.30 a gallon after Katrina and are 
down to at or under $2.00.


-- David.