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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, 24 November, 2025 9:46 AM<br><b>To:</b> ExI chat list <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b>Cc:</b> William Flynn Wallace <foozler83@gmail.com><br><b>Subject:</b> [ExI] prices<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>A few years ago I needed two mattresses - one for me and one for my wife Roz. I bought her one called Avocado or something like that. It was about $1000. It has been fine.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>On a whim I bought myself a mattress from Walmart: $88 delivered to my door. Can miracles exist? It has been just fine, fine as any mattress I ever owned.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>Price as an indicator of quality? Sometimes, it seems.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>bill </span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>w<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Bill<span style='color:black'>w</span> this conflates a material technology advance with quality. John Galsworthy wrote an excellent short story on the topic, but there were few technology advances in his benighted times. Fortunately now is not then. These are our… bedayed times. Now, technology advances and our stuff gets better.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>I too bought one of those cheapy Walmart mattresses, as did my son for his dorm room. Both found them most satisfactory, better than their predecessors which were more expensive. Reason: a material known as memory foam, which was (and is) still expensive and doesn’t breathe well (memory foam doesn’t work for everyone) was mostly replaced with a lower cost alternative. The alternative become commercially available for mattresses, still a semi-closed foam which is marketed by the price leaders (Walmart and Costco) as Future Foam. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it does for me. It doesn’t cost as much as memory foam, and in some ways works better. Material technology advances. Advances are our friends.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Now of course the bed marketing people scramble to find features they can add to mattresses to make them expensive once more. Inflation is bad, deflation is ruinous. An example of features being added to bring up mattress cost is future foam toppers with individually-inflatable cells underneath. I would never have given that whole notion a second glance had not I used one for several days at the hospital (non-life threatening, thx.) They had those things, and oh how they work. A marvelous absurdity is this luxury item. I want one. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Before that recent stay, I would have considered the notion just silly. Now… I have been looking around for a foam topped alternating load inflatable bed, as the use as preventative accommodations for geezers with bed sores. It has a little compressor and moves the load points even if one is perfectly still. Cool!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>These are great for bed-sore geezers. Well OK, did anyone stop to ask, how do these work for others, such as me, a geezer without bed sores? Answer: great! I love em. I will pay good money for one. Haven’t had enough time for deep research yet, because duty calls, family members needing help, that sorta thing, but… I predict I will purchase a foam-topped sore-geezer mattress before my 26 calendar comes down.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></body></html>