Looking over the brand new bicycle my young friend Stephen bought at Walmart for $88 I experienced one of those rare moments of insight into what is wrong which is almost impossible to fix. A few days before Stephen bought the new bike, my friend Ed and I went into a Bike shop to ask about a tune-up for a bicycle which is very much like the one Stephen bought. Nothing on Ed's bicycle needed replacing. A basic tune-up with no replacement of parts costs $75. Here’s what is obvious. Both are about the same except that one needs a tune-up. The Walmart eighty-eight dollar bike can be sold, completely tuned-up and ready to ride, in a retail store and provide a reasonable profit for the store because it is imported from China. An American tune up for the older bicycle costs only thirteen dollars less than the completely new, out of the box bike.
Monday, October 04, 2010
OLD GLORY waved briskly under stormy skies today on Mission Gorge Road.
Looking over the brand new bicycle my young friend Stephen bought at Walmart for $88 I experienced one of those rare moments of insight into what is wrong which is almost impossible to fix. A few days before Stephen bought the new bike, my friend Ed and I went into a Bike shop to ask about a tune-up for a bicycle which is very much like the one Stephen bought. Nothing on Ed's bicycle needed replacing. A basic tune-up with no replacement of parts costs $75. Here’s what is obvious. Both are about the same except that one needs a tune-up. The Walmart eighty-eight dollar bike can be sold, completely tuned-up and ready to ride, in a retail store and provide a reasonable profit for the store because it is imported from China. An American tune up for the older bicycle costs only thirteen dollars less than the completely new, out of the box bike.
Looking over the brand new bicycle my young friend Stephen bought at Walmart for $88 I experienced one of those rare moments of insight into what is wrong which is almost impossible to fix. A few days before Stephen bought the new bike, my friend Ed and I went into a Bike shop to ask about a tune-up for a bicycle which is very much like the one Stephen bought. Nothing on Ed's bicycle needed replacing. A basic tune-up with no replacement of parts costs $75. Here’s what is obvious. Both are about the same except that one needs a tune-up. The Walmart eighty-eight dollar bike can be sold, completely tuned-up and ready to ride, in a retail store and provide a reasonable profit for the store because it is imported from China. An American tune up for the older bicycle costs only thirteen dollars less than the completely new, out of the box bike.
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1 comment:
Something is definitely wrong with that picture. I mean the bike story, not the flag.
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