It's become increasingly popular to talk about "Main Street" in national politics. This was a clever way to contrast against Wall Street, the first time it happened. It became tiresome, and then meaningless - now it's what "surge" was a year ago. And it's abused equally by both parties.

A lot of towns (as opposed to metropolitan cities) have a Main St, which is almost always zoned for retail. The phrase is meant to conjure up nostalgic images of the 1950s, when people shopped at locally owned businesses, which used to line Main St. Your barber, the tool shop run by someone's half retired Grandpa, an so on.

The trouble is, small retail business (or any other kind of small business) belongs on the endangered species list. These days, everyone shops at WalMart, Sam's Club, Target, Home Depot, and on and on. People eat at TGI Fridays and Applebee's, although they say McDonald's is becoming more popular as people are squeezed through the recession. Then again, small towns have gone the way of the dodo, to be replaced by McMansions off the freeway, across from the strip mall with the Target.

Personally, I think both parties should drop this cheap hack of a tagline. So few Americans live in the sort of community with a real "Main Street" that it seems out of touch, at best.

The days of "Main Street" were put to rest by government, Federal and state, that allowed businesses like Wal-Mart to price gouge them out of existence. In the case of Wal-Mart, whose worth is greater than Switzerland's GDP, the company could well afford to pay the fines when caught.

Since you mention McMansions, it's local government that in many areas gives developers incentives to build in the form of waiving impact liability and other tax breaks that new and existing homeowners alike pay for.

Main Street died a long time ago. You and I killed it, by allowing our government to let slip the laissez-faire dogs of economic war.

Hey, they're building another Denudia at Deforrest Acres! Let's check it out! And just so we don't feel bad about ourselves, we'll put in Treesdowne, the "affordable" housing section (starting at $175,000).

Oh, wait, no we can't, since we've put our economy in the toilet. Gee, someone should've noticed that it's the exact same thing that caused the first Great Depression that's causing our current economic woes, made worse by the burgeoning weight of the federal debt, which incidentally paid for all those breaks Wall Street already got.

tim

What a load of cr*p. Both of you. Mainstreet exists in practically every small town in the USA and no, you wont find a walmart there(They are parked at the edge of town where they can afford to put their multi acre compound). And while I, and most of you buy our cr*p at Sams Club, Costco, Walmart, or some other major chain, the mainstreet stores still exist offering overpriced art, lattes, stationary, real estate, or some other botique business that can be packed into a 700 sqft business space.

Mainstreet, and other stupid analogies these politicians use over and over again ad naseum, is better represented by our employment statistics. They still indicate that 70% of us are employed by small business, whether or not we shop at Walmart. If all of us had truly sold out to Wall Street and big companies, that number would be a lot different. If the Democrats had their way, 70% of us would be working for the Federal and State governments, and the rest of us would be living on welfare.

Where have you been? Yeah, all the businesses you named might still be there, but the community hardware store, A&P, pharmacy, etc. are mostly dead in every town. Stores like Wal-Mart put their stores on the edges of small towns on purpose. Their record of price gouging is quite public.

Yes, the Main Street catch phrase is inane; most politicians have no concept of what such a thing is. But what you're missing here is that the real concept of it was marketed away. It got lost in the me first screw you generation. The sub-prime mortgage mess was just the tail end of marketing the next bigger and better thing. When people buy houses that the brokers know they can't afford, in neighborhoods the taxpayers can't afford (which your state taxes have to make up for), then the federal government is asked to add another trillion dollars to the debt to shore up their bad decision making, what do you call it? I call it hometown America being destroyed from the ground up. And who pays? I'm already seeing hometown folks here losing their shirts. That's no analogy; that's reality.

tim

It has been more than 5 years since I have set foot in a Wal-Mart, or Meijers, or Home Depot.. I shop at the smallest locally owned store every time.. It may cost a little more, but I know I'm doing something that benefits our local economy directly..

And while I do sell on the internet, I haven't bought anything on the 'net in more than a year.. I research then find it locally.. The local small business is surviving, and in many cases, thriving..

Originally Posted by serandfae

Where have you been? Yeah, all the businesses you named might still be there, but the community hardware store, A&P, pharmacy, etc. are mostly dead in every town. Stores like Wal-Mart put their stores on the edges of small towns on purpose. Their record of price gouging is quite public.

You won't have to look too far in the history to find me bashing Walmart for their market manipulation business tactics(Right along side Microsoft). I guess what I take issue with is the idea that small business is dead in the U.S. when it is anything but. Even in the areas where the chains are most competitive, small business thrives. Farm-to-Market stores in So-Cal deliver locally grown produce at prices which usually beat the bigger chains and food that is much much better.

I think of the mainstreets of many California towns including Berkley, Larkspur, Monterey, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, San Clemente, Carlsbad, Encinitas, La Jolla, and many others, and there are no Walmarts, Costcos, Fridays, Applebees, or any other major chains to be found. Frankly, dining at most major chains, even the upscale ones, always comes with a semi "plastic" dining experience I really dislike.

Something else to keep in mind are the number of companies that make their living off of companies like Walmart and Home Depot. Ryobi power tools made their push in the U.S. by getting Home Depot to carry their products. I have friends who run small (50 person) import export businesses that feed several other big companies that sell household goods.

Originally Posted by cbwm

Farm-to-Market stores in So-Cal deliver locally grown produce at prices which usually beat the bigger chains and food that is much much better.

Farmers markets are one example bucking the trend that's happening to 95 or more % of small businesses. WalMart coming into town devastates small businesses, and that's one example among thousands. I don't shop at WM either - that's 3 or 4 of us in this thread, in a nation of 300 million. It's great a few of us realize what's going on, that a $0.27 pair of jeans wasn't made locally, etc, but we're all in the minority on this one.

Between 1983 and 1993, rural small towns in America lost 7,326 small businesses. Karl Rove style happy talk about farmers markets doesn't change reality. In that period, Iowa lost

• 555 Grocery stores 

• 298 Hardware stores 

• 293 Building Supply Stores 

• 161 Variety Stores 

• 158 Women’s Apparel stores 

• 153 Shoe Stores 

• 116 Drug Stores 

• 111 Men’s and Boys Apparel stores

Originally Posted by cbwm

I think of the mainstreets of many California towns including Berkley

Bezerkly has a thriving head shop industry on its streets near the Bart.

Since the eighties especially, the single family home in a subdivision, where everyone lives at the end of a cul de sac, was marketed heavily. With that went all the chain retail stores, box pharmacies, etc. Also heavily marketed were credit cards of every kind. The phenomenon of conspicuous consumption really came into its' prime.

We've had nearly thirty years of this, with multiple warnings of what's coming. Junk bonds, the crash in the late eighties, the federal debt multiplied tenfold from what it was in 1980, the prevalence of credit counseling ads in all media today, all should be giant red flags.

Ever wonder how history will look at this generation? This is how I think a history teacher would portray us:

The eighties, nineties and "ohs" were eventually called, "the Beige Age," referring to the usual color of bland in the overpriced, cookie-cutter houses everyone wanted, few could really afford, but most would trample their best friends to get.
Beige was also the color of most Americans' attitudes:
Communism fell, the AIDS epidemic rose, both were treated by Americans with the same bland regard.

The Beige Age's mantra was, "Me first, screw you." The government ran up debt it couldn't afford, and so did individuals. It didn't take long for the economy to come crashing down hard. While this is an oversimplification, it should help to explain the early causes of the Depression we're living in today.

I won't bore you with the cultural achievements of that time; I can assure you that there aren't any. People of that time largely rehashed works and styles of previous decades, including the war we're still fighting.

tim