Did anyone watch Dateline NBC last night? (Sunday May 13th)

[banca rotta]

Did anyone watch Dateline NBC last night?

I am not peeing on their parade. I think it's great that these local small business have recovered (for now) but what the hell are we becoming???

This town like most of our country lost jobs and they are all celebrating a new prison that is probably filled with former hard working American factory workers.

I guess this is like the desperate, hungry prostitute falling in love with the pimp because the pimp looks after her. I see no difference.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/#47419607

[DeadManCrawling]

I did not see the show, but I get the gist of the story from your post.

It reminds me of a similar trend involving banks.

My son, who just turned 19, had his first encounter with overdraft fees. The bank dinged him for 180 dollars worth of fees on several transactions that my son simply wasn't paying attention to. He called their customer service and the fees were reduced to 80 dollars.

"Wow, dad," says he. "I just saved a hundred dollars. I love my bank."

See the problem? The bank STILL got 80 dollars from him, and HE was grateful. Banks make a huge percentage of their profits from these completely unnecessary fees. And I suspect they have researched just HOW much is ENOUGH to "gift back" to the unwitting customer and STILL look like the kind, gentle bank that forgives and forgets.

I spoke with my son about a new law that has gone into effect, that does not allow overdrafts of any nature. Simply put, if the money is not in the account, it will be declined at the vendor.

My son said, "Well, that's good dad, but what if I am in the middle of nowhere and need gas, and am willing to pay the overdraft fee, in an emergency?"

My reply: "Don't ever be in that situation." I know that things happen, unforeseen, but he can always rely on us, his parents, in that circumstance.

This whole post is to say: I agree, it is funny and sad, how a slight benefit (an immediate one) can outweigh the cost to people, families, and societies over a longer term, well thought plan.

[tobee43]

i didn't see the show either, however, what i have been seeing, although we really don't watch a ton of tv,(we are movie people) is a full force campaign being run showing subliminal messages with respect to the recovery of small town usa and small businesses growing by leaps and bounds. i'm not certain where or why they are shooting these commercials, nor what their intrinsic value is suppose to be ...by setting these propagandist images, but it's interesting.