Oddbean

mom & pop shops are extremely expensive. For example i can buy a coffee for 1.67 USD at a big chain coffee shop. At a mom & pop it's 3.36 USD. That is a MASSIVE difference and that's just coffee. Other products such as everyday items or even homemade it's ridiculously expensive. The only thing you are doing by buying local is making yourself poor and supporting their overpriced lifestyle as most people are in a lot of debt and buying things they don't need. So that's where your money will go when you buy local. If you don't want to support the corporatione. Making your own coffee & food is the best way to go. Life under your means and buying the cheapest products you can find while stacking Bitcoin is the way to go. Eventually the mom and pop shops & corporations will go bankrupt and you can replace them by starting your own business with all the Bitcoin you saved up.

The pricing is relative to cost. Small business owners aren't extracting luxury levels of wealth. If they were they all wouldn't be about to go out of business. Do you not understand that scale is what drives price so low that individuals can't compete? Do you really not understand that local dollars get spent in multiples locally before leaving to corporate headquarters rather than immediately when spent at the national chain? Do you not know that I run multiple small businesses right now? Opening a business later with my bitcoin doesn't make any sense if no one supports them today. Should only massive corporate entities be able to survive? Do you think property value remains the same in ghost town? Do you think other businesses invest or stay in ghost towns? What is the quality of life living off the cheapest shit in a corporate big box hellscape? Buying the cheapest things over quality is the most fiat mindset that results in a trash society. Productive people will never be poor they just won't make your life better for free.

Yeah, I'm big on "think global, buy local", because we need sustainable, healthy economies, not brittle, overstretched supply chains. Local businesses are currently getting crushed, by Chinese deflation-exportation. Brutal. I suspect, at this point, that they're selling goods under cost. Also, blame Biden for making oil so cheap ($70/barrel!), by emptying the strategic oil reserves and leaning on Saudi Arabia and Israel. That cuts the cost of international logistics.

I helped rebuilt a local food economy by organizing local farmers to form a cooperative distribution outlet and invest in independent infrastructure. We now supply local public schools with fresh healthy produce as one example. But it costs more than mono cropped shipped in synthetic veggies. I helped rebuild a local animal feed economy by building one of the first organic non gmo feed mills and created a regional market for that grain and production. We are a value add node between grain markets and animal producers. If we don't sell certified organic feed the certified organic animal producer has an even harder time sourcing inputs which only makes the quality products more expensive. I built beautiful store fronts in refurbished historic buildings so that literally the baker, butcher and candle stick maker would offer the opportunity for a community to exist. People want to live in a place that has a unique personality. These things can make your town vibrant and attractive to live in. It is often easy to think that these places will be here even if you don't shop. But a boarded up town can happen faster than you think.

Small business normally don't make it past 5 years because they can't compete against local established corporations. Even if everyone buys local they would still not survive. Corporations are so massive that they can lower their price, undercut local business and wait several years of not making any profits until the local business goes bankrupt. That's their strategy and it works well because they are global and have global profits. It would only make sense to open a business with your Bitcoin profits when Bitcoin is not producing as much profits anymore. We are not there yet. Bitcoin is still producing a lot of profits. As the world keeps savings in Bitcoin and dealing with Bitcoin corporations will start to go bankrupt as well. We are seeing corporations go bankrupt recently. There will be a time when Bitcoiners will have to start opening up businesses with their profits as making money will be much easier but real estate has to fall hard before I would suggest you even open a business. It's much better to work for someone and keep saving in Bitcoin. Let the business owner deal with the stress and headaches. Things will continue to get worse and more business will fail. Almost everything is produced in China. You can skip the middle man and buy directly from China. I have used AliExpress for years and it has saved me thousands and thousands of dollars. Quality is the same even if you buy local because they get it from china too. If you are in the USA it might be different but in Canada local business don't produce their products locally. We are an unproductive nation. Buying local just makes you more poor.