The following pictures illustrate what a giant scam Goodwill is playing on our nation’s poor folks. When you donate your used goods to Goodwill, are you helping anyone more than the top dogs at the store? I doubt it. I talk to the people working there (most have been there for several years, not just a few months) and they are not making a living wage and are not being helped to find living wage jobs.

I am picking on Goodwill right now as it is the largest of the “thrift” stores, but the same thing happens in St Vincent, and the Salvation Army. I shop these stores weekly looking for “sleepers” of antique and collectable value, so I see the prices every day, and they have almost doubled since the recession began! This stinks to high heaven!

ring around the collar!

As promised, I went out and took pics of items at Goodwill and Ross for comparason. Goodwill runs on donated used goods, and Ross is a retail outlet for new items. Old and dirty against new and clean. I believe in re cycling but to charge outlandish prices for dirty, damaged, and out of style items is simply a rip off of the first order. As promised, here are the first of many pictures.

white wool blend coat, dirty collar and out of style

Just do the math! Liquor stores and tobacco shops could charge $65. for a pack of 20 pot cigarettes and the tax to the state coffers could be roughly $64, each pack. What other product would have such a dramatic stimulus effect? Wellll of course cocaine and meth would be big sellers, but those drugs have such a terrible consequense to our citizens, that no one could support such an attack on our health and welfare. But legal pot would have an immediate positive effect on law enforcement problems, and stop overcrowding in our jails and prisons.

Another very important benifit would be the shake up in the Mexican dope dealers business. Pot smokers are often forced to turn to these criminals to buy their pot, and do not turn in their dealer (even tho pot smokers often hate the fact that thier supplier deals in meth and crack) because they dont want to lose their MJ supply. I do believe that if they could buy a pack of pot cigaretts at the local liquor store, they would turn in the meth and coke dealers en masse, thus solving a huge problem both here in the US and across the Rio in Mexico.

Those folks that use pot to deal with their chronic pain and nausea, would be happy to have a safe way to get thier medicine, and folks that like to light up a joint and watch the Simpsons after a depressing day at their dwindling job, would be of good cheer.

I often smoked pot as a younger person, and I can tell you, it did me no harm, and helped me alot with my chronic migranes. Even tho I eventually developed an allergy to the weed and can no longer indulge, I think that the currant policy toward pot is a curse that should be ended.Far too many people have done time in jail and prison needlessly.

I do believe that like liquor, pot should be limited to those over 21 and should not be used by pregnant women or those who suffer from asthma and other respritory problems.

First off, I would like to know what the salary is for CEO Jim Gibbons of Goodwill Industries? Is he aware that Goodwill is now getting a reputation for ripping people off in the “charity” biz? I have shopped there for more than 15 years, watching for collectors items that slip down to the unwashed public instead of being slipped off to management (yes that happens alot) or put up on a rigged auction site. My biggest complaint does not affect me per se, but the poor and desperate that shop at Goodwill for basic needs like childrens clothes and cheap household goods. Four years ago I noticed a drastic change in the pricing of goods and the change has been bad for the poor. I used to see loads of gently used clothing for super reasonable prices…..that is a thing of the past. Now the stores have priced their goods over the top of stores like Target, Marshalls, and Ross! Brand new merchandise in these places is less than used goods at Goodwill. I am planning to offer proof by the means of photos in the next couple of weeks so you all can see what Goodwill is up to.I have see Old Navy clothes pirced higher at Goodwill than at Old Navy! I will take pics of items, prices, and than price similar stuff at Ross or Marshalls and post them for you to see. Are you listening Jim Gibbons? If so, help the poor out for Christmas instead of ripping them off.

I have been an antique dealer for 40 years and have spelunked thru Goodwill, St Vincent de Paul, and Value (not) Village for the last 15 years. I go there when estate sales, garage sales and auctions are scarce, and also skip in when I am in the neighborhood if I have a few minutes. So you see, I have had loads and loads of experience shopping in these humble? resale palaces. Trouble is, now that the economy has gone into the crapper, the poor and downtrodden who have been shopping these stores in earnest for their family’s clothing, strollers, tables, chairs, rugs, lamps ect…are getting hosed down something terrible! The recession has brought many more earnest shoppers in looking to save a buck by buying used goods.  This of course has caused the stores to raise their prices thru the roof!

In case you doubt this, consider that I also donate regularly to these stores when I clean house (spring and fall) and often see my donated items on the shelves or hanging on the clothing racks. I was thunderstruck when I donated a mohair jacket with holes in the pockets and a burned hole on the cuff (it was nice tho as it was from Ireland) to St Vincent’s and found it a week later hanging on the rack for $12.00! I had purchased it two years previous from the same store for $2.00!What a rip off! That same afternoon I skimmed Goodwill and saw dresses I used to buy to sleep in (soft Indian print, loose fitting and comfy) for $18. !!! Ridiculous!! You can go to TJ Maxx, Ross, or Old Navy and get way better deals on brand new clothing.  Not only clothes are spiked up. I saw very ordinary pottery lamps for 18.99 that you could get for 7.99 at Ross! And sheet sets for 12.99 (used and tired) that you could buy at Ross for 10.50 and 14.50 that are brand new!

I firmly believe in recycling everything imaginable, but I do think that poor people are getting ripped off by these stores that are posing as humanitarian! WTF? So you say they train folks to run a cash register and schlepp merchandise around, and get a good job after they are trained up. Did you ever notice that the same people you saw there last year are still there this year? It is true! They have not moved into the work force outside of these stores…they are there for good. I am glad they have a job, but I am not buying into the whole humanitarian schtick that these organizations are fronting to us. Especially guilty is Value Village. Do you know who owns it? One family who lives here in Seattle in splendor. They are millionaires! No kidding! I know folks that work at their home as domestic employees! Sure, they donate a percentage….so what! If folks knew how little they actually donate, they would offer their goods on the sidewalk for free and do more honest charity!

I hope the CEO’s quit their jobs and retire to their respective mansions. With leaders like this, the big banks and auto companies are in big trouble from the top down. Talent? The only talent these assholes have is for corruption.

Here is a thought! The Chinese economy is doing much better than we are, and they are getting loans out to the companies that are struggling to survive and small to medium sized businesses can get needed capitol. (NPR) so why can’t the big banks here that are bragging about their profits in the last quarter be forced to lend out money to our struggling small businesses. Also they should not be allowed to forclose one more home loan as a result of an interest rate re-set. As long as the home buyer is making the original payment on time, the re-set should be held off for at least 2 more years to give the buyer time to get prepared. If the buyer was simply sold a loan that he has no hope of repaying, then OK, the bank should find another more quailified buyer AND find a rental home for the displaced family that is closer to his ability to pay. The banks got greedy with thier mortgage programs, and their policies have forced them into a corner. The government bailed them out in order to solve the mortgage crisis…………but they went on a Las Vegas type gambling streak, rather than putting out conventional mortgage loans or small business loans. Now it is time to get tough on these big banks and make them loan the money, not spectualte with it!

I for one, believe that the earth is warming. I have seen the pictures of Glacier National Park and Killamenjaro and know that the disappearence of so many glaciers and snow fields can’t be a good thing! Rivers arise in the snow capped mountains, and we need the rivers for life! It is that simple. When the scientists show me that the snow pack in all the globe’s mountain ranges has come back to the level of the 1950s, I will be much comforted. Until then…not so much.

Even if we do experience a cool down and the water we need starts flowing downhill where we need it … Big Oil is a ghastly problem for the US. The oil from unfriendly and downright hostile countries is causing terrible problems for us as a nation. Better that we wean ourselves off Middle East oil and develop our solar, wind, natural gas and geo thermal, waste (manure) gasses ect….All we need is the political will to create and implement these programs. Forget Nuclear tho…just look at Hanford and see how fast we have not solved the waste issues.

So who cares about whether Al is right or wrong….we need to get away from Petroleum as our source of power. My next blog will be on Coal! Cheers!

I very seldom do a painting for a specific reason, but the US Bank system has been especially good to me by showing my work, so I did this to show for them since they have alot of wineries near their branch. Am I selling out? Not unless the painting sells and I do more and more just like it. Ah…the quandry of painting for a living……………