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ACTIVITIES ... STREAMS, STRANDS, STRINGS
Retail Trade
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TOWN CENTER ... MAIN STREET
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The town center and main street have an important role in community ... while not being the most profitable way to sell goods at retail.
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SHOPPING MALLS
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Efficient ... impressive ... and essentially impersonal .. with easy parking.
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E-COMMERCE
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Sears-Roebuck and Montgomery Ward popularized mail order marketing ... and e-commerce has many of the same characteristics but using 21st century technology.
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SUPPLY CHAIN ... TRADE AND LOGISTICS
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Trade is mechanism that optimises econonomic performance. In aggregate trade improves economic benefit, though a big win for one group is usually offset by a loss (usually smaller) for another group. When profit is essentially the only metric that matters, society is likely to be a loser. History makes this very clear!
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PRODUCTION
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Industrial production is very very productive. Production is is no longer a limiting factor. The world has the economic capacity to produce more goods and services than people need, though many people do not have the money to buy the goods that they really need. The world is a surplus world, not a shortage world in economic terms.
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USE ... CONSUMPTION
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Consumption of products is the basis for quality of life. There is a strong correlation between consumption and quality of life as an individual goes from being very poor to reasonably well-off. Beyond a certain point, more and more, does little to improve quality of life. In some cases, more and more becomes a burden! Other factors become more important!
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POST USE WASTE CHAIN
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The modern economy flows almost as much waste as it flows useful product that gets consumed. This has been enabled by economic costing that ignores social and environmental costs. Waste is a cost that is born by society and the environment, and not included in conventional financial accounting. This is wrong and essentially silly!
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RECYCLE - REUSE / ENABLE THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
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Modern technology has much of what is needed for a very much more efficient socio-enviro-economic system. As long as investment flows are driven only by economic profit performance, the key technologies will never be deployed, but with metrics for social impact and environmental impact as well as economic (profit) impact, everything can change.
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