barnyard
KTM rider
As for the "walmart society", I would put forth the argument that there is a system of equations somewhere, that balances service and cost (in addition to many other factors), for every corporation; at some point, service is high enough and cost is low enough that it is acceptable.
Or, some might look at it as service is low enough and cost is high enough; it's the same either way.
I am sure there are equations somewhere that explains what we are talking about. My daughter is a physics grad student and some of the things that she has explained to me with math has been interesting.
If we are referring to the equation, my theory is that it has changed over time. I would also theorize that it has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Even more dramatically in the last 10 years.
An example would be Best Buy. Evidently, hordes of people go to Best Buy to find out what a particular gadget looks like and how it works, then many of the horde use their smart phone and order it from Amazon. The result is that Best Buy is not getting paid to own the huge buildings and maintain inventories, so they are losing money and closing stores. The easy answer is: Best Buy should lower all their prices to match Amazon. Except when they do that, there is not enough profit to pay the labor to staff the stores.
I think we agree on more than we disagree and we are both limited by how much time we want to spend at the keyboard.