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IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

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Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#361
post #353
post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

avoidance != evasion

Fwiw, the first definition I found for the word evade is “escape or avoid, especially by cleverness or trickery.”

In the US, they are very specific, distinct things.

Tax Evasion[0] is not paying taxes you legally owe. Tax Avoidance[1] is finding ways to owe less tax. Evasion is considered illegal, but Avoidance can practically be considered encouraged, as it's perfectly legal and rewards practitioners with lower tax bills.

[0]https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/taxevasion.asp

[1]https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tax_avoidance.asp

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just go to any IKEA and buy a replacement part? Every single part they've ever sold is available at the replacement desk in their stores (at least here in Germany). Even individual screws, legs, etc. When I broke a door and one of the hinges of a kitchen cabinet, I just went to IKEA and bought a replacement door (of the exact same type) and replacement hinge) and replaced them.

Not available in the US. The only thing they will do is either sell you spare small parts or issue a refund.

I'm in the US. I have several times gone to an Ikea store with damaged parts and been able to obtain replacements, sometimes free of charge - including with one part of an entertainment center kit that got dropped on the front porch steps, breaking one panel clean in half and cracking another. They took it back, gave us another, and sent us on our way no questions asked.

I don't doubt you've had trouble, and I don't know what their website or otherwise remote customer service is like, but to say that the service is just not available at all in the US appears incorrect.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#363
post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

It all depends on what you buy there. I fitted two IKEA kitchens to past homes I lived in, 14 and 17 years ago. Not professionally fitted either, I did the hard work. I found the properties had both recently been sold and had a look at the listings - both of the kitchens were still doing great. The kitchen I fitted had solid oak door frames with a veneered panel, Quaker style if you will, with standard chipboard cabi…

I did the same thing in the last house we owned. We had a build and design company who quoted us around $50K to remodel the kitchen. We paid them $100 for the design they came up with and parted ways.

We went to IKEA and picked everything out. IKEA hired a sub contractor and they came and installed everything in two days. We still had to do all the demo and prep for them, but we were able to get multiple discounts on everything we bought.

In the end, our tiny kitchen remodel went from $50K to $15K. We moved out about a year later, but all the cabinets and quartz counter tops were still in pristine condition, even after a solid year of use.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#364
post #303
post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

Personally, I dislike IKEA for registering as a non-profit, when they're very clearly not. To me, this belongs in the same bucket as any number of tax avoidance schemes that ensure wealthy individuals pay far lower tax rates than the average person, and that large corporations pay effectively nothing. If they're able to provide great customer service - well, good on them, but I'd much rather the public purse have the…

We would all be better off if corporate taxes were reduced to low single digits in favor of regular individual income tax and VAT bit the optics aren't good so it's never gonna happen except if you're big enough to have creative accountants and political/economic clout like Ikea and others.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s plenty of blog articles and YouTube videos out there that break it down, it’s quite elaborate if memory serves.

Disable your Javascript and then check out this 2006 Economist article and your mind will be blown (maybe): https://web.archive.org/web/20201112042116/https://www.econo...

[deleted]

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The complication is EXACTLY why we need to be even more in panic and hair-on-fire about environmental issues. A colleague did some analyses for the life cycle emissions of refrigerants. The complexity in the process was absurd, and basically intractable without simplifications. How much indirect CO2 emissions are caused by an inefficient compressor? How much does it depend on how you generate electricity? Which count…

> even more in panic and hair-on-fire about environmental issues Panic is rarely useful. It might lead you to move at high and low velocity.

that should be: high speed and low velocity.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IKEA has several “tranches” of cheap furniture. Some of it is solely designed to hit a price point (“a $10 chair”) and is made of cheap plywood, cheaply connected. Some of it is more the “can we pick some low hanging design fruit, apply massive scale, and create a decent chair for 20% of the price it would normally cost” variety. That furniture normally lasts a long time.

> Some of it is solely designed to hit a price point (“a $10 chair”) and is made of cheap plywood Isn't plywood actually stronger than real wood? It's even used for aircraft construction.

I have found that a little wood glue on the joints goes a long way in the IKEA furniture I have.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#369
Not disparaging IKEA at all--moves like this should be lauded--but this is a working forest, harvested for lumber. I can't speak to how sustainably it's harvested or anything, and while this is commendable, there is profit motive here, as IKEA is heavily dependent on wood for its products.

I think in general, supporting things like working forests from a government level (tax benefits) is probably something that isn't done enough, given forests are one of the best carbon sinks available to us.

Re: IKEA buys 11,000 acres of U.S. forest to keep it from being developed

#370
post #307
post #256

I never understood why people hate IKEA. Yes it's cheap. Yes it doesn't last a lifetime. Yes it needs a lot of wood. Yes it's highly optimized. But guess what, IKEA is a business responding to the needs of people. The negatives that are mentioned frequently are merely a symptom of our ever faster developing society. The people who complain are the same ones that just buy cheap crap from china without even thinking ab…

> I never understood why people hate IKEA. Did you read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA#Criticisms ? There seems to be many reasons to dislike the company, even as a happy customer. One thing that stuck with me is this: "The IKEA group has a complex corporate structure, which members of the European Parliament have alleged was designed to avoid over €1 billion in tax payments over the 2009–2014 period." It seems e…

This is an issue caused by the European Parliament. I'm sure if they want to stop this behaviour they could write some laws.
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