Blaming Billionaires for Stripped Screws

You’re probably familiar with Uline, the giant office supply catalog that clogs people’s mailboxes. You might not know that the owner of the company, Richard Uihlein, is a descendant of the family that took over Schlitz Brewing Company when Joseph Schlitz died in a shipwreck in 1875. Schlitz himself acquired the brewery from founder August Krug when he died, and married his widow!

The Uihlein family is Milwaukee old money more than almost any other family.

Richard Uihlein is a very rich man and a very politically active man who gives millions to various sinister right wing causes.

That would not irritate me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that some of the products he sells are, in my opinion, of low quality.

You know those plastic utility carts that almost every business has? I’m pretty convinced that the wheels on one of their more popular models are fitted with substandard screws. We replaced a cart recently and the person who installed the wheels stripped the screws, not out of negligence but because the screws are made with a cheap alloy that is soft. All so that Dick Uihlein can make an extra few cents on each cart.

Long story short, whoever installed the wheels put them on backwards - the swivel wheels and the fixed wheels were on the wrong ends of the cart. So I had to deal with these stripped screws and then schlep myself over to the hardware store to find replacements.

Readers of this blog know that I’m not a fan of plastic. Imagine how many thousands of years it will take for this giant hunk of plastic to degrade. The cart that broke that we replaced is already in the landfill.

—Alex

See also:
Billionaire megadonor couple funding election denial with extensive influence machine and dark money network
Open Secrets - September 15, 2023