Cell phones

Cell phones, those amazing little gadgets we’ve all become so dependent on, to the point that many of us no longer have a traditional land-line based telephone in our homes.

They are also something we’ve begun to get increasingly aggravated with, as carriers lock us into long term contracts with high financial penalties if we attempt to cancel the contracts for any reason.  Those contracts can look very attractive initially, but as time moves forward, and our lives change, they often become increasingly unwieldy monkeys riding on our backs.

Especially in the economy that has plagued us the last five years.

Faced with shifting fortunes, rising costs, and shrinking incomes, many people are desperate to reduce their monthly expenses, to get them to the point that their outgoing bills are less than their income.  That’s something our government isn’t very good at, not only for themselves, but for their constituents.  Corporations, however, seemed to have perfected the art of extracting blood from turnips.

With your cell phone carrier, they often have you over a barrel.  You can’t afford the monthly expense, but you certainly can’t afford the cancellation fee, or the negative notation on your credit history.  There aren’t a lot of options available, especially when you desperately need that cell phone, whether because it’s your sole connection with the outside world, or because you are searching for a job.

There are a few things, especially when faced with a temporary financial crunch, as well as some other things you can do to prevent being caught in the contract bind, while not causing undue financial hardship.

First, resist the urge to “upgrade” your phone at a reduced initial cost and renewing your contract.  This is where the cell phone companies are dangling a carrot out there, intending to keep you on THEIR treadmill.  Resist the temptation, and either continue using your old cell phone or buy another outright.  To keep costs down, you can often buy a used phone via Ebay or other outlets.  Do your research, make sure that the make and model is compatible with your carrier, as well as has some kind of guarantee from the seller that it will arrive in good condition.  You’ll still have to pay an activation fee.

If you don’t actually need a smart phone, skip the trend, stick with a basic function phone, which often can be used on a smaller data package.  These smaller plans without large data packages can save $10 or more per month, which can quickly add up.

Don’t add lines.  Each line comes with an additional contract, usually 24 months long.  If you have a need for additional phones, consider a prepaid option instead.  Then, if it turns out that it’s not needed anymore, you aren’t faced with an unnecessary bill.

If you are locked into a contract situation, and desperately need to cut your bills, there are a few options available.  Check to see if you can change the plan itself without altering your contract.  This option exists with many cell phone companies, and by switching to a basic phone with fewer bells and whistles, you can often cut your plan as much as a hundred dollars a  month.  Don’t cut it so short that you end up going over your limits however, overages are very expensive with many companies.

There is also the option of “suspending” your contract temporarily, usually up to 3 months.  This may have a monthly service charge, but it will allow you time to get your finances under control.

If you are not locked into a contract, you may want to explore other options, even if your finances and job situation looks bright and cheery.  By avoiding the contracts, you are free to explore other options as they become available, without having to wait.  That means everything from the latest iPhone to the different packages available.  It also means that if you are suddenly offered the perfect job in some exotic location, you won’t be biting off a chunk of that “early termination fee.”  Numerous companies offer prepaid plans, some even have iPhones and other smart phones available, complete with unlimited data and minute plans.  Straight Talk, available through Walmart, is one of them.  It is also serviced by the Big Three in cell phone providers: AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, depending on your location.  If you move and your old phone isn’t served in the new area, the problem is solved by simply purchasing another phone, and you are never stuck with a two year contract that leaves all of the cards in the cell phone company’s hands.

Contracts, ranging from one to three years, have become the bane of the consumer’s life.  They are everywhere, increasingly restrictive, designed to reduce competition for our dollars for years at a time, and ultimately reducing the level of service we manage to choke out of the various corporations.  Once you are locked into their services, its virtually impossible to change suppliers, no matter how terrible their service becomes.  It’s not a good trend, especially in a world that has increasing numbers of monopolies to which the consumers are becoming enslaved.

We don’t really have a choice about our electric, natural gas, water, cable, or land based telephone service, yet these companies want to often lock us into contracts to continue receiving their services, and leave the consumer with early termination fees if they decide to move out of their service area.  Cell phone companies do the same thing, using the carrot of reduced cost cell phones to entice customers to their two year enslavement.

To make it even worse, a cell phone is locked to a specific carrier, preventing the consumer from going to another carrier and acquiring service for that phone.  That means even if you aren’t locked into a contract and have a $500 cell phone, you have to buy their service, or buy another cell phone.  Is this really fair?  After all, you bought the cell phone, not leased it.  The cost was not subsidized by the cell phone company.

Something has to be done about all of these corporate monopolies with their abilities to turn us into their indentured serfs for years at a time.  In the meantime, the only way we can avoid that trap ourselves is to carefully read the fine print, avoid contracts with penalties for early termination, and learn to pay as we go.  Prepaid cell phones are one option, and unlike the early days when their fees were outrageously high, they have become increasingly competitive.  Today, Straight Talk, one of the larger prepaid companies, is part of TracFone, and it is marketed through Walmart.  Their unlimited voice and data plans are $45 per month, with no contract and no penalties if you don’t like it, but you do have to purchase the phone, which range in cost from about $19 to nearly $500, depending on features, models, and brands.  Their customers seem to be about equally as satisfied as those who are paying $110 or more for the same service with a contract.

So what does a person really get with the additional $65?

You get a two  year contract, and a reduced price on your phone, plus a $35 activation fee.  That means that at $110 per month, you will pay an extra $1595 for that cell phone in lieu of just purchasing it and going with a cheaper prepaid plan.  Outside of that, there is little difference between companies.  Sure, there is “tech support” with your contract phone, but have you ever used it?  Did it offer you any help?

There’s another reason to consider the no-contract phone.  In the case of a Straight Talk phone, Walmart offers a protection plan that includes water & humidity damage, and costs from $6 on up, depending on the initial cost of your phone.  With most companies, the “insurance” on your phone is about $7 per month, and in the event of water or humidity damage, the replacement can cost you $100 or more, as well as has to be mailed to you anyhow.  With Walmart’s protection plan, there is apparently no deductible on the phone, which means that the difference (in 2 years) can be over $160 per month for better coverage.

Then there are the hidden charges on contract cell phone service, all of those mysterious taxes and service fees that really will surprise you, as they approach increasing the price 20-25% per month.  Without the contract, the fees are included, providing you with a manageable price per month that can be adapted to  your budget.

Sure, there are no “discounts” on the phones initially.  They have to be paid for, along with shipping (if you don’t pick it up in the store) and taxes.  But…in the first two years alone, assuming you don’t damage the phone or get a huge desire to have the latest iPhone or smart phone, you will save $1757, minus the cost of your phone.  Even the phone’s cost may not be as high as you think–it isn’t uncommon for the phone from the carrier to cost $100-300 more than your “discount”, leaving you with a big bill.  The same phone or a similar phone with similar features, may be available from a no-contract program at roughly the same price.

The no contract phones are also an excellent idea for parents with a child acquiring their first cell phone, a teen with a new cell phone, or even a college student’s cell phone needs.  It means no surprise overages resulting in bill shock.  An inexpensive phone for calls and simple texting can be a solution for a child, who is more likely to lose or damage a phone.  (Loss is not part of the coverage from Walmart’s protection plan.)  If a cell phone is lost, there are also no worries that there will be calls to Dubai and Hong Kong suddenly appearing on your bill either.  These cheap cell phones can also be considered a temporary or “throw away” solution to a short term cell phone need–if an additional phone is needed during an emergency or travel.  They also offer international plans, handy if calling out of the country, as well as plans for 3 months, 6 months, or a full  year.  Imagine trying to pay a year in advance on your contract phone!

I’ve talked to customers that have used Straight Talk, and they are generally happy with the service they have received, whether it was their first cell phone or a replacement for the contract cell phone.  I also know people with a number of other carriers, including Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and C-Spire.  The ones with other carriers are usually not as happy, and often are chafing at the bit for their contract to end, whether for financial reasons or because another company offers a desirable service or phone that is not available with their current carrier.  Sometimes it is due to relocation, and the service available in their new area is not as good as it was in the old area, leaving them paying for substandard reception or perks such as a local store that repairs their phone.

With a no-contract service, you are still free to choose to use a traditional contracted service at any time, if it turns out that you aren’t happy with it.  The sole complaint that I have noticed with no-contract services is number portability–it can be expensive, not available, or a pain.  If this is not an issue, one way to test the waters is to buy an inexpensive phone from one of the companies and try it before terminating your contract.

The phones can be served by one of three carriers, and not all carriers are available in all areas, and even in the areas that they are available, they may not offer the same type of reception.  There are also many issues with both 3G and 4G service, especially in small towns and rural areas.  Read reviews, find out which phones are served by the company that offers the best service for your area, as well as the areas in which you frequently travel.  In my case, I know that Verizon does not service the area in which my daughter lives, and therefore, I would not consider using Verizon as a contract carrier OR via a prepaid program.  Unfortunately, both AT&T and Sprint have spotty coverage throughout the rural areas of my home state, so either one could also leave me without a signal while traveling elsewhere.  That problem is true for most of us in the United States–no carrier provides complete coverage anywhere.

In addition to prepaid plans from companies like TracFone, the cell phone companies often offer a prepaid plan.  Unfortunately, they often don’t let you use the same phone that you may have used with their contract service, requiring you to purchase a different phone (at full price, with limited choices.)  Even with that, for many people, their services may be a better option.

Avoid the contracts when possible, and keep your independence and freedom of choice–it’s the best choice for your financial future as well.  Never set yourself up to end up with a big bill by adding friends or relatives to  your contract service unless you truly are independently wealthy.  Instead, opt for the no-contract version, even if you purchase the phone and plan, you will protect yourself from unexpectedly large bills in the future.

Write your representatives and senators, asking them to offer the consumer relief from these unwieldy contracts that favor the corporations, as well as to legally unlock cell phones and make them able to work with any carrier, and removing the monopolies that plague us all.  It’s high time that corporations began being accountable for their services, rather than able to rape the consumer with high rates, poor service, and long contracts with large penalties.

How to deal with Tassimo customer service

It may come as a huge surprise, but I am often curious about those who read my blog, including those who find it via a search engine.  So, with that at the forefront of my mind, I checked the stats on this blog.  Most of them weren’t a surprise, but the really big surprise is how often people read it because of their Tassimo machine and its accompanying woes.

I can really relate to that.

I loved the machine, and despised the company and their utter lack of effective customer service.  I despised it so much that the machine was discarded.  Today, I get my coffee with a cheap $10 drip coffee maker, a stove top expresso pot or via my Melitta little plastic filter holder that sits on top of my mug and drips the boiling water through the grounds and into my waiting mug below.  If I want hot milk added, it is heated either on the stove or in the microwave, and then frothed with a little battery operated frother.

I’m certain that a huge chunk of the reason I ended up with high blood pressure was dealing with Tassimo’s customer service.

It really IS that bad.

It also made me think very hard about my priorities.

If customer service for a product is so bad that it causes me that much stress, does it really matter how well the machine performs?

In my case, I decided that the Tassimo machine was nearly the devil incarnate.  Yes, when the machine worked, I loved the coffee it produced.  I loved the convenience of having a hot latte, plain coffee, or expresso on demand, with no more preparation than plopping a disk into the machine.  That part was great.  It was attempting to order disks from Tassimo, as well as trying to deal with a malfunctioning machine, that drove me to the point of screaming fury.

Even worse, it wasn’t just once.  It was over and over as I tried to resolve issues and problems.

By the time the replacement machine arrived, there was such a bad taste in my mouth at even the mere thought of “Tassimo” that the coffee tasted like crap.  I still had several unopened packages of the coffees for the machine when I realized that until I got rid of it, it would be like some mechanical demon haunting my life, disrupting my personal pool of tranquility, and generally introducing chaos and conflict into it.

There was no other answer.

That machine had to go.  It had become my own version of “Christine” as a coffeemaker, with its own life and agenda, and they were in direct conflict with mine.  Judging from the sheer number of people searching for information on how to deal with Tassimo customer service, I wasn’t alone.  For those who want a summary of the blow by blow experience in 2010 with Tassimo customer service (and that term is used VERY loosely here!) I’ve listed the blog entries from that period of time.  The final chapter, the disposal of the machine, isn’t given its own entry.  I just wanted to get it out of my life without further incident.

1. September 1, 2010 blog entry: Consumer anger and my Tassimo coffee maker
2. September 10, 2010 blog entry: Quitting smoking and the Tassimo Fiasco update
3. September 22, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo customer service round 2 plus Slovenia, China, Asia, Mexico and more!
4. October 14, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo Customer (cough inserted here) Service–Round 3
5. October 22, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo saga continues…
6. October 26, 2010 blog entry: The Tassimo saga continues…and still no machine!
7. October 28, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo Customer Service Saga continues-the first 24 hours
8. October 29, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo does it again!!!!!!!
9. October 29, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo does it again! Part 2
10. October 31, 2010 blog entry: Tassimo miracle? IT ARRIVED
11. November 3, 2010 blog entry: To be or not to be: the Tassimo

For those who are still dealing with Tassimo and their customer service, here are some suggestions.

1. Call daily, even though it is inconvenient and aggravating.  Return the favor.
2. Write down the representative’s name, the date and time of the call, and what you are told by that representative about your problem.
3. If you get conflicting information or a non-responsive representative (almost guaranteed that this will happen) ask to speak to a supervisor.
4. Write down the supervisor’s name, as well as the date and time and a summary of what you are told.
5. Tell others about your experience, and maybe someone will be spared the indignities and aggravation that you are experiencing.  Post your reviews everywhere you can.  Some suggested locations are the retail website of the store from which you purchased the machine, Viewpoints, and Pissed Consumer.   Don’t forget Tassimo’s own website.
6. Always stay polite, even when you really wish you could climb through the phone line and strangle the representative…slowly.
7. Don’t give up.  For me, it took about two months to resolve the problem, at least “sort of” resolve the problem. Tassimo does not move quickly to give satisfaction to the consumer.
8. Above all, don’t let the experience ruin your life.  It’s aggravating, but letting companies get by with crappy customer service is also not acceptable.

With all of that said, good luck with YOUR Tassimo.  I hope your experience is better than mine was.

Profits and employee morale have a direct connection

Recently, I read a long winded article talking about the worst rated companies in the United States.  The writer often drew a parallel between decreasing profits and employee morale.  There are some solid reasons behind this, and it is something that is often overlooked by company CEOs looking to restore a company’s market share and image.

I really think these CEOs must live in a glass bubble.  Surely they don’t ever talk with the lowly employees, or even do much shopping themselves.  This is a concept that should be immediately apparent.

Unhappy employees do not perform well.

Threats of termination or disciplinary action aren’t going to do much to make them happy, either.  That type of reaction to their lack of stellar performance will undoubtedly have the reverse effect, and the increasingly poor performance aren’t going to increase the bottom line either.

Employees as a whole are not incredibly complicated creatures.  They have a few basic needs, and by addressing these, the overall morale improves, along with job performance and efficiency.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a PhD to figure it out either.

Employees want to feel valued.

Employees want to feel as though their opinions and ideas matter.

Employees want to be treated fairly.

Employees want reasonable job security.

Employees want good health care because it shows that the company values its employees and their families.

Employees want reasonable hours, shifts, overtime, vacations, and off days.

Employees want opportunities for advancement.

Employees want to feel safe at their job.

Employees do not want to work with people that are not performing their job or are taking risks/liberties that put other workers at risk.

Okay, so “employees” isn’t a separate sub-species of human.  It can’t be entirely generalized, but the concepts are generalized enough to fit most situations and most people.  It really all comes down to whether or not the company is showing that they do value their workers, really.  Everything from vacation, family  leave, health care policies, advancement, pay raises, safety, etc. are part of that overall concept.  A truly good employer is capable of recognizing that one of their workers is a member of an ethnic minority/religious group that has a particular holiday of great importance and then attempting to accommodate that employee’s desires to observe this holiday.  It’s capable of recognizing that an employee has a sick child/parent/spouse and needs some extra time off and flexibility with their job temporarily and works to make the situation reasonable.

Sure, these situations are capable of becoming quite sticky.  They may cost a bit.  In the long run, the employee being accommodated is happier and feels a sense of connection with the company, and the other employees are also feeling the same positive things.  These aren’t huge things, and aren’t incredibly expensive either.

The same with fair treatment.  Seeing employees being rewarded or disciplined fairly sends a message to other employees, encouraging them to perform better.  Knowing that raises and other concrete rewards exist for positive reinforcement enhance that performance too, the same as fair disciplinary action against those who fail to perform properly does.

Firing employees for minor infractions, threatening to fire, and making statements about how a new hire is waiting on the street sends a very clear message to the employee. The company doesn’t care whether or not they stay or perform well while they are there, since obviously their position could be filled by anyone.  Why bother trying to do anything other than find a better job at any cost when in that situation?

Employee loyalty doesn’t come cheap, and it’s not easy to acquire either.  It requires consistent effort from the company to cultivate, and it can be lost in the blink of an eye and one slip by an incompetent manager.  However, when a company has that employee loyalty, it’s worth millions, often quite literally, in terms of performance.  Companies that treat their employees very well are seldom advertising for new hires, if ever.  They don’t struggle to find warm bodies to fill those slots, because word-of-mouth has already filled the applications needed to find the perfect new employee.  Without a continual turn over of employees, there is stability in the company and a consistent performance that everyone can count on, from customers to shareholders.

So wake up, company CEOs, and smell the coffee.  Happy, healthy, and efficient employees can mean that you are still collecting those bonuses ten years from now, instead of being asked to step down, and it doesn’t matter if you are selling a necessity or luxury.  Your employees are an important cog in your company’s bottom line and it’s long past time to recognize that.

Sears, housing, and our economy

Sears & Roebuck…remember them?  If you do, you are probably in the same age group as me.

I’m no huge historian of Sears trivia, but when I was a kid, we had two fat catalogs that were staples in our house.  The Sears catalog and the “Monkey Wards” (Montgomery Wards) catalog.  At Christmas time, as children, we’d pour through the Christmas catalog, wishing and dreaming.

I think it was the same for my mother’s generation, and probably her mother’s as well.  Those catalogs had everything from underwear to roller skates and appliances in them.  I remember hearing stories from days gone by how the black & white pages were the best during the recycling process.  That’s when they became toilet paper in the outhouse, and I have to admit…I’m not sorry to have missed THOSE days.

I do know that long before I was born, Sears used to sell houses too.  Not like a real estate agent, but rather as kits that the proud new owner could assemble himself.  The kits came complete with plans and all of the lumber, siding, nails, windows, floors, etc.  They had a number of plans available, and once ordered, the complete house kit would be shipped to the nearest railroad station, where the new owner would pick it up in their wagon and bring home to assemble.  I guess it would be considered the ancestor of what is today regarded as “pre-fab”, manufactured, or modular housing.

Wouldn’t it be cool if such a thing was still available?  The novelty of having your house arrive in some crates, with pre-cut lumber and all of the other bits you needed to finish your house, right down to the paint?  Oh, and that it was made to conform to building codes too.

Yeah, dream on, right?

Still, with the new leaning towards smaller-is-better in terms of actual footprints, I think it’s an idea that could do with some revisiting.  The kits, built to UBC’s standards, would have a set of plans that you purchased prior to purchasing the house kit itself, to allow  you to get your permit to erect it.  Then, when you had your approval for the house to be built on your site, the kit would arrive.  Maybe there would be pre-assembled panels that bolted together, maybe it would be mostly cut-to-length lumber and other parts, but it could be done.  The directions would include which points you stop for the various inspections along the way too.  It could be done, I’m certain of it.

But Sears doesn’t sell house kits anymore.  I’m not sure if they even have a catalog anymore.  I don’t bother shopping there anymore either, and it seems that a lot of America has quit shopping there.  Have you stopped to think of why that has happened?

Even when my kids were young, Sears still did the catalog thing.  Sure, you could go into the local store and there were some things in stock to buy, but most of what I bought was ordered out of the catalog.  It arrived in the store for pickup a week or two after I ordered it.  I’d go in, pay cash for my order, and take the treasured item home with me. I ordered a number of things from Sears back then, from my boots for work to my daughter’s canopy bed.  It was easy, economical, and accessible.

Then, they closed down those Mom & Pop franchises, after they nationalized or whatever their repair process too.

Remember how reliable the Sears repair people used to be?  You called, you got a repairman out in a day or two at the latest.  Then, they did their standardizing thing, and the repairman wasn’t local and you had to call some distant call center to get a repairman, who wasn’t coming to fix that broken washer/refrigerator/dryer/whatever for at least a week.  In addition, try explaining where you are located when you live in a remote rural area to someone who has never visited your state.

They told me my address didn’t exist.  Repeatedly.

Then, when I finally DID get a repairman…he was late, rude, and generally made me very uncomfortable with being alone in the house with him.  That was the last Sears appliance I ever bought.  Catalog shopping and appliances were out with Sears, and with the nearest store suddenly over an hour away, in a much larger town, they now were competing solely with other department stores in the mall, in terms of availability, location, and prices.

For me, they didn’t make the cut.  Other department stores seemed to offer more, with more courteous service, for the same or less in terms of dollars.  I already disliked Sears, and they weren’t doing anything to win me back.

As the years went by, there were fewer and fewer reasons to go to Sears.   Then, the internet exploded onto the scene, and suddenly, catalog shopping was back, with new interactive online versions.  Payment was instant, shipping was faster, and companies could let us know within minutes if an item was in stock or not.  Who needed Sears anymore?

Well, it seems that Sears is reaping the benefits of their actions of the past.  Crappy customer service, shoddy imported goods, poor repair service habits, and boom…about all they had going for their company was the credit card.  With the economic bust we’ve had, credit wasn’t a very good business all of a sudden, as more and more people began defaulting on credit lines they could no longer afford.  Sears is in trouble, and now they are bringing in a new CEO.

Will it work?

I am not a financial expert, but I am a very experienced consumer.  Unless Sears begins to give the customer a reason to continue shopping with them, there won’t be much for repeat business.   Crappy customer service and shoddy imported goods are a dime a dozen these days–it’s everywhere.  America is about up to its gills in outsourced customer service and manufacturing too.

If Sears wants to survive, let alone thrive, in the modern times, maybe it better think about covering the basics and standing out from the crowd.  Sure, it’s cheaper to hire a call center in some foreign country, just like it is to have your goods manufactured in countries that have lower pay rates and fewer safety regulations to protect the workers, but that doesn’t mean that cheaper is better.

So what are the basics?  It starts with  your employees, that’s the ones that do customer service.  It’s the ones that make the difference in the stores and on the phone and online too.  Then, it’s what you are selling.  America wants decent goods.  It really does help if they are actually made in America.

What works for Sears is what made Mom & Pop stores across America thrive before the advent of cheap imported goods and massive discount corporations.  We’re struggling, we’re uncertain, and we want security and familiarity.  I’d rather go buy a vacuum cleaner from my neighbor than to go to a store where there are thousands of them lined up in a row and I may as well be receiving assistance from a robot as I make my choice.  I want someone who can answer my questions.  I want a company that promises and delivers service, whether it is during the purchase or when I need the item repaired.  I want to be treated fairly.

I am American.  I am a consumer.  I am their customer.

I would like to be treated with courtesy and respect.  Wouldn’t you?

I think it is long past time for these struggling stores and chains to begin recognizing that basic desire in their prospective and current customers.  There is a reason why a few companies are surviving and thriving, while others are not.  It’s not just about the lowest bottom line, despite the fact that most of us have a lot less to spend than we used to.  It’s about being treated fairly and decently too.  Going shopping should not make us feel like we’re “girding our loins” for a battle.  We shouldn’t be made to feel inferior.  When we have a complaint about something, we shouldn’t ever have a store manager claim we are an “uneducated consumer”.  (I have actually had that happen with one big box electronic store–she called me to chew me out for giving the store a poor rating after a negative experience with an ignorant clerk and very limited stock in the item I was looking for.)

Wake up, corporations.  The natives are getting restless.

Morality, the masses, and reality

Watching the news regarding Black Friday sales, it’s dawned on me that most people absolutely do not give a shit about what they do to get what they want.

Morality seems to be non-existent.  So does humanity.

Oh don’t get me wrong, I am a very prudent shopper, often waiting as long as a year to get what I want at an appropriate price.  I’m picky, but I care more than just about the price.

I want quality and customer service too.  I certainly don’t think it’s appropriate to duke it out over a bin of cell phones or iPods or whatever.  I don’t need anything bad enough to act like a starving hyena.  I also don’t need anything bad enough to deal with rude retail staff.  I refuse to buy a second product, no matter how attractive the price is, if I receive crappy customer service.

Yeah, that means that I refuse to buy certain items because of customer service.  I’ll never own another Tassimo and wouldn’t purchase one if it was $5, at a Black Friday sale or otherwise, because I’ve had such horrible experience, both with their online retail operation and with customer support for the coffee maker itself.  Yes, I loved the coffee maker, but it didn’t make such good coffee when I had the bitter taste of THAT experience in my mouth.

I’m just like everyone else, I have to stretch my dollars as far as possible.  Sometimes, we do without.  Sometimes, the sole deciding factor in purchase decisions is the almighty dollar…and sometimes the decision is we-can’t-afford-it.  But to duke it out over a bin of…cellphones?  C’mon!

Why not turn the whole thing into a treasure hunt instead?  Make it fun and a case of getting lucky rather than who can throw the best left hook.  Drawings for the opportunity to purchase one of the limited number items at the special price, with additional entries for every $XX amount spent or something.  Hidden coupons for $XX off a single item, maybe?

Something more civilized.  Something less lethal too.

Anything but this horrible Black Friday national fight.

Black Friday Sales

Black Friday.

It’s starting on Thanksgiving Day today.  I have some pretty mixed feelings about it.  There’s a lot going on with the whole thing.

First of all, whether you want to call it a recession or depression or merely a downturn in the economy, most families are struggling.  Encouraging mass consumerism is just ridiculous.  Many people are worried about paying for the basics, forget mass holiday spending.

Walmart is the hot spot for a lot of people and Black Friday shopping.  They get a little bit crazed over it too.  We’ve seen years where people at Walmart, innocent workers who are not even making enough to live on, end up killed or injured.  Customers have also been injured in the fray for a cheap toaster or waffle iron or some electronic gizmo that will undoubtedly die before the next Black Friday arrives.

The whole name is taking on a more ominous meaning than the original one.  Originally, this was the day that retailers moved into the black with holiday shopping beginning.  Now, it implies grief and mourning and strife and disaster.

For the average family, there are a lot of dilemmas.  First, they have to stretch their budget.  Maybe their toaster died or they don’t have one and really want one even if they can’t afford it.  Buying it at an ultra cheap price means the difference between buying it or not.  Maybe they have four kids, and buying gifts on this mad day means the difference between having equivalent gifts for each child instead of being able to only afford gifts for 2.5 children.  They are motivated by their economic issues to fight the crowds and craziness to try and score that limited buy item.  I understand their motivation.

What I don’t understand is a company that has switched from selling American products to selling mostly cheap imported goods still being welcomed into more and more communities, where it kills the mom & pop and local businesses, then starts reducing the number of items that they carry.  Sure, they’ve ventured into mail order, and from personal experience, they haven’t learned anything about customer service either.  Sometimes, I wonder if it isn’t outsourced to some foreign country where proficiency in English is minimal.

Then, there are the employees.  Too many times, I’ve walked into a store with a manager ranting at the employees about something, haranguing them, and being less-than-managerial in their demeanor.  I’ve known employees of this multi-billion dollar corporation too.  They didn’t make enough to live on, instead depending on help from family, as well as government subsidies such as low income housing and food stamps.  They didn’t have insurance, and their schedules kept them working few enough hours that they just never quite were able to get insurance.  This wasn’t one store, or one town either.  This was many stores in many towns in many states.  This company doesn’t bring prosperity to a town, it sucks the very blood out of a town and smiles while it does it, happy to have been given tax credits and numerous government incentives in many cases to build in that town and destroy its economy.  The government continues subsidizing it by aiding the workers, bringing them from starvation to almost making enough to actually stay alive on.  In these cases, free school lunches, medical assistance, rent assistance, food stamps…it’s all part of the package, folks!

Maybe they should use that as part of their recruitment spiel.

So this very successful company continues sucking the blood of America.  The workers, not represented by a union, attempt to plan a strike to hit at the most critical time for this blood sucker…Black Friday.  It’s also the time when they are most vulnerable, with higher bills, holiday pressures, job fears, and job risks are all coming into play.

Will enough of them walk out and actually strike on Black Friday to make a difference?  Will this vampirish big brother of retail be forced to address their issues?

I have to admit, I don’t think they will be successful.  Too many of the workers depend too much on a paycheck that is too small for what they do.  Their spouses and children need them to go to that job and work every minute they can between now and the end of the year.

For them, Black Friday isn’t about iPods and iPads, laptops and toasters, televisions and shiny trinkets.  It’s about survival and swallowing the bitter pill of the reality of their lives.

Think about where you are spending your money and what you are therefore supporting.  Do you honestly appreciate cheap foreign goods, poor customer service, long lines, chaos, and poorly treated employees suffering through what is not much different than sweat shop treatment?  (We won’t talk about goods made under even worse conditions in foreign countries, which is how they can ship you that cheap item to begin with.)

You are voting with your dollars.  Think about where you are casting that vote.

Fair Trade, reasonable working conditions, human rights, consumer rights…all of these things are actually determined by where and how you choose to spend your dollars.

So when you go to that Black Market sale, look not only at the harried workers forced to give up their Thanksgiving holiday for your shopping experience, but at the labels that tell you where an item was made.  It tells you if it’s a fair trade item.  Think about those working conditions in foreign countries.

If you aren’t one of those harried workers who was left with no choice but to show up to work on Thanksgiving Day….I’m sorry.  I won’t be standing in line to make your day any worse.  I’ll be at home taking a nap.

What will you be doing?

Stupidity of Daylight Savings time and election mania?

I’ve ranted about it before, and I will rant about it again today…and twice a year for as long as the idiocy continues.  Daylight savings time is an idiotic concept, dreamed up and perpetuated by ridiculous propaganda that far too many people buy into.  If it saves so much energy…why don’t we just STAY on that time?  What do people really think they are saving?

But speaking about ridiculous propaganda, have  you paid much attention to the stuff circulating on the social media sites as people wave the figurative flag of their favored candidate?

It’s made me realize, with a two party system, we really are given a choice.

Between a rock and a hard place.

That’s about all the difference I really see between the parties.  The parties and their candidates are so far out of touch with what life is like for Average Joe and Average Jane that we may as well elect Brad Pitt for president.

Heck, he might even do a better job.  If not, well, at least he’d make interesting photo ops, right?

Neither party represents what we’ll call the “working man” of American society.  They don’t have a clue what our lives are like.

Like Mitt Romney’s wife, featured in an article about how she went shopping at Sam’s Club.  She was immensely proud of her ability to feed a large gathering of family for only $4.50 per person for the meal.  I don’t think she’d be too happy with my food budget, capped at $5 per person per day.  Some months, if there are extra bills to pay, well…the food budget gives up a portion of it’s funding to cover the deficit.  She’d even be more horrified to discover that if I’m serving guests, it comes out of the monthly budget, not an extra slush fund.  So does holiday cooking, as a matter of fact.  While the Romneys might not be concerned at the reports of higher prices for serving up the traditional turkey dinner later this month, for the rest of us, that IS a concern.  We can’t spend what we’re not earning, and there are still not enough jobs to get everyone back to work that has been looking for work since this recession started.  It’s unfortunate that with each passing year, we’ve seen more jobs going overseas too.

For those of us struggling to make ends meet, to pay our bills, and to just get by, while family members are unemployed or underemployed…having to deal with an English-is-a-second-language customer service rep in some foreign country is really a slap in the face.  It’s another reminder of how many jobs we’ve lost to countries with lower standards of living and more relaxed workplace laws.

In the stores, it’s hard to buy American made goods.  It’s harder yet to buy from companies that have American based customer service.  I don’t think it’s an unrealistic expectation that if I buy an item or service with American money while I am in the United States, that customer service will be provided in the United States as well.

Then, there is health care.  I’ll admit, I am not thrilled with the Obamacare package, but…I wasn’t thrilled with nothing either.  Do I think that it’s the best that our government could come up with?  No…and it shouldn’t be so long that nobody can possibly read it and understand what it says either.  That’s the problem with these bills–they are excessively complicated and too often contain unrelated stuff.  Each bill should be one thing, written in a manner that any average person can understand it, but they aren’t.  Washington has become a place of bureaucrats worried about perpetuating their own existence, whether elected or appointed or hired.

The part that I think stinks is the idea that people are to be forced to buy health insurance.  Seriously, I don’t know anyone who can afford health insurance and opts to just not buy it for some reason.  I’ve priced it, long before Obama was ever heard of, and there was no way I could afford it, even just major medical was about 30% of my monthly take home pay, and there wasn’t any way I could give up that much of my monthly income and survive.  Utilities, rent, and automobile insurance already took care of about 80% of my net pay!  That left very little for luxuries such as food, gasoline, clothing, medical expenses, and assorted sundries.  Taking a second job wasn’t an option, really–my job required extensive overtime already, and while I was paid for it…that extra overtime is what was used for those “luxuries” I bought.

So I read the things that the candidates say, I read the things that their opponents say about them.  I read the things their supporters say about them.  I read the “fact checker” articles.

I’ve concluded that I was right.  We do have a choice between a rock and a hard place.  It then comes down to specific issues that are…or are not…supported by the two parties.

What concerns me?

1. Women’s rights, including reproductive rights.  I’m pro-choice, and before anyone gets their underwear in a wad over that…let me clarify that statement.  I am pro-choice, not pro-abortion.  There is a very clear difference.  While I don’t think that abortion is the right choice for me, in any circumstances that I have actually faced, I also don’t think that it is the government’s job to make that decision for me…or any other woman.   I don’t think my boss should be able to decide if my insurance is going to cover birth control either.  There are many reasons and many circumstances for a woman’s choice, and few women are going to choose to use abortion as birth control if they have any conscience or concept of right and wrong.  If they don’t have those things, well, do we really want her reproducing anyhow?  Morality cannot be legislated, and there should not be an attempt to do so.  Laws are to protect society as a whole, and allow individuals to not have their personal rights infringed upon by others.  While that includes freedom of religion, it does not give anyone the right to impose their religious standards and expectations on others.  Period.
2. Right to bear arms.  Okay, these mass murders we’ve had at schools and theaters have been horrific and shouldn’t have happened.  Yes, I know many other civilized countries have banned weapons of all kinds.  That doesn’t mean I support weapons being banned in this country.  Regulated and restricted perhaps, but not banned.  Assault rifles aren’t needed for hunting or self-protection.  Automatic rifles and handguns aren’t either.  Armor penetrating ammunition and weapons are also not particularly appealing to think of my neighbor having and using for target practice.  I think we need to address the underlying causes of these incredible acts of violence more than act on restricting gun ownership excessively.  Do we ban bathtubs for the accidents they cause?  Have pools been banned due to the high numbers of children that have drowned in them?  Do we still allow downhill skiing after people die in skiing accidents?  How about cars and car accidents and their fatalities?
3. Same sex marriage.  I’m not gay, and I never was.  I’m not even bi-sexual.  I am in a traditional marriage, even if our wedding was far from traditional.  My parents weren’t gay, neither is my daughter.  That doesn’t mean that I can’t support the concept of equality among all Americans.  While I don’t deny that states can allow or forbid same sex marriage according to their citizens’ wishes, I don’t think that the federal government should be able to override those states’ rights to choose either.  Currently, federal law does not allow federal employees in a legal same sex marriage to enjoy the same benefits for their spouses that someone in a so-called traditional marriage enjoys.  I think this is wrong.  I have little hope of Mississippi, my current home state, is going to legalize same sex marriages anytime soon.  It’s got far too high of a percentage of ultra conservative citizens for that to happen.  But, if it was allowed…I don’t think the federal government should deny benefits to those people’s spouses because they don’t agree with it.
4. Education.  It wasn’t working, so they tried “No Child Left Behind.”  That’s working about as well as new math did.  It’s absolutely not working, instead of educating kids and preparing them for the real world, whether that includes college or a job, kids are spending the year prepping for their standardized test.  Something else needs to be done, and this ineffective method of measuring both school and teacher performance needs replaced with something a bit more effective.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you went to a fast food restaurant, local store, or other location with staff that needs nothing beyond high school to get a job…and they actually could SPEAK American Standard English?  How many high school students can actually write down a coherent telephone message that anyone could read and understand, let alone write an essay for a college class?
5. Jobs/Industry.  Face it.  We lack an industrial base and we’re importing too many goods.  We need jobs, we have willing workers.  We need to figure out how to get people back to work, back to creating the things that made America into what it was.  We need factories running, producing goods that are high quality and reliable.  We’ve all had enough of cheap, shoddy, imported garbage.
6. National Transit System.  We rebuilt Europe’s trains after World War II, or so I’m told, but we can’t get trains to cover the USA in anything resembling efficient and cost effective.  It costs more to ride a train than it does to take a plane or even drive, and Amtrak is subsidized by the federal government.  Few cities have train stations where passengers and small freight can be economically transported to the next city, county, state, or anywhere.  In addition, the transit times when trains are used are utterly ridiculous.  We need efficient mass transportation beyond the urban bus and subway systems.  We need it both within states and to other cities and states, providing efficient and low cost transportation coast to coast.  Putting such a rail system into place would employ thousands of people, from creating the infrastructure to service jobs when it is up and running.  It would appeal to foreign tourists as well, especially since most industrialized countries have train systems already.
7. Legalization of hemp & medical marijuana.  Hemp is a good crop, and it’s good for a lot of applications.  It can be used for making rope, paper, and clothing, as well as a host of other things.  It’s a good fiber, and more durable than cotton.  Medical marijuana is a good product too, when properly used.  Even recreational marijuana is less of a problem with the users than those people using alcohol.  Taxed and regulated, it would remove marijuana from the hands of drug cartels, reducing their income and clout not only in the United States, but in the countries where their supplies of marijuana are grown and prepared for smuggling into the United States.  The tax revenue would enhance the American budget, maybe even bringing the annual deficit down a notch, especially if recreational use was legalized.
8. Energy.  We’re going to have to bite the bullet and come up with alternative energy plans.  We’ve seen the disasters nuclear reactors can deliver.  We’re seeing the disaster of the oil industry, each and every day.  We need inexpensive and efficient energy to recreate a strong economy.  We don’t have it, therefore, we need to figure out how to get it.  If we got a man to the moon, not once, but several times, and did it with computers that had less power than the old Nintendo 64…surely we can figure this problem out.  Quit subsidizing the oil industry and let them struggle on their own, they’ve been milking America too long.  Devote attention to alternative energy that is less costly, both to the consumer and the environment, and put America at the forefront again.
9. Taxes.  Corporations.  Okay, taxes are something nobody wants to pay.  We’re all a bit tired of corporate entities making huge profits while paying little in terms of taxes, and then adding to the insult by outsourcing portions of their business to foreign countries.  We’re sick of them lobbying Congress for favoritism.  We’re tired of paying the bill, you might say.  It’s time to start taking a good hard look at how corporations are affecting the way we elect politicians, and how they affect the bills that go through Congress to become laws.  It’s a form of corruption, folks.  Plain and simple.  These corporations are doing nothing more than paying politicians for favors, no matter how it is sugar coated.
10. Foreign aid.  I really do not understand why we are borrowing money only to give it away to other countries.  That makes no sense to me.  If I am unable to pay my bills without borrowing money, it would be foolish to give my money to other people after I borrowed it.  Why is the federal government continuing to do something that any of us would look askance at a private individual doing?  I think it’s time that foreign aid is cut back, if not eliminated, and there should be more accountability as to why we’re giving it to anyone.

There are a lot more issues too, more than I could possibly put in here, but those are the top ten ones.  Neither party is very concerned about all of them.  None of the candidates are either.  So who do I vote for?

I’ll cast a vote in less than forty eight hours now.

I have no idea who I’m going to vote for right now.  Just when I think one candidate or another has trumped finally, they show signs of obviously reneging.  I was never a fan of Obama, so I have to admit that he has done better than I thought he would.  At the same time, the Romney/Ryan ticket isn’t exactly thrilling either.  I’m not a Romney fan, and the idea of something happening that would catapult Ryan into the Oval Office makes me gag.  Biden’s not a rocket scientist either though, and I actually had someone crack a joke about Biden being Obama’s “insurance policy” so that no one would assassinate him–they were afraid that Biden would then become president.

Once again, it seems that I’m faced with a choice of who I am going to vote against rather than who I am going to go vote for.  Which candidate has the most potential to cause harm?  Are we better off with the devil we know…or a new devil?

Oh will I be glad when Tuesday is over.  I’ll have my mind back, as well as cease to see the endless parade of pro-this candidate or anti-that candidate on my Facebook wall!

GMOs, food allergies, gluten intolerance, health and people

I have been thinking a lot lately.  Some may claim this is a dangerous activity.  Maybe it is, but it certainly allows dots to be connected in new and innovative ways.  Maybe some of the topics of my mind have been on the mark, and maybe they haven’t been.  It’s certainly ideas to give further consideration.

First, let’s turn back the hands of the clock to another era, one that was quite some time ago, when the group of people we know today as the Amish were a new “cult.”

Many of these people emigrated to the United States, where they took up new lives and established communities and farms.  Initially, they didn’t appear much different than their neighbors.  Almost everyone in a rural community was a farmer, so their farms were the norm of the era.

Their clothing wasn’t much different either.  Everyone dressed fairly similar to the way the Amish dressed.  The men’s beards weren’t notably different either, nor was the hair styles worn by the women.  Everyone used horses and buggies.  No one had telephones or electricity.  Everyone ate fairly similar foods.  Children usually only went to school through the eighth grade, if they went to school at all, in a one room schoolhouse which they walked to.  Probably the sole difference was in the services themselves, for the Quakers also usually held their services in members’ homes.

The differences between the Amish only began to appear as industrialization began.  With each step forward in terms of technology, the Amish evaluated it in terms of their belief system and decided whether or not to accept it as being a reasonable addition to their lives.  They slowed the process of change in their society, which made their differences begin to become more noticeable.  Now, nearly a hundred years after electricity became commonly available, the differences are easily seen between the Amish society and mainstream society.

That’s not to say that the Amish haven’t paid a high price for their choice to remain separate from mainstream America.  It’s meant that their gene pool is much more condensed, as marriages to outsiders have become increasingly rare.  That’s allowed certain genetic diseases to appear with a higher than normal frequency.  That has also allowed medical science a chance to approach these almost unknown diseases with more confidence about treatment, better testing, and long term prognosis.  While it’s difficult for those that have inherited this surprise genetic package, it’s also meant that society as a whole has also benefited from their long term choices to remain apart.

If we continue to look back to the era in which the Amish originated, we also will find that medical science didn’t have much to offer anyone.  It was pretty ignorant of a number of things, ranging from sanitation to genetics.  While it doesn’t have all of the answers and often doesn’t like some of the modern questions about our health, we also couldn’t accurately diagnose some things, such as diabetes, cancer, food allergies, etc.

Even so, it seems that the average person was far healthier and more robust than the average person today.  Gluten intolerance, something that seems to be hitting our population in epidemic proportions, along with obesity and diabetes, were all unheard of conditions.  Food allergies in general were fairly rare, and were most likely to occur if someone ate an “exotic” food that was different from the foods they normally consumed.  These same statements are largely true if we even look back to just fifty or a hundred years ago.

So what do I think this means?

Maybe the problem is not so much that people are changing, but it is because of the diet we have today.  It’s filled with processed foods, fast foods, artificially flavored/colored/sweetened products, and foods from around the world.  We can eat fresh strawberries at Christmas, and fresh oranges in July.  Our bread, nothing like anything that would have been on the average dinner table a hundred years ago, is soft, sweet, and whiter than our bed sheets.

In the meantime, we suffer from digestive issues, allergies, lack of energy, diabetes, and obesity, all while on our special low calorie diet.  We get progressively sicker rather than regaining our health.

Look at the diet of a hundred years ago in comparison.  There was a lot more food on the dinner table, but it was a lot simpler too.  Meals were usually produced from locally available foods in season.  They featured a lot of complex carbohydrates, animal fats, and home cured meats.

All that cholesterol, and yet if a person managed to survive through childhood, they were likely to live as long or longer than the average person does today.  My own family tree features many people, even in the 1700s, that lived well past their 80s.  Census records often list them as “farm laborer” or “house servant” even after age 60.  (I don’t descend from anyone famous, for the record.  Everyone was pretty much an ‘average joe’ even though many of my ancestors emigrated to America prior to the Revolutionary War.)  Most families would have regarded things such as pure salt, sugar, and white flour as “luxury” items.  Corn, beans, potatoes, and other garden produce would have been on the table in many forms most meals, along with things such as butter, eggs, milk, and cured meats.

Doctors would have also been a rarity, which may have helped ensure long lifespans, since many of the medicines and treatments commonly used were of dubious nature.  Most injuries, diseases and illnesses would have been treated at home, using either patent medicines (which had to be bought with money) or herbs that were raised in the garden for that purpose.  Childbirth would have occurred at home, with the assistance of a family member or a local midwife.  Dentistry, when it was necessary, was also a do-it-yourself project or one that may have even been conducted by the local barber!  Actual dentists, as we know them today, weren’t common until the late 1800s or later, depending on the area.

Unless you lived by a port on a river or the ocean, truly exotic foods such as pineapples and bananas, would have been unheard of.  Exotic spices, such as cinnamon, vanilla, allspice, nutmeg and black pepper, would have been expensive items bought from a local merchant or a peddler.  Even white flour would have been out-of-the-ordinary, although many families would use unbleached or a semi-white flour for baking.

There was no such thing as vegetable oil, unless it was olive oil, which had to be imported to the USA until fairly recently.  There was no high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, GMOs, etc. either.  Even soy products such as tofu or TVP didn’t exist.  Few farmers even raised soybeans yet, as it wasn’t a crop with much of a market or use at home either.

This isn’t to say they had boring meals without any sweets.  There was candy, pies, cakes, cookies, muffins, etc. and they were commonly made at home.  The difference was that they were sweetened with molasses, honey, maple syrup or sugar, cane syrup or a coarse, tan cane sugar that was more commonly available in the local store.  (Probably more similar to what we call turbinado sugar today.)  Foods were seasoned with herbs from the garden too.

Foods were also preserved by drying, curing, pickling or preserving with sugar.  Home canning, in glass jars, became commonplace in the early 1900s, with home freezing moving in during the 1950s.  Even in the 1960s, many small towns still had a butcher shop with a walk in freezer where a family’s meat (from cattle or pigs they paid to have butchered) were stored in the “locker”.  Wrapped in white butcher paper, with a stamped label, this storage was part of the price paid for the meat’s butchering and packaging.

The meat, eggs, and dairy products consumed were typically fed local grasses and grains.  All chickens were “free range” in a way that few chickens know today, coming to the coop to roost from protection from predators.  Hogs and cattle were typically pasture raised as well, and hogs were often allowed to roam the woods of the area for the entire year, fending for themselves, and being rounded up and killed in the fall when it was easier to hang, butcher, and cure the meat in the cooler temperatures.

For city folk, life was a little bit different.  While some city families had a milk cow, many bought their milk from the “milk man” who delivered daily.  This dairy was still nearby, as transportation was not fast enough to encourage distant dairies.  Vegetables and fruits sold in the local markets were also likely to be produced in the  area.  Butcher shops supplied families with fresh and cured meats, which typically had also been raised nearby.  Most families had a “kitchen garden” where much, if not all, of their produce and herbs were raised.

Nobody ate fresh foods out of season unless they had someone with a very green thumb and could afford a fancy (and expensive) greenhouse to raise it in.  This was true of everyone, regardless of their economic and social status.

We can’t say the same things today.  Today, we have no clue where our food originated from usually.

That may not be a good thing, but I’m also not the only one who is questioning that concept.  First, there is what is called “Slow Food.”  There is also another concept called permaculture.  (Permaculture Institute is here, and my audio interview with its founder is here.)  There are also countless organizations promoting heirloom food crops, organic farming, and back-to-nature living.

What I am questioning now is whether or not these choices are choices made because of dietary desires, lifestyle goals, or a belief system.

Maybe we need  The New Church of Wholistic Living (as far as I know, this does not actually exist), encompassing community, society, diet, lifestyle, ideology, and belief system into a comprehensive system that essentially turns their members into something not unlike the “Amish of the New Millenia.”  It’s not that people who are practicing this type of life are separating themselves entirely from technology, but that they are questioning society’s current lack of values regarding many things, with the most visible point being the food we consume.  Other commonly questioned items in this arena are things such as excessive use of motor vehicles, television, and modern mainstream medicine.

What do you think about all of this?  Have I lost my mind?  Am I becoming excessively suspicious of the offerings from the giant corporations and big box stores?

Ron Paul, Google Plus, and uncircling

Google Plus has become my new favorite place to hang out and find interesting people and ideas and even websites.  It’s amazing, it’s like Twitter, it’s like Facebook, but it is also its own kettle of fish.  It’s not as sentimental & sappy as Facebook can be sometimes with its syrupy sweet sayings and quotes, it has some meat to it.  It’s also not restricted to 140 characters like Twitter, so ideas aren’t left skeletal and requiring the reader to click on a link to get the whole thing.

I like it.  Greg isn’t as fond of it as I am, but I seriously think that it is a great place to go and share ideas.  I don’t know who said it first, but it has been said that Facebook is for the people you know, and Google Plus (shortened to G+ usually) is for the people you want to know.

For some reason, just like on Twitter, it has a popularity contest facet as well.  Some people think if you don’t circle them back, you aren’t worth listening to and keeping in a circle.  I guess I’m not into that game–I failed that class in junior high.  I circle people because I think they have something interesting to share with me.  I don’t circle people thinking we are now engaged in a lifelong joined-at-the-hip relationship.

For some people, they don’t get it.  They have an idea, they cling to it with every breath they take, and they are bound and determined to share it with you…twenty seven times a day, via a personal message.  The first day of this bombardment, I tuned it out, certain that the person would get over it.  After all, they only had been circled by a handful of people.

Before long, I understood WHY only a handful of people had circled the person in question.  I was bombarded more than once an hour with a personal message via G+ about Ron Paul.

Okay, technically, I am a Republican, but only because declaring a party of some sort is a habit, I never vote straight ticket, and really don’t agree with the mainline of Republican politics a lot.  I’m actually one of those peculiar species…on even days of the month, I am a devout conservative liberal.  On the odd days of the month, I am transformed into a devout liberal conservative.

So what does that mean, really?

Not much.  It means I like to see smaller government that isn’t in the daily lives of honest, hard working, law abiding citizens.  It means that I’m pro-choice and anti-abortion too.  It means I think that marijuana should be legalized.

It means I also rarely approve of anybody who sits in the Oval Office.  It’s nothing personal, they are just easy to dislike, even though I’m completely aware that most of the bills I see in the news are an issue of our Congress.  I dislike them too, it’s practically mandatory since my dislike is totally democratic.  I honestly don’t think we have a truly honest politician in Washington D.C.

But…I’m digressing.

Poor Ron Paul…he has this fanatical supporter on his side.  He really should pay this person to support someone else, because after less than 48 hours of the spamming…I hated Ron Paul.  The G-plusser also was becoming hated.  It was annoying, since a personal message also pops into my email.  I get notified its there…every time one was sent.  It was time to uncircle someone.

Now I didn’t have anything against Ron Paul before.  I wasn’t sure I liked him either–it was a typical case of I liked some things, and was really unhappy about some others.  I’m also that way about all of the other Republican runners still in the race.  Even so, for me, Ron Paul did seem SLIGHTLY better than the others.

Until the spam.

Will I get over it?

Well, I may not like Obama, but compared to the ones running against him, he looks like a much safer bet.  It won’t be a case of voting FOR anyone in this election…as usual.  It will be a case of voting against someone worse.

It’s funny though, how passionate people can get over their favorite candidates.  I wish someone inspired me to that level of support, but most aren’t even able to inspire me to write an x in favor of them versus the other guy.  Usually the x is chosen to vote against someone when I’m actually there with my ballot.  That is sad.

We need to get big business and corporations out of the business of politics somehow.  I’m tired of corporate sponsors decided who wins by donating more money so they have a better advertising campaign.  It smacks of buying votes to me, and it sure as heck hasn’t gotten “Average Joe” or “Average Jane” good representation in Washington.  Getting elected to public office shouldn’t mean that the winner has a free lunch ticket for life, and that’s what it has boiled down to these days.

Have you ever noticed, that when it’s time to do a budget crunch, who they choose to threaten with no check?

Social security, federal workers, and our military…

It’s never Congress that is going to miss out on that check.  It’s never Congress that is looking at a pay cut.  Social security wasn’t originally even in their hands…until they started dipping into their funds to fuel congressional spending.  Now, when it has to go back to pay out for the current recipients, they are screaming like three year olds who can’t have an ice cream cone.

They are also apparently exempt from the Obamacare plan.  They are probably also the only ones happy with it, as the current plan doesn’t seem to be doing what everyone hoped it would, which was provide universal health care, and instead is looking like a logistic nightmare more intent on punishing everyone than it is in making anyone healthier.

Obama has used G+ hang outs to talk with people.  I find that amazing and somehow heart warming too.  Keep in mind, I have never been an Obama fan, but at the same time, I like seeing a president take use of modern technology to connect with the people of this country.  It’s a lot safer and less expensive than public appearances too, which makes sense in a cash strapped economy.  I don’t know about the rest of the world, but seeing national leaders spending money unnecessarily while their citizens are struggling to pay bills does not look good.  My biggest complaint about our political leaders is that they are out of touch with reality for most of us.  Granted, it’s probably a small slice of the nation that is using G+ hang outs at this point, but it IS a start.

Now if I can get up the time, energy, and motivation to try out using the hang outs.  It would be a start for me too.

If you want to circle me on G+, that’s fine…but remember, I do not automatically circle back.  It’s not out of snobbery, but out of sheer practicality.  I don’t have time to go through the list of who-has-circled-me and add them back.  I add people when they pop up when I’m searching on a topic.  I add people when I have time and they have commented on a post.  Sometimes, I’m busy or distracted…and it takes another comment or two before I get my “round tuit.”  I don’t post a LOT of stuff, especially compared to my spamming former circled person…but what I do post is mostly publicly available.  I’m not playing the popularity game…like I said…I failed that class in Junior High!

With that said…Happy Hump Day!  It’s Wednesday again, and Mardi Gras is over, and we’re officially in Lent.

Investment or expense?

Once upon a time, a good employee was regarded as an asset.  Training, stability, pay, and benefits were all considered to be investments in a company’s future, for no company is any better than its poorest employee.  A solid team of workers ensured that a business ran smoothly and accomplished its goals.  A worker was expected to be loyal, and companies preferred workers that stayed for their entire career.  In return, companies were loyal, and worked to ensure that their employees were well compensated for their labor and loyalty.  That’s also how they attracted and held those desirable employees too.

Then there was a change in the business world.  Employees became mere expenses.  No longer were they regarded as an investment, but rather a necessary evil.  They were replaced like paper cups, and regarded to have about as much importance.  Employees no longer felt loyalty to their employers either.

We saw a lot of other changes happen too.  Product quality deteriorated, customer service became a joke, and jobs were outsourced to foreign countries.  Not only were the people employed now disposable, so were the products and services they were paid to deliver.

How many companies have any real customer loyalty these days?  How many have CEOs who make many hundreds times the wages and benefits paid to workers?  How does this compare to past eras worker wages versus executive wages?

Once, it was common for a worker to spend twenty or more years working for the same employer.  Today, the average worker has three different CAREERS during their working life.  That’s not just changing employers, that’s leaving a field entirely!  Many companies have a long established policy to discourage workers from staying beyond the ten year mark and even more discourage/prevent employees from staying long enough to retire.  Few employers are actually concerned about employee well being beyond the bottom line in the accounting office either.

It seems that Scrooge has taken over the business world, and maybe the recent economic woes are the visits of the ghosts of the past, present, and future.  It might be time for all of the “Bob Cratchetts” of the world to take notice and start voting with their dollars too, few they may be.

There ARE a few companies out there who try to attract, hold, and even retire the best employees.  Granted, not many of them are major manufacturers of anything.  Some are mom and pop shops, some are small retailers and distributors, but whatever they are…it’s a quarter past time to start supporting the businesses that deliver, both in terms of their employees and in terms of services/products.

It’s simple.  Happy, contented workers deliver better work.  That means that they care about their jobs, they care about the tasks they are assigned to do, and want to do the best job possible, each and every day.  Yes, it’s partly about the money, but it is also more than that.  It’s about knowing that your efforts are appreciated, that your needs are considered, and that at the end of the day, you have a name.  It’s about silly things like a birthday cake in the lunch room on your birthday, about the  boss dropping by when you have an open house when you buy your first home, it’s about someone playing Santa Claus for the kids at the company Christmas party.  It’s about realizing that those employees are not automated machines that deliver on demand, but people with real lives, problems, joys, and sorrows…and accepting them.

It’s also about employees being encouraged to give their best each and every day too, about how to improve their job performance with training and education, about how much more valuable an employee is after a decade of work.  It’s about not calling in sick because you drank too much over the weekend or want to go skiing with your buddies too, because not showing up means  your coworker has to do your job for the day.  It’s about caring about your job performance, because it’s more than just a job to get a paycheck because you get a lot more than just the paycheck from the job.  You get appreciation, respect, consideration, camaraderie, satisfaction, health care, dental care, vision care, child care, education, training, physical fitness…and you like it.

We hear all the fussing about Obamacare, about the health care industry crisis, about the economy, about our lack of a manufacturing base, about how everything is being outsourced, but what are we doing about it?

When I was a child, vacations were a big deal.  Most employers offered health insurance.  There were sick days.  And, you could buy American made products.  Yeah, we didn’t have as much “stuff” and it cost more to buy what we had, but it lasted…a long time.  It worked.  When it broke, it could be fixed.  Warranties were worth more than merely being a piece of paper.

Today, if it breaks, we throw it out.  Warranties require consumers to jump through hoops and beg and plead with some foreign customer service agent.  Our products are made in countries we can’t even find on a globe half the time.  Technical support, even from American based companies, requires us to be able to decipher thick accents and dense mindsets to understand what we are trying to convey to them…as they sit in a foreign country that doesn’t have the same worker protection as American laws provide.

We have products we don’t want shoved down our throats, and can’t buy things we want to and used to be able to legally purchase.  The economy is going down the tubes, unemployment plagues most regions, and consumers are pinching each and every penny.  We’re looking at an election year, and the candidates are causing national disgust and aggravation at the choices between rocks and hard places.  The Occupy Movement is losing steam, due to a lack of leadership and centralized spokesman.

We know there is a growing problem with the so-called middle class.  It’s poorer than ever, and increasingly unable to maintain the status quo.  Owning a home is a dream that has been shattered for many people.  The richer have grown richer but the middle class is sliding further towards poverty than ever before.  We look at our politicians and realize that they are coming from the uppermost reaches of economic class in the United States.  How can we honestly expect any of them to actually represent Middle America?

It’s time to start voting with  your dollars.  Buy from companies that support their employees and communities, and boycott those who merely skim off the cream to pay their CEOs and shareholders, with no regard for the environment, the economy, the community, or their employees.  Demand customer service, and don’t stop demanding it when it becomes a bit inconvenient.  Start demanding better representation for Middle America from the politicians who have made representing us their career too, and vote out of office those who fail to hear their constituents.  Change doesn’t happen by merely waiting for it to happen unless you want the weather to change!