Month: April 2011

Too Cheap To Fly

My wife’s father used to tell them, “good thing isn’t cheap, and cheap thing isn’t good”.

My buddy sent an email about a new Airline (RedJet: http://www.flyredjet.com) with flight within the Caribbean for as little as $9.99USD.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love flying and was never afraid to fly.  But if someone will put me on a flight for more than 10 minutes, and charge me only $10US.  I am gonna think very hard about dat.

I have decided, ah think I aint gonna fly.

That is why I don’t eat cheap fast food like McDonald.  The economics just doesn’t make sense.  $.99 for a burger, which includes; bun, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, human labor to server it, transportation cost, raising and slaughtering the cow, and profits.   All this, I am getting for $.99 or even $2.99.  I just figured that I am eating crap for that price.

So I checked it out and some flights were $39.99 between Jamaica and Trinidad.  I still think that’s too cheap.  With a full flight, of about 130 seats, that is only $5,000.00UD for aircraft, crew, booking agents, fuel, etc.  Seems to be cutting the bone just too close.

No Haggling: The Price is The Price

Why do people feel the need to haggle with you over price when the price is already a good deal?

May be it is because I am not the type to take advantage of a person when they are trying to sell something, regardless of how desperate they are to sell.  I just hate when people try to do it to me.  Especially, when they try doing so for something that is already marked down or is a fair price.

I guess I just really hate haggling over the price for goods or service.  If I want something, and the person selling says it is X, I have three ways of dealing with it.  If I think X is a fair price, I don’t argue and I take it if I can afford it.  If I can’t, then I let them know and they get to decide how low they will go.  Finally, if I think it is too expensive, I let them know that and ask if they can do better on the price.  I don’t purposely try to get the loses price if someone is desperate.

That sounds counter intuitive and not the smartest way to do things.  But I don’t like taking advantage of people in that way.  They feel unhappy after the deal, you might feel good, but is it worth it?  I don’t think so.

I posted something for sale recently for X dollars.  The guys saw the price, came to see the product, likes it, and then tell me that he only walked with far less than what I was asking.  I mean, is that really necessary?  What, he figured I was desperate to sell that I would just give it to him just because he had cash?  He knew that product was already 10% off the true value.   Yet, he wanted to shaft me another 10%.

Of course I said now way and he kept raising it offer.  I told him the price was the price and that’s it.  He can take it or leave it.  Of course he took it at that point.

Empty Words

I said it, but I didn’t mean it.  It is not often that you might find yourself
saying something you really don’t mean.  I frankly can’t remember the last time
I said something I really really didn’t mean before this one incidence quite
recently.

Have someone ever said something like, thanks for doing me some big favor?  And
you are really thinking, I wasn’t trying to do you a favor?  That was me
recently.  So, instead of saying “You are welcome” in return for their “Thank
you” to me.  I came up with something else.  I am not going to say what I said,
it is a small world after all.

Unfortunately, I really didn’t think they were welcome, I really didn’t want to
do them any kind of favor.  So, I wrestle with it for a bit, before I said
like things worked out.  Even that seems like it was stretching it a
bit.  I guess I was okay with it working out, but not really glad or happy about
it.

Google, A little Evil?

Google likes to say that they can operate without being evil.  True, it is there in the first sentence of their policy.  Check it out Don’t Be Evil.   But that whole don’t be evil thing, might be lost on the Google Chrome browser developer.

So the FTC has endorse a security system that allows a user to say to advertisers, “don’t track me”.  This feature was first added to Mozilla, followed by Microsoft Internet Explorer, and now Apple’s Safari.   But guess what?  Not by Google Chrome.

You might be wondering why won’t Google follow the rest.  Well, considering that Google’s business is based on being able to amass as much information about users, it is not surprising.  Too bad they put tracking ahead of your own code of conduct.

May be I am too harsh in thinking that Google’s desire to track users is a bit evil.   But I certainly don’t see it as being good for the users.

I found this story on Slashdot:

Apple Adding “Do-Not-Track” To Safari

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday April 14, @08:49AM
from the honor-system-will-work-fine dept.
bonch writes “The latest developer preview of OS X Lion includes a “do not track” privacy feature in Safari, the latest browser to do so following Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The feature complies with a privacy system backed by the FTC that allows users to declare that they do not wish to be tracked by online advertisers. This leaves Google Chrome as the last prominent browser not to support the feature. As an online advertiser themselves, Google states that they ‘will continue to be involved closely’ with industry discussions about compliance with the do-not-track system.”

Respective

Are we, the world at large or even on a more macro scale our local governments, reaping what we have sowed for years?  It seems that there are very few, if any, places on the planet where things are just so great, that they are not affected in someway by one one of the many global events currently en-play or unfolding (middle-east uprising, earthquake in Japan, banking and finance, etc.).

On my way in to work today, I caught today’s  perspective on my local NPR Radio station:  http://www.kqed.org/a/perspectives/R201104130735.  It certainly seems like many of the problems in the world today, seem to have roots in past decisions.  I don’t know enough of the world to say if this is entirely true or not.  But, I don’t think the world is any more at an end today than any other time in history, consider the ‘dark ages’ for reference.

What is most disturbing about some of the problems of today, is how we plan to fix them.  We had a huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, yet people are still pushing to drill-baby-drill.   We saw what happened in Japan, and yet we want to build more Nuclear Reactors.  Banks and their cronies in governments use deregulation to operating their businesses an always winner for them, and a great lost for the average person.  Yet, even though we are still struggling out of that mess, we can’t past meaningful financial regulation.

I really like the part about the corporations picking our pockets clean as we play ‘Angry Birds’.  We have a deficit in the USA which both Republicans and Democrats agree needs to be fix.  We fight over $60B-USD in cuts to this year’s budget, but approve $700B-USD in tax cuts to the top 2% of wage earners in this country.  I won’t go so far to say that the super-wealthy don’t need those extra dollars.  But at a time when things are tough and many in the middle are getting squeezed and are being asked to give up more.  I don’t know if I can really feel too sympathetic.  Some reliable sources claim that removing the GWB era tax-cut alone, will reduce the deficit by 1/3.  Yet, that doesn’t look likely soon.

So, even if all that is happening today is not entirely rooted in actions of the past.  It certainly seems like our action, or inaction, today.  Will be the root of the problems to come.

And that’s my perspective.

.v