These are the ramblings of a young married couple in the great City of Chicago.
Apparently the FTC hasn’t been in any mainstream supermarkets recently to notice that Whole Foods and Wild Oats didn’t just capitalize on a niche market, but also incited an entire dietary movement that now permeates even corner pantries.
I don’t know about you, but I kind of already confused these two places in my mind anyway.
Russ Robert explains in this new column. It is quite readable and rather remarkable for its lack of graphs.
Why are convertibles more expensive than non-convertibles? Why is scotch that’s been aged for 21 years more expensive than scotch that’s been aged 10? Why are red peppers more expensive than green peppers? Why do Wal-Mart employees earn less than the average worker in the United States? Why is gasoline more expensive in the summer than the winter? Why is gasoline more expensive in Europe than in the United States? Why are roses more expensive on February 14? Why isn’t beer more expensive on Super Bowl Sunday? Why are houses in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. more expensive than houses in the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia?
If you want to know the answers to any of these questions give it a read.
Not so quick to the trigger this month, a few days ago I found myself forced to purchase new 41¢ Forever Stamps in order to mail my bills. Now, for at least the last three summers, I’ve had to listen to program after program talking of collusion, greed, and downright blood sucking from oil companies as the price of gasoline rises with summer demand only to find deafening silence and, what I hope to be feigned, ignorance from the media as gasoline prices again fall during the winter months. So with this new postage hike I wondered: When was the last time the price of postage dropped? July 1, 1919, apparently. To be fair, postage rates have pretty much kept pace with inflation. However, while I don’t exactly have hard data to prove it, I find it very hard to believe that average consumers are demanding even the same amount of standard first class postal services that they were in 1919. When is the last time you wrote a letter to Grandma? And who’s bilking you?
I have a few of ideas in mind as to why USPS decided to introduce the Forever Stamp, all stemming, naturally, from the desire to pump up revenues. We are, after all, supposed to jump on this arbitrage, right? Buying up Forever Stamps now in hopes to benefit in the event of future rate hikes? Maybe USPS is buying off the average consumer; a wink and a nod for subsidizing junk mail. (Notice that the bulk rate for first class letters is only 31 to 37¢ depending on the level of automation purchased.) Perhaps USPS hopes to economize on the cost of printing when it increases postage prices. Or, my most conspiratorial theory, maybe this is some endgame strategy that USPS thinks we haven’t figured out yet; one last-ditch effort to get a big demand for stamps before the service dwindles into Jimmy Carter-like irrelevancy.
But really, why would we rush to buy? If, as I mentioned, demand for standard first class postage is on the decline, then those of us left holding stamps that we value less than the price we paid for them will find ourselves unwitting competitors to the USPS in a saturated market, selling our stamps at a loss or trashing them altogether. If you already bought a gazillion Forever Stamps, I recommend short selling, now.
Don Boudreaux has made good points about the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. If you want socialized health care, remember the peaple who run Walter Reed would be running every hospital. I imagine their incentive would take a turn for the worse, when all health care is doled out by the government.
Last year, 15000 people applied for 400 jobs at a new Wal-Mart on Chicago’s west. Now the greedy bastards thinks other people in high decity, low employment areas might want jobs and stores to shop at. They are planning to open 9 more Wal-Marts as what they call “jobs and opportunity stores.”
Bastards!