Monday, May 28, 2007, 05:19
Memorial Day Weekend and Gas Prices
I hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day weekend. Drive carefully if you are driving anywhere. Or perhaps you decided to stay home this weekend because of the gas prices?
I heard a disturbing news report about the gas prices last week out of one of the Twin Cities television stations. The reporter said that the only reason the oil companies have raised gas prices is “because they can” and “to boost their profits even higher.” There is no shortage of crude oil. There are no refineries down. Crude oil is selling for about $65 a barrel. After Hurricane Katrina, crude oil was nearly $90 a barrel and several refineries were damaged by the hurricane. After Hurricane Katrina, there was some justification for higher gas prices. But not now.
I read another article this past week about “hidden fees.” Many companies are tacking extra fees onto certain things, not because they need extra money to cover the cost of something, but “because they can.” The hidden fees turn out to be a good revenue stream for them. The American public doesn’t rise up and revolt about it, so the companies keep tacking on hidden fees and are making billions.
One example is McDonald’s. Randy and I rarely eat at McDonald’s, but one day last fall we did. Randy decided to look at the receipt while we were there. Guess what? There was a 50-cent “dine in charge” on the receipt. McDonald’s charged us 50 cents to sit in their place of business to eat food we had purchased there.
At some later point, Randy decided to go through the drive-thru at McDonald’s to see if the charge showed up that way. Guess what? He was charged a 50-cent fee for going through the drive-thru.
If this is true of all McDonald's restaurants across the country, just think of the money that is raked in simply because people bought something there and either decided to eat in the restaurant or went through the drive-thru.
Even though we rarely ate a McDonald's before, Randy and I are not going there at all now.
This is just one example of hidden fees. Credit card companies tack on hidden fees. And so do telephone companies. And banks. And just about every company you ever order something from that comes by mail or UPS or Fed-Ex tacks on hidden fees. They call them “shipping and handling” charges.
Handling? What do you mean “handling?” Shouldn’t that be part of the cost of the item? After all, I am doing this company a favor by purchasing its goods. But the company is going to do ME a favor by "handling" the items I purchased? Shouldn't "handling" the item come with the territory of selling the item?
I have noticed, too, that the shipping cost I was charged is far above the actual cost of shipping the item to me. I may have paid a $15 shipping cost, but the actual cost to ship was $2. The company pocketed my $13. Most of it, anyway, because it probably took an employee all of 5 minutes to put the thing in an envelope or a box and slap on a mailing address.
Okay. So there you have it. We’ve got oil companies raising prices “because they can.” The American public pays the higher gas prices and keeps right on driving as much as they did before without a murmur.
We’ve got companies tacking on hidden fees “because they can.” The American public pays the hidden fees and keeps right on with business as usual without a murmur.
When is the American public going to wake up and say “NO MORE?”
When is the American public going to revolt?
Everything is set up for the benefit of corporations and for their bottom line. The American public does not matter one bit, except for the fact that we’ve got money to spend, and those companies are going to do their best to separate us from our money as quickly as possible. The American public is no more than “a money-making machine” for corporations.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am very tired of it.
If you're tired of it, too, send me an e-mail (bigpines@ruralroute2.com) and I will post your comments to my blog.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Saturday, May 26, 2007, 05:53
A Lucky Break
I still can't believe that nothing got broken in the barn Friday morning.
I had just gone over to give the momma kitties some kitty food when my old Morgan Arab cross lost his senses.
Earlier this spring, I decided the old horse wasn't getting handled enough. Even at the best of times, because of his Arab blood, he's loopy and hard to handle. I haven't ridden him in a couple of years because of his heart condition and because his feet aren't the best. I figured he needed more attention and more handling. So I started putting the halter on him and tying him to the fence to feed him his grain out of a bucket. He doesn't get much grain. Too much grain makes him loopy too. Then, when he is finished eating, I groom him and put some fly spray on him, and if he's in a calm mood, pick out his feet. After that, I lead him outside before taking the halter off.
But this morning, while I was feeding the cats, he lost his senses.
All of a sudden he jerked back on the halter and was trying his best to get away. I don't know what scared him. A bird flying in the barn? Charlie trotting past the door? Nothing at all?
As I stood there watching with disbelief, the two-by-six board on the fence started to bend. I was certain that any second it would break. If the board didn't break, then surely the halter would. Or the lead rope.
As he hauled back with all his might, he began shaking his head back and forth. As luck would have it, the halter slipped off his head.
Good thing I was over by the kitty food shelf.
The halter flew through the air, smacked against the fence and wrapped itself around the board.
If I had been standing closer, the halter might have hit me in the head.
Snorting with fear, the horse ran out of the barn.
I still didn't have a clue as to what had frightened him. (And I still don't, for that matter.)
"Well Kajun," I called after him, "I guess you don't need any grain this morning."
And with that, I went up to the house to mix up some kitty milk. The older kittens will be coming out of the nest soon, and the momma kitties are looking thin and bedraggled. The momma cats could use some extra calories, and they always think that the milk-egg-yolk-corn syrup mixture is just delicious.
When I came back down to the barn, one little gray kitten, a tom, was up on the hay bale by the nest. I offered him some kitty milk but he didn't want any. I wasn't surprised that he wasn't hungry. He was just as plump as could be. He has obviously been eating very well. Since the momma kitties were right there, he wasn't frightened although he wasn't too sure about being picked up and held.
Kajun came trotting back in the barn, nickering, but I didn't give him any grain. I was kind of surprised he would come back in the barn after so recently being scared out of his wits.
The weather Friday here at Rural Route 2 was cool and sunny. It had rained the day before. Rain! And all together we got 1.5 inches!
LeAnn R. Ralph