Sunday, October 05, 2003
Rage Against the Machine (Society, That Is)
There were a lot of little things to rail at today:
- Newberry has a handy little channel that acts as a community bulletin board - the chroma-key equivalent of a Powerpoint presentation. Today there was an ad asking for donations of candy to Country Way residents to help with their Halloween giveaways to trick-or-treaters. At first, I thought this was some sort of help for those in need to celebrate the holiday - until Kristin reminded me that Country Way is the upper middle class neighborhood on the opposite side of town, probably the most well-to-do neighborhood in the town. They are asking for others to help them share the load because they are the preferred destination of trick-or-treaters, and parents shovel them into the neighborhood by the car load. It's one of the reasons we don't see kids until around 8:30-9:00 pm on Halloween.
If you're going to pass out candy to children who are probably going to end up overweight like 2/3 of our country, why should I aid you in that endeavor? Why should I deprive my family the fun of Halloween to make yours last longer? It seems to me the neighborhood would be better served to set a staggered schedule of candy giveaways during the night and thereby retain the number of kids coming through and not run out of candy so fast.
I drove through Country Way today, and saw signs on the side of the road advertising a dog pooper-scooper service. If you can afford someone to come out and pick up your dog's crap, you can durn well afford to buy your own candy. - A local candidate came by the house today to campaign for her re-election to the city commission. Did she try and tell us about her positions or ask what she could do for us on the commission next year? No. She handed us her poorly folded brochure, and then added "Oh, and this guy is running too" and handed us a flyer from another council member.
Let's compare. Last year, another candidate came to the house and asked us specifically what we'd like to see her try to accomplish through the commission that year. She took time to discuss issues in the community, and talked to us in depth about the second candidate she was advocating and what his stance on certain issues were. With this candidate, we know virtually nothing about her, except one thing - she was the board member who fought tooth and nail to not decrease the business license fees in the town from 500 to 100 for home businesses. And her only reason? Because she had to pay the higher fees when she got her licenses, so why should others be exempt?
And to think, in her brochure she states that she SUPPORTS economic development that will bring jobs to the community, but keep the small town atmosphere. What's more small town than home businesses, I ask you? - Finally, I was going through some old gift cards we had, and came across a 4 dollar credit from blockbuster we never used, primarily because Blockbuster Music - err, Wherehouse Music - is just too expensive. Wondering if the credit was still good, I called their automated number and found that the balance had apparently dwindled to zilch, as they apparently assess administrative fees. Although I hadn't noticed it, Kristin says most places now put time limits on how long credits are good.
Why? IMHO, one should be able to retain a credit until one is good and ready to use it. If a company takes back a credit, simply because the 'time limit' has expired, how is that any different than stealing the money from the consumer? I imagine they calculate the administrative fees based on storing the electronic data that makes that rebate card work, fees that couldn't be levied when your rebate was a scrap of paper that had an amount typed on it and a signature from a store clerk. Target is the worst offender. Their new draconian refund system has cost us at least thirty bucks in the last year - either the rebate is expired, or it requires a signature at the time it was issued that we did not get, or its beyond the 2-3 week grace period between buying something and returning it. And if you get a gift card, only the person who signed for it can use it - if it is in my name, Kristin can't use it, and vice versa. If it weren't for the fact that Target has the kind of home decor items that we as elitist middle-class consumers want to have, we'd be shopping exclusively at Wal-Mart, which has us in its clutches because if it weren't for their kitty litter, our cats would have nothing to do with any of our litter boxes. And that would be a REAL mess. - Oh, one more thing. The transmission in the Honda went kaput the other day. While the costs to get it replaced are more than the Blue Book value of the car (actually, one good transmission is worth 2 decent yet ancient Hondas), we simply can't afford another car payment, and will have to wait till the LHS is paid off in another year before looking at a new(er) car. After listening to the sage advice of the Honda repairman (he was kind of like Yoda in overalls), we decided that we could get $1500 worth of drive out of the Honda, all things considered (and knocking on wood). It's either that, or consign myself to driving in first gear, and twenty miles an hour tops, from here on out.
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