A New Chapter Begins

To anyone out there who wants to know. 1-15-2014

I have been a loyal customer of Brueggers Bagels for a long time, something like 6 or 7 years. The bagels are great and variety of cream cheeses fine. Even the coffee is good and the new one to replace French Roast, which is Dark Roast, has a nice rich flavor that holds up even against cream and sugar. Yummy!

The idea of having the bottomless cup for a year, is great marketing ploy and has worked well for me.When I have a few moments of free time, I go there and use their wifi for various things. I fool myself into thinking that I am being productive, but mostly I surf or Facebook. This time during my free time has translated into more revenue for Brueggers, because I'll get something to eat, either a salad or sandwich, while I am there.

FREE CUP of COFFEE + SANDWICH = MONEY for the franchise. This is a great deal for every one, they get my money and I get a place to "work."

My issue now is the price of this bottomless cup: $159.95. C'mon guys! Even with the incentives, we are talking about a lot of money for a cup of coffee.

I understand that coffee costs money to produce and sell and a company needs to mitigate its expenses. You know what though, now that I do not have the tether of a free cup of coffee, I have discovered other places with wifi and good coffee. I still go to my local Bruegger's, but only once or twice a week, not the three or four times of last year. I still spend my hard earned money, but Bruegger's does not get as much as last year.

In a way, this is a good thing for me, because I go to other places and have a more varied experience during the day. Yet Bruegger's loses out on my business and money, while other local coffee shops gain it.

I'll miss going to Bruegger's as much as I used to, but now I can visit other places and try other fine foods. Having said all that, I will still go to Bruegger's Bagel when I need my Bagel fix. However, right now I am at a place called CityMug writing this letter.

Yours truly, Neil M. Turner

chefneil01@yahoo.com

olc

Joey the Libertarian or NC's version of Joe the Plumber Part 1

I have this friend, colleague, acquaintance, who is a Libertarian---yeah I know, but he is OK. We have some interesting conversations about politics. It turns out many of his views are similar to mine. I know, kinda scary right? We'll talk about Ron Paul and some of his opinions. I'll express mine about his suspected racism, and Joey will down play it. I'll try to make the point that though Paul's ability to define a problem is very good, his solutions need some work, archaic even.

We'll go back and forth on different subjects and generally have a lively discussion, yet we do not ever get to the level of name calling and back stabbing the national talking heads seem to lower themselves to. Joey will make his point, and sometimes he is very passionate about it, and then I'll like mine. Many times our opinions very dramatically, but we don't yell at each other.  

I try to keep an open mind on all things though I have a liberal bend. When Joey and I talk, I wonder how he can stick so close to his thoughts. Basically, he believes in self-reliance and the ability to "take care of his own." He wants to have less government intervention in our lives. He wants to allow business to govern it self.

If everything were equal and business could be trusted to be more socially aware, as well as environmentally conscious, then I think less government is a good thing. Unfortunately, reality is not what we want. The outcome is what matters to most businessmen. Back in the day when resources were "unlimited" the attitude of taking without regard to anything but the bottom-line was profitable in a long term way.  

I have only taken a couple of classes in business, but it seems to me that businessmen need to think about future profits and not just today or tomorrow or a 5 year plan. 

This is where my view differs from a libertarians' most drastically. If the business man cannot look into the future and only conducts his business with no regard for the future; meaning the environment or even those who facilitate his business, then the government needs to step up and legislate/regulate the short sighted businessman.

“Hey, you Independent dude!”

“Don't insult me that way, you lame a$$ Liberal!”

“You gone fishin’ lately, you dinosaur thinker?”

“Naw, the river was closed ‘cause of some kinda toxic pollution. Damn gov’ment tellin’ what we can’t do!”

“Hey wasn’t there some kinda paper plant close to you, you stinkin’ Libertarian?”

“Yeah, it closed a bit ago. Thing was leakin’ poison last I heard. Kids getting cancer and can’t breath so good. Why?”

“Just saying, is all. That place you fish at--- its pretty far from that plant, right?”

“Not even close. Down stream a aways. What your point?”

“Just askin’ is all…”

olc

Simple Solutions to Difficult Problems

I keep hearing about theses one step solutions to very difficult situations both politic and economic. I am not versed in economics, I have no formal education in it, about the best I can say is I love to spend money---when I have it. Though I do not have any real formal background in Political Science, I do try to keep up with issues that are current. As an American Citizen, I feel I have a responsibility to keep informed. So why is it that I can understand the need to look at a very difficult problem from more than one point of view. There are so many examples of this limited point of view:

• The leader of Afghanistan saying that he needs to talk with Pakistan to make peace though out the region
• The republicans saying top down economic will solve all of our problems
• The democrats say bottom up will do it
• Israelis saying they don’t care what the Palestinians want
• Palestinians saying they need complete autonomy to have peace and freedom

Need I go on? There is the issue of climate change verses man made environmental manipulation. Does Greece have the ability to take down the world economy? Nukes in the former Soviet Union. Pollution in China---well let’s just make sure they stop driving! While we are talking about China, how about software piracy. I heard the other day that there are millions of unlicensed copies of Windows running around causing an epidemic of botnets.

After the politicians or media talking-heads have defined the problem, we the masses, are given a simple one step solution that is the magic panacea that cures all of our woes. Would that all, or even some, of the issues that complicate the easy flow of living, be solved so easily!

This brings a few of questions to mind. The first being can our issues be solved so easily? Well, Albert Einstein said, “It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.” The modesty of the man is well known, however once again we see the profound wisdom he gave us. What can we take form his simple statement? One simple thing (sic): we need to consider more than one way to solve a problem. In other words, simply put :-0, look for more than a simple way of dealing with a challenge. In other words, elegant solutions to complicated dilemmas do not come in simple sound bites that make us feel better.

Another question that comes to mind goes something like this: Do the talking heads that control the flow of information really think that the info consumer is so simple as to really think that a one step solution to something like global warming is really feasible? This brings to mind two more questions. Is the solution really so simple? Or, do they think the populace is so simple? Both of those questions bother the hell out of me.

All issues, from seemingly simple things like what will the kids have for lunch at school, to issues of global importance like what will we be eating in fifty years and where will it come from, can be looked at from many different angles. Having said that, we need to understand that we live in an age where the average person wants to have everything made simple and easily digestible in 30 second sound bites. We want to understand a complicated problem while read doing one’s business in the restroom.

Simply put, we need to take more time to digest issues, understand them and finally realize that complicated issues cannot be unraveled in simple one step solutions. But more important than that, our information brokers need to stop dumbing down issues of the day and twisting them to their own agenda.