Republicans are all for choice except…

“Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice. And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love, and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care.”
Jason Chaffetz, Republcian Rep., Utah

But Republicans don’t want to give people much choice when it comes to transportation.  We should all rely on cars and planes.  Forget trains, buses, and subways.  They would rather build more and more freeways, taking away the tax bases of central cities.

The cost of a cell phone pales in comparison to cost of a car, even a decent used one.  Then there is all the gas, service, and parking places for it.

And the car has destroyed many a downtown because people prefer going where there is “free parking”.  But what is the cost of that free parking: rain runoff (filled with contaminants) and heat radiation.

And what is the cost of health care compared to a cell-phone.    We each pay $238 for medical insurance deducted from our Social Security checks.  We don’t pay anyway near that for our cell phone service.  And the iPhone that is not fully paid for costs only $16.67 per month.

And what is the cost to the rest of us for an uninsured person?  Companies should worry about people showing up sick because they can’t get afford medical care.  All of us should be concerned about somebody who doesn’t get care for a communicable disease.  Did you ever hear about Typhoid Mary who worked in food service?  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallon.  Although she never became sick from typhoid, she was a carrier who infected many of the families she cooked for.

Health care for all of us means better health for all of us.  True conservatives would want to keep as many people well as possible.

Commerce without connection

"Historians will tell you that nothing changed the American retail experience in the 20th century more than the shopping mall. Once developers clustered hundreds of stores in a single place (with ample parking), the American Main Street all but disappeared. People stopped seeing each other in the center of town. They felt less connected to their community — certainly less connected to its businesses."

Mitch Albom, Duluth News Tribune 2013-04-08

This quote was in "'Just browsing' may become a memory" also published on his website on 2013-03-31.

His article is on how the shopping on the web is changing our shopping habits as much as or even more than the shopping malls changed our shopping habits.

I grew up walking or taking a street car or bus almost everywhere I went.  At one place we lived there were three locally-owned groceries on our block and two store-front chains a bit farther.  At another place we lived there were three locally-owned drug stores in walking distance.

Now almost everything is chains.  The only locally-owned stores are restaurants, bottle shops, hardware stores, and some gas stations.  I really appreciate the few of these places where I can walk in, know the names of the people behind the counter, and be known by them.

Two entries - better late than never

I've had two blog entries in my head since April, but I never found a round tuit to write them.  Even though they may not be timely, you might find them interesting.

An April Fool's joke

On 1 April my wife was standing in the kitchen after breakfast musing about something.  I said, "Your shoes are untied."  She looked down at her slip-ons and said, "Oh, that's a good one!"

Who am I to complain?

For years when it's not ski season, I've gone downtown for coffee, then to the library, and then maybe to lunch.

At first, I went to a coffee shop owned by some friends.  When they retired, I went to a coffee shop nearby instead.  Besides the good coffee, I appreciated the classical music from public radio.

Then government budget cuts hit the library and it was no longer open on Monday mornings.  So, I went to the fitness center instead.  Maybe afterward I would walk to the library.

This spring when the ski slope closed, I went back to the coffee shop.  Instead of classical music on public radio there was pop music on commercial radio.  I mentioned it to a barista; he said the owner changed the station because some of the regulars complained that the classical music put them to sleep.  They came to the coffee shop to wake up.

The pop music was not overly loud but the commercials were and set my teeth on edge.  I never went back.

Who am I to complain?  I went there once a week for nine months of the year.  The regulars were there every weekday twelve months a year.

I went to another nearby coffee shop twice but the coffee was so weak that I decided not to go back.

I could have gone to another coffee shop (locally owned) but it was farther from the bus stop and over a windy bridge.

So, I've stopped going downtown on a regular basis altogether.  Maybe I'm saving money but I miss dropping in on a few shopkeepers.  And I've stopped reading the variety of magazines at the library.

The real downside is I've stopped walking so much.  It has to be a nice day with no special errands for me to walk the mile to a local coffee shop twice a week.

"I took the [road] less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost