Mammon category archive
You’ve Heard about the Cat in the Hat? 0
Now learn about the cat in the bag.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
The San Jose Mercury-News is tired of air-born piracy. Here’s a bit from their editorial:
Fees that don’t make any sense. Why does it cost $25 to check one bag, but $40 to check a second one, and $100 for a third?
Fees for changing tickets no matter how far in advance they’re purchased. Why is the penalty for changing the departure date the same three months in advance as it is three days in advance?
Fees for reserving seats. Why do the airlines offer “preferred” seats at an additional charge without making it clear on their websites that the selection is optional?
The airline industry maintains that its fee structure is transparent and that passengers are happy. It’s not, and we’re not.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Badtux remembers how well it worked.
Lake Effect 0
America’s edifice complex is killing Minnesota’s lakes. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
A similar fate awaits the heart of lake country — the thousands of recreational lakes clustered around Brainerd, Detroit Lakes and Alexandria in central Minnesota. It’s not the crush of shoreline development by itself that’s killing them; it’s the reckless way in which development has been allowed to proceed
Details at the link.
Scrooged America 0
Warning: Language.
The Snaring Economy 0
Ride with discriminating drivers.
From May to July, nearly 3 percent of UberX drivers, the lowest-cost option available, avoided the northern edge of north Minneapolis, while just more than 2 percent avoided the North Dowling Avenue area. Lyft drivers, who serve a smaller coverage area than Uber, dismissed even more trips, about 14.54 percent in the near north areas.
While the numbers do not appear staggering, comments on an online Uber forum show that some drivers are staying away from north Minneapolis.
Not a Leg To Stand On 0
God forbid that health insurance should pay for (gasp!) health care.
After all, paying for health care may imperil country-club memberships for insurance CEOs.
The Snaring Economy 1
In The Guardian, Frank Pasquale and Siva Vaidhyanathan see a precedent for Uber etc.
It’s not the precedent you would expect. Here’s a snippet (emphasis added):
The analogy is most obvious in the case of an American civil rights law itself. Uber has ignored advocates for the blind, and other disabled persons, when they claim Uber’s drivers discriminate against them. In response to a lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind, Uber bluntly asserts that it’s merely a communication platform, not the type of employer meant to be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Some judges and regulators accept that reasoning; others reject it. But the larger lesson is clear: Uber’s aggressive efforts to avoid or evade disability laws are nothing less than a form of corporate nullification, as menacing to the rule of law as defiance of civil rights laws in the days after courts ruled against racial segregation in the US.
Follow the link for the rest of the article.
The Privatization Scam 0
As my local rag points out, it’s still taking a toll. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Many of the nation’s biggest public-private projects (supported by immensely complex webs of public and private investment), are foremost financial and investment instruments.
If you can get a government, as (ex-Governor and convicted influence peddler–ed.) McDonnell did on the Elizabeth River tunnels, to commit to outrageous terms like a 13.5 percent average annual profit, or a yearly elevator on tolls of 3.5 percent or more, all protected by a clause that forces the state to pay if it builds anything that diverts traffic, you’ve helped created a remarkably safe and lucrative financial instrument.
That comes, in this instance, at the expense of people who have no choice but to use the Downtown or Midtown tunnels, where tolls are due to rise to $1.87 per car and $7.36 per truck in 2017 and to keep on rising for decades.
Cavalcade of Spots 0
J. D. Hansard is tired of being pursued by relentless bearers of benighted bargains. A snippet:
Our phone is like a nest of chiggers. When I was a kid and went blackberry picking, I might come home with 20 itchy chigger bites. They tormented me — like the phone does now.
In this household, the situation is so bad that we no longer answer the landline (yes, we have a landline for the fax–remember faxes?–and for the 911 call we hope will never happen). If you care about us, you care enough to leave a message, which we then ignore if it’s not from a real live human being.
I can also tell you that if the Caller ID shows “Private,” “Unavailable,” or “Unknown,” your call goes unanswered. If you don’t want us to know who you are, you have declared yourself ipso facto untrustworthy.
Land Mismanagement 0
Warning: Language.
The Three-Card Monte Dealers Want To Go to College . . . 0
. . . because Wall Street has repeatedly demonstrated its trustworthiness.
Also, pigs, wings.