* Smack Me Once and Hit Me Twice!
The NFL released its Player Health and Safety report to The Associated Press on Wednesday Sept.3, and the number of concussions decreased during the 2013 season. The league said concussions were down 13 percent from the previous year, and concussions coming from helmet-to-helmet contact were down 23 percent. Even though blows to the head remain a serious concern to pro football, what is one of the first things players do after a good play or hard hit? They slap and smack each other on the helmet!
* In The Headlines?
Hamburger workers at McDonalds are protesting their low hourly wages. You don’t have to look far to see that this is a symptom of a larger problem. That is, the huge and growing disparity between owner profits and worker wages.
The current trend, as told to me by local businessmen and women, is to squeeze the last penny from customers and workers to maximize owner profit. There is a good example just around the corner (names and locations withheld as my objective is not to harm or embarrass anyone). There was a very successful hamburger “diner” locally. The name was changed to a “dinette” a few weeks ago. Customers filled the restaurant hoping for big and exciting things. Instead they found:
* A crowd of employees at the door who took your order before you even looked at the menu on the wall.
* As your food cooked you tried to find a place to sit – not easy to do as more customers than before were hurried through the same number of tables.
* The food came and the hamburgers were still excellent.
* The bag of fries was roughly half the length and width as previously.
* Napkins were a fraction of the size and thickness as before. The “juicy stuff” landed on your shirt and pants not your napkins.
* A wait forever do it yourself drink line.
* There were no longer free refills for fries.
* Previous club cards for senior discounts were no longer valid.
* In about three to four minutes waitresses tried to clear the table. We showed them we had just begun to bite, chew and eat.
* In another two minutes they again asked if they could clear the table. We were now about halfway finished.
* The waitresses came back once more in three minutes and without asking cleared the table using a modified four on three attack mode.
In the aggregate, customers have a lesser, more expensive experience, the employees receive minimum wage and the corporation scrapes out more money for themselves. Needless to say, others and we haven’t been back since.
* The Phone Rings More than Twice
If your household is anything like ours the phone rings every 45-60 seconds during peak hours. The telemarketers have “gone wild” again. In California the given unemployment rate is between 5-10 percent depending on whom you believe. If you don’t count the telemarketer sweatshops as “jobs” then the unemployment rate jumps to 95 percent.
* Where Has The Gluten Gone?
Have you noted lately that wherever go to buy food or drink more products are labeled gluten free? How long before there is an epidemic of acute gluten deficiency anemia?
Good heavens. I think the Independent, an otherwise fine and worthwhile periodical, publishes editorials like this just for shock value. Doctor Glueck, in your medical practice, did you ever receive a paycheck? Do you not see this return on your educational investment as a “profit?” If you provide goods or services to another, you receive something in return, do you not? After all, you have rent, insurance and staffing bills to pay, right? Are you not free to set the price for that which you provide? Your medical enterprise was YOUR enterprise, to make a success or a failure. Ruby’s has the same right. Profit is not evil. Don’t hate the profit incentive, doctor…it has brought you practically every product you use everyday, and I hope, provided a nice living for you and your family, as well. Thank you, AF.