“To each according to what he wants; from each according to his ability to pay” That could become a common corporate mantra in the United States of America. Under the increasingly pervasive personalized pricing system, corporations set prices based on what they know about for you. Need a toothb[...]
Archive for the ‘Business’ Category
Project 2025 promotes pollution, ignores climate change
Project 2025, an ultra-conservative blueprint that anticipates Trump will be elected in 2024, looks like it was written by oil industry lobbyists. It “calls for the elimination of multiple energy- and environment-related offices and rules,” The Hill says, and would put political appointe[...]
Living in Tennessee on $10 an hour
Tennessee is a right-to-work state with a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Anita Richey makes $10 an hour, but like most of America’s retail workers, she doesn’t work 40 hours a week (see story here). The industry norm is around 30 hours (see story here). That’s by the employers̵[...]
July 10th, 2024 - 5:10 am § in Business, Law and Courts
Why capitalism must be regulated
Below is only one example; there are countless others. Fifth Third Bank (profile here) agreed on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, to pay $20 million in fines for “illegally charging customers for unnecessary auto insurance policies” and creating “fake customer accounts” (read story her[...]
July 9th, 2024 - 2:20 pm § in Business, Law and Courts
Airbnb’s hidden cameras problem
A potential problem in managing short-term property rentals is owners who hide cameras to collect videos of naked customers to monetize in various ways. You’d think the company that invented the business, and is now a large, industry-leading, cutting-edge short-term rental company, would’[...]
June 25th, 2024 - 12:37 am § in Business, News Media
Everett Herald’s new owners greet staffers with pink slips
The Everett Herald was sold with its parent company to a Mississippi news conglomerate in March 2024. That company, Carpenter Media Group, promptly laid off over half of the paper’s newsroom staff (read story here and watch video below). Herald news staff formed a union in 2022 and had been tr[...]
Who’s to blame for the housing crisis?
Capitalism is. I’m not saying there’s a better system for supplying homes, owned or rented, to everyone who needs them. Nobody in America wants to live in Soviet housing. Rather, I’m reacting to an NPR article (here) which, like many journalistic endeavors, begins with an anecdote:[...]
June 22nd, 2024 - 10:13 pm § in Business
Why malls don’t have windows
It’s a strategy to part you from your money. Here’s how they do that: The “unnaturally bright artificial lighting strived to create a perpetual daytime environment. This way, mall visitors would stay longer than they had expected to and spend more than they would have wanted to.[...]
Poll: Americans support DEI programs
Nationally, 61% of Americans support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, a Washington Post/Ipsos survey conducted in mid-April of 2024 shows (read story here). The survey showed 34% consider DEI programs at companies “a bad thing.” That number roughly conforms with the perce[...]
Shooting at customers is bad service
I haven’t been at a McDonalds drive-through in years, but I suppose workers sometimes fill orders incorrectly. That’s apparently what happened at a McDonalds in Lakeland, Florida, prompting an argument between a worker and two customers. It quickly escalated. The worker threw a drink at [...]