Monthly Archives: February 2008

Bedposts

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Most countries use taxes to further social goals as well as as for raising revenue. The U.S., for example, is debating raising the gas tax to reduce the use of petroleum-based fuels.

Almost 42 Billion-with-a-B petroleum-based plastic bags were used in grocery stores, Wally Worlds, and all the other stores worldwide in January, 2008. Most go to landfills as waste or to roadsides as litter. Plastic bags are not biodegradable. They remain where they land pretty much forever.

Ireland took agressive action in 2002 when that country passed a tax on plastic bags; Irish consumers now pay 33 cents per bag at the cash register.

Six years into the bag tax, most smart, progressive people in Ireland carry cloth bags. Sales of plastic bags has dropped to nearly nothing there.

Ireland has moved on with the tax concept, proposing similar taxes on customers for A.T.M. receipts and chewing gum. Bedposts will be so lonely with no chewing gum to keep them company overnight.

So here is the real (and the environmentally most important) question: What kind of plastic bag does that “smart, progressive” person carry his or her trash to the dump in?

Good News/Bad News

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David Barboza reported in the New York Times that China’s inflation is hitting American price tags.

“The higher costs in China could spell the end of an era of ultra-cheap goods.”

The good news is that importing countries like the U.S. might very well look within their own shores for at least some manufacturing again. The bad news is that if China sees its income from exports fall, the pressure on Chinese leaders to lash out will skyrocket.

The bad news is serious. We have long predicted that, on the day after the Beijing Olympics close, China will nationalize (read “steal”) many of the manufacturing plants that U.S. and E.U. companies are nicely building for them. Now this Perfect Storm of shoddy or dangerous goods, rising prices, and internal growth may sink China, Inc. If the global monies pouring into China slow to a trickle, that gives China an excuse to move troops into its “economic resource centers” in Eastern Russia and Southwestern Asia.

It may be a good thing we’ve built new military bases in Iraq but what can Mr. Putin do?

 

Pennies

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I get a lot of, um, opportunities to contribute to one cause or another. Some are actual non-profits. Others are simple pitches for a product. Most are couched as “Buy Now!” and “Just 27 cents per day!”

I didn’t understand until I read Nicholas Epley opining in the New York Times:

“People are more likely to donate to a charity
when the cost is described in terms of pennies
per day instead of dollars per year.”

It has never occurred to me NOT to multiply it out. That 27 cents a day for the DVR is another $100 bucks I won’t have at the end of the year. I do that automagically and without much forebrain activity.

People are sheep. That isn’t news.

Oh. Wait. Our fuel oil for last year cost only $8.22 per day. And this year is a leap year so it will be even less.

There. Wasn’t that better?<BR>

Welcome

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In real life, I have engineered solutions for small business for more than 20 years at the Harper Company. The rest of the time I chair an arts council and am a writer and regional photographer.

I am a contributing columnist for New England’s oldest afternoon daily. I write trade and general interest articles on consumer issues, cars and boats, manufacturing equipment, and management for small businesses and arts organizations. As an outdoor and nature photographer, I offer fine art and stock photography from New England, Florida, the Southwest, and around the United States.

I don’t want a blog — blogs are too much work. I have told everyone I know that I’m not going to commit to writing regular entries in a blog.

I have a blog.

Here are the top five reasons I’ve decided to go ahead.

———————–
5. I’m a creative genius with a need to publish. We
know that’s not true. Oh, I’m indeed a creative genius
but I already churn out 50K words each year for a real
local fishwrap.
4. It’s do this or finish renovating the kitchen. There is a
lot of truth to that although most writers will use any job
(absolutely anything) to avoid writing.
3. I’ve tried complaining to my family and they don’t
listen. So here I can complain to the world instead.
2. I don’t subscribe to any other blogs so I naturally know
exactly how to do it.
1. There are a lot of things I simply need to write. Most of
these are too short (or too widely reported) to use in my
op-eds. Most are what I already email to what a friend calls
“a select list of the uninterested” so it’s no extra work. Mostly …
I write so I won’t forget.
I write so my children can’t forget.
I write just because.
———————–

Finally, I didn’t write a Christmas Card letter this year. I was too busy blogging.