If I Did Advertising/Marketing For Yellow Cab

Seems everyone wants to get into the Yellow Cab, "I need a ride" business.

There's Uber and Lyft, Sidecar, Curb, Hailo and I don't know how many others (see link below). All of them want to do the same thing. That is, give us a ride, give you a ride but at a lower price for you and all because THEY DON'T HAVE ANY (or many) EMPLOYEES. They don't have steady, ongoing, official employees they have to pay wages or benefits.

Yes, isn't that a wonderful thing?

Those pesky things, employees, what with their need for wages and maybe a pension plan for when they inevitably get old and health insurance and all that.  What nerve.

And who's taking it on the chin?

Well, Yellow Cab companies and all like them, first of all, but more than that, of course, but, again, those pesky employees. Of Yellow Cab.

And that's not Yellow Cab's only problem, either. Technology will also be throwing this little, soon to be huge, problem at them, too:

Autonomous Vehicles 

Will Replace Taxi Drivers

I got to thinking about this.

If I were the owner of a large Yellow Cab franchise, I think I came up with the perfect way to "fight back", Capitalism style, with advertising. Here's what I'd do.

I'd run TV ads, at least pointing out the benefits of cabs over these "ride sharing" programs.

What benefits, you might ask? The ad would be something like this:

 Need a ride? 

 Call Yellow Cab, for all the benefits! 

 No additional "up-front" fees to "join"! 

 No membership to purchase! 

 No app to download! 

 No information (of yours) to share (with us)! 

 No information of yours sold (by us) to other companies! 

  Just one flat fee, as you know, per mile, with a friendly face at the wheel! 

 So, next time you need a ride, keep it simple and SAVE! 

 CALL YELLOW CAB!! 

Then, I'd get with my fellow Yellow Cab company operators, coast to coast, and make the ads available to them and at a terrific, low price, strength being in numbers and all. I'd also pitch the program to Labor Unions. No group understands standing together better than Unions. Heck, I'd even let my drivers and the employees unionize.

The owners of all those cabs have to know their ridership and so, profits are down. They also need to know they need to both stand together, as a group, but also have people "in their corner", so to speak and no one could do that better for them, being "in their corner", supporting them than Unions of all kinds, coast to coast.

All the cab companies better realize it's a changing, vastly changing world out there. They need to respond to it or they're going to go the way of the wagon train.

Link:

Looking for a Ride? Here's a List of Uber Alternatives

The Republican, Right Wing Nightmare Kansas Has Become

Along with Republican Kansas Governor Sam Brownback wanting to take money from the state's pension fund in order to pay for his and the Republican Party's fiscal screw ups and nightmares, there's this, too:

Gov. Sam Brownback is cutting aid to Kansas schools by $44.5 million

I won't paste the entire article here, describing what these irresponsible putzes are doing or trying to do but here's a snippet:

Brownback’s plan takes $28 million, or 1.5 percent, out of elementary and secondary education, including $5 million from Johnson County schools. The districts taking the biggest hits will be Olathe, Shawnee Mission and Blue Valley. The Republican governor also sliced more than $16 million, or 2 percent, from higher education.

So much for the education and growth of our children for our own and their futures, huh?

It's a pretty important article. I would absolutely recommend any and every adult Kansan read it and see what these chuckleheads are doing or trying to further do to your state and take from your children and even you, yourself.  

Really, Kansas.  You're better than this.  You were always smarter, much smarter than this.

Could we dispense with that whole "trickle down", cut the taxes for the wealthy and corporations idea now, locally and nationally?

Please? Finally?  Forever?

Meanwhile, seems the Republicans just don't have anything going right for them over in our neighbor state:

Director of Governor's Council of Economic Advisors arrested after DUI

Put another way, this news makes much more sense:

Brownback advisor arrested on suspicion of drunk driving

For a "Brownback advisor" to be drunk. 

Yes, I have to say, that explains a lot.

It explains, maybe, the last several years of governance in Kansas.

How Is What Kansas Governor Brownback Wants To Do Even Legal?

Kansas Governor Brownback and his very Republican cohorts are at it again.  Some more.

They haven't screwed up the state enough so they've come up with yet another terrific idea.  Have you seen this?

Brownback defends using public pension funds to fill Kansas budget hole

This is incredible.

There they are, Kansas pensions---people's money, retirement money, at that, just sitting there, like a big pile of rescue for Governor Sam "I Can Screw Up Anything" Brownback  and he wants to tap into it, take money away from and out of it, and all because he and the Republicans in his state slashed taxes for the rich and corporations, screwing up Kansas' budgets.

This is conceivable, sure, just as sure as the first robbery by one person from another ever was. 

What it also is, however is unconscionable.  

He and his Kansas Republican Party screw up, they deplete the state's coffer and budgets and so what does he want to do to fix his empty bank accounts?

He wants to take money from former and current Kansas state employees pensions and all because, well, hell, it IS just sitting there, after all.

I ask again---how in God's name is this even legal?

Why can a sitting state governor arbitrarily tap into an already set up retirement fund of working people when it has and had nothing, ever, whatever to do with a state's budgeting or taxes?

And more, is there no one in Kansas to stand up and call this out for the blatant, ugly, irresponsible, misplaced theft and wrong that it is?

No Kansas Churches or clergy or ethicists or ANYONE in the entire state who cannot and will not call him out on this?

Anyone??

Bueller?

I ask again, how is this legal?  Why is this legal?  Can't it be made illegal and soon as possible so this highly immoral travesty doesn't take place and so it can't possibly happen again, in the future?

Anyone?

At least there's this. At least our own Kansas City Star is standing up against this theft, this nonsense.

Don’t let Gov. Sam Brownback delay payments for Kansas pensions

Three Big Piles of Retirement Money That Were "Just Sitting There"

Here in the US, in the last several decades, we have had at least three different instances of where people had huge amounts of money--hundreds of millions and maybe billions---of dollars sitting around. And people being people and business being business, they saw it sitting there and it just killed them. They knew SOMETHING had to be done with it, would be done with it and by gosh, they could get a piece or chunk of it and who would that hurt, after all?

Well, the fact is, it hurt Americans and soon, with all the Baby Boomers about to retire, it's going to hurt America. And it's going to hurt mightily.

Here are three of the most famous pots of money.

Social Security

This is an old story and well-known.

We had all these people, Americans, many of them the biggest generation to ever come along in our nation's history, contributing to this Social Security fund since FDR got it going and what could Congress do but take and spend it? After all, there's more where that came from, right?

Social Security Scam: Where Did the 

$2.5 Trillion Surplus Go?

One Senator, now deceased, God rest his soul, Senator Patrick Moynihan, made a very public, long term attempt at being wise with the fund.  Unfortunately, even before he passed, it died, also.

Heed Senator's Call To Keep Social Security 

Soundless Intact

But rob it they did.  It is a shadow of its former self.

This example is much more recent, however. This goes back to the budget deal this last Fall, in 2015 so they're still robbing that puppy:

Budget Deal Robs $150 Billion 

from Social Security

So the robbing of and from the Social Security fund is still going on, unabated and I don't think most Americans are even aware.

Next up? The 2nd big pile of money that was sitting around?

Pensions.

And actually, it's piles. There were pensions all over this country---public, private, all kinds. And it was just far too tempting to too many people.

Millions of Americans had pensions. They had been funded mostly by business and by the people themselves, contributing to them through their work, their companies.  Once again, it was just far too much temptation for people and businesses to ignore.

Looting the Pension Funds

The Looting of Detroit's Pensions

LIKE CLOCKWORK: Pension plans 

to be looted nationwide

There was all that money sitting there and there was no way these people and businesses could let it sit there and not be skimmed.

Again, what could it hurt, right? There was SO MUCH MONEY.  And it wasn't illegal?  Why not, eh?

And then there's the final big pile of money that was heretofore sitting out there, just waiting to be raided.

Mutual Funds

So people saved for retirement. They squirreled their money away, saving for that retirement "rainy day."

And it created, again, huge piles of money. HUGE.  And all kinds of insurance companies and investment companies had these things. It was supposed to be terrific.

Except with the companies who created them "guarding them", protecting them, holding them for these Americans---their customers---it was the fox being in charge of the chicken coop, so to speak.

The Retirement Savings Drain: Hidden 

& Excessive Costs

Vanguard is quietly draining billions 

from the financial industry

Mutual Fund Fees Will Drain Your Expected Stock Returns

Who's to say what the fees and charges for holding and protecting and investing these funds were going to be?

Why the very companies taking in all the big money, of course.

These 3 are really untold tales of just what has happened in America in the last 50 years or so to retirement savings. Government had no rules, really, for what could or could not be done to or with them so who's to say what could or would happen to them?

And the answer is, in the place of Social Security, Congress was to say---they spent it.

And in the case of pensions, both private and public, and mutual funds, again, no rules so whoever is in control of them could do whatever with them they wanted. After all, with "campaign contributions", they could keep the regulators--read: Congress---from passing any legislation that would put any restraints on them. And to this day there are no real rules on what can and can't, should or shouldn't be done with people's hard-earned and saved retirement funds.

It's great to be rich, isn't it?

So now, all these millions of Baby Boomers are going to retire and they're going to be sitting on and falling back on either not much or nothing at all.

This was decidedly not how this was supposed to play out and it's certainly not good for either these people or, worst, the nation and our nation's short-term future.

God bless America.

In fact, God help us.

Kill whose pensions??

It seems there has been a clear and strong push, locally and nationally, to kill public office pensions like for city, state and federal employees and maybe especially teachers. With all of this, doesn't it seem we should do away with the automatic, juicy, far-too-big, self-created pensions of the US Congress, first, last and foremost? That would serve many great purposes, it seems to me, not least of which is first, saving Federal monies and second and more importantly, doing away with Senators and Representatives desire to get in there so they can have it cushy for the rest of their lives, once they get seated? It sure seems like a great idea to me and again, one that would serve many good purposes. Other than the Congresspeople themselves, I can't imagine who'd be against this, too.

Senator McCaskill, fighting the good fight

No government representative is perfect any more than any other human is. They're either doing a good job or they're not. It's my contention that US Senator Claire McCaskill is, in fact, doing a good job. Right now, she is in the news, for instance: McCaskill Continues Fight to end Automatic Pay Raises for Congress As part of agenda to Clean up Congress, McCaskill again calls for Congress to pass her bill to end automatic raises for Congress. Years ago, when this first took place and Congress voted into law the idea of automatic pay raises for themselves because they didn't want the issue to keep coming up--knowing we, the people, would virtually always be against the idea of raises for them--I know I was appalled. How is anyone going to vote, when you have the chance, but for a raise for yourself? And an automatic pay raise for yourself? How perfect is that? Who doesn't want that? And who but Congress has that option? Almost solely, they have this option alone. It was and is disgusting. It really should be stopped and Senator McCaskill is trying to get us back there, along with her effort to kill "earmarks" in our financing system. Both great ideas. So good on you, Senator, thanks very much. We appreciate these efforts. Please, by all means, keep it up. Link: http://mccaskill.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1495

Quote of the day--on Labor Day, 2010

"I look forward to a Labor Day where every worker has a job, every worker has a pension, every worker has paid vacations, and every worker has the health care to enjoy life. Our Republican opponents call that France. I call it America, an America that is Number One. Not #1 in wasted military expenditures. Not #1 in number of foreign countries occupied. Number One in jobs. Number One in health. Number One in education. Number One in happiness. As Robert Kennedy famously said, "I dream of things that never were, and ask 'why not?'" Why not? Let's make it happen. And then all of us who are Americans, including the ones today who are jobless, homeless, sick and suffering, we all can then say, 'I am proud to be an American.'" --Michael Moore Link to original post: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/happy-fuckin-labor-day

Corporate America

The corporation, as it exists today in America, will be a direct cause of the fall of America, with its need for virtually constant profits and increased profits, to the downfall of the common man--the man on the street--unless American's attitudes and our laws change.

What should have happened

I read in The New York Times today that now, even "good guys" (their term) like the AARP are ending contributions to their 401(k)'s, in an effort to cut costs.

This drives me crazy.

Years ago, there used to be pensions because, as we all know, people age and need something to retire on in their later, aged years.

Pretty complicated huh? (read sarcasm)

It was only fair and intelligent, for pity's sake.

We work at jobs for decades and, in return, it just made sense that responsible companies would put a bit of money aside--yes, from profits--for each employee so two things would develop.

First, the good employee would be rewarded for good work and encouraged to stay with the company. (We used to reward lonevity at firms).

Secondly, at the end of those decades of work, the associate would have money to take care of themselves in their old age.

But that was thousands of years ago, it seems.

Companies decided long ago that those pesky, "expensive" pensions were costs that had to be cut so they were, bit by bit, done away with.

That was bad enough.

At the time, the Federal Government should have stepped in, I believe, and required companies to maintain the pensions. It was good, too, for the country, so people had these saved nest eggs and could live on them in later life.

But naturally not.

Fortunately, someone came up with a 2nd-best idea and that was to start these 401(k)'s. The companies would get a tax deduction and the employee could contribute to them and voila'! While not as good for the employee as the pension, since half of it was usually paid for by the employee, at least there would be, again, something for that same employee to retire on.

But again, the ugly, voracious, self-eating "free markets" and capitalism come along, seeing a pot of money, one that it also views as an "unnecessary cost" and does away with it.

So now, in 2009 America, the worker--the old "salt of the Earth" we used to celebrate--is totally and completely, with the exception of the pittance of Social Security, alone and on his/her own. And that's assuming Social Security will survive, which most people assume it won't.

If you are one of the lucky few who have been able to keep a job, through good times and bad, and also been prescient and disciplined enough and able to save all your working career, you're okay.

Maybe.

Probably.

Possibly

If you stay lucky.

If, on the other hand, you've ever been let go from a job or had some expensive health care or other problem or just plainly weren't lucky and thrifty and extremely disciplined, all--you're screwed.

Too many Americans, frankly, down through the decades, have fallen into this last group, especially given the current financial crisis striking the US.

And that's why the US Federal Government should have held up expectations of its corporations, so we could further strengthened the entire society and for the long term.

Instead, all that corporate money just fattens the wallets of a select few lucky, conniving, shrewd, manipulative corporate titans who end up with hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars. All the while the middle class shrinks and people start doing without important basics like health care, insurance, food, in some cases, and more.

I'm sure some free market capitalist, Republican, conservative, right-winger would defend this barbaric, unbalanced, unfair, inadequate and, really, broken system.

I sure can't.

Link to story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/your-money/401ks-and-similar-plans/27money.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Et+tu%2C+AARP%3F&st=nyt